Ness (SSBB): Difference between revisions

Generalizing Ness is difficult. He generally runs a unique, versatile role, employing three different projectiles with differing purposes. Generally, the moves have modest lag and decent knockback, his [[PK Fire]] leads well into other attacks, and his PK Thunder can trap opponents and lead into [[PK Thunder 2]], one of the strongest attacks in the game. Also, PK Thunder and PK Flash both leave Ness very vulnerable because he can't move or attack when controlling these projectiles. Ness can use his [[PSI Magnet]] to absorb any energy projectile. The best for Ness, however, are his powerful throws, most notably his back throw, the only throw in Brawl that can reliably KO under 150% without relying on being on the edge and bad DI. Combining these with proper projectile use and appropriate Smash timing, and Ness can be a powerful foe. Shield grabs tend to be a problem for Ness since he has the shortest standing grab range in the game. He's fairly balanced in the areas of weight, falling speed, and air speed with none of them being particularly good nor particularly bad.

Ness' true game can be found by utilizing his aerials. Ness is one of the very few characters in the game who can perform two aerials in one shorthop (Double Aerial Shuffle). This requires practice though because one needs to do the aerial immediately when one jumps off the ground. Looking at his aerials individually, his neutral aerial is fast and a great combo and defensive move. His forward aerial can set up into itself, making it good at damage-racking. His back aerial deals powerful knockback when sweetspotted, making it his best aerial finisher, while it can be used for a wall of pain when sourspotted. His up aerial is a very strong vertical KO move with a decent amount of range. Lastly, his clean down aerial is among the best meteor smashes in the game, and when hit late, it has strong horizontal knockback, making it good for edgeguarding.

However, his ground game is underwhelming. With slow dash speed and short range tilts, he suffers in matchups against characters with disjointed hitboxes such as Ike or Marth. The only upside of his tilts are that they come out very quickly, which can be used to rack up damage. His forward smash is slow and needs to be sweetspotted for it to reliably KO under 100%. His up smash is very weak in terms of knockback, being among the weakest in the game, although it is one of the only two smash attacks able to damage people while charging, the other being Ness's down smash. All of Ness's smashes also give Ness some much needed range in his ground game, although their lack of speed and KO power limit their use.

Ness's major problems are his awful ground grab release and recovery. He and {{SSBB|Lucas}} both suffer from having extremely long grab release animations. Most characters have some sort of ground grab release on Ness, and/or Lucas, leading to chaingrabs, infinities in walls, and other moderate to major problems. Two examples of this would be {{SSBB|Marth}} and {{SSBB|Donkey Kong}}'s 0-death on Ness and Lucas. Another example is {{SSBB|Wario}} using his forward smash out of the grab release, which Ness can't avoid. As mentioned above, Ness's other major problem is his atrocious recovery. Although Ness has a very large 2nd jump (second only to Yoshi's in terms of height), his PK Thunder, though faster than Lucas' PK Thunder, has a much wider turning angle, thus requiring more room for Ness to recover than Lucas. Its PK Thunder 2 also travels less distance than Lucas' version. In addition, his PK Thunder will stop in its tracks when it hits most projectiles, walls, or a character. As such, some opponents may take a risk and jump in front of PK Thunder's path to intercept Ness's recovery, giving Ness little to no hope of making it back onstage, which is easier with disjointed moves. However, this is a risky way of intercepting Ness's recovery, due to his recovery move having an extreme amount of knockback, KOing below 50% in most situations, although a projectile could still be used to halt his recovery, especially if it's controllable.

Ness's double jump has a unique quality that sets it apart from others in the game. It consists of four PSI flashes that propel him upward. If Ness uses an aerial or [[air dodge]] at the beginning of the jump, he will obtain a directional boost depending on the aerial used and if it is used on the first or second flash (his up aerial gives the longest boost, and the boost is longer if activated on the first flash). He can also use his double jump from the ground if the jump button is pressed during lag, which is helpful for starting up aerial combos. Using an aerial will make Ness move up faster, which complies for his slow double-jump and floatiness. After this, he will take a small pause in the air as a "filler" for the frames lost by the faster double-jump.

|neutraldesc=Ness punches twice, then kicks.

|ftiltdesc=Ness kicks with a foot forward. Can be angled.

|utiltdesc=Ness pushes upward with both hands.

|dtiltdesc=Ness swiftly kicks out in front of him. Extremely spammable. Has a chance of making the opponent trip.

|dashdesc=Sends three PSI sparks out in front of him with the third spark knocking the opponent up into the air. Each hit sends the opponent in a different direction, with different knockback. Great, disjointed range. If all hits connect, it can be followed up by an aerial combo.

|fsmashdesc=Ness swings his bat. There are four hitboxes on the bat, dealing 18%, 20%, 22% and 24% uncharged, the strongest part being at the tip of his bat. The bat will [[reflect]] incoming projectiles when he swings it.

|usmashdesc=Ness sends his yo-yo forward and performs "around-the-world" over himself. Interestingly, when it's 'charging', it doesn't increase in damage or knockback.

|dsmashdesc=Ness sends his yo-yo backwards and "walks-the-dog" with it before pulling the yo-yo back. Similar to his up smash, the yo-yo doesn't increase in damage or in knockback when it's "charging".

|nairdesc=Spins diagonally in the air with arms outstretched.

|fairdesc=Ness sticks out his palms out, sending a stream of PSI sparks in front of him.

|bairdesc=Ness kicks out backwards with both feet. If sweetspotted, it electrifies the opponent and semi-spikes them with extreme power.

|uairdesc=Ness headbutts up into the air.

|dairdesc=Ness pulls his legs to his body before stomping down into the air. This attack can [[meteor smash]] in the first frame of the move. Somewhat laggy in the startup.

|grabdesc=Grabs opponent with both hands.

|pummeldesc=Ness quickly headbutts the opponent. Very fast.

|fthrowdesc=Ness psychokinetically swings his opponent in a small circle in front of himself before sending them off forward.

|bthrowdesc=Ness psychokinetically swings the opponent over his head before sending them off backwards, in a diagonally upwards motion. Has extremely low base knockback but very high knockback scaling. Has the highest KO potential of all throws.

|uthrowdesc=Ness psychokinetically spins the opponent above his head before sending them up. Leads into many PK Thunder tricks and juggles. Good knockback for an up throw, though the opponent will have to be around 200% to actually KO.

|dthrowdesc=Ness throws his opponent onto the ground and scorches them with [[PK Fire]]. Combined with pummeling and [[PK Fire]], it can be used to rack up a high amount of damage quickly.

|floorfdesc=Gets up and kicks both sides of himself.

|floorbdesc=Gets up and kicks both sides of himself.

|floortdesc=Gets up and kicks both sides of himself.

|edgefdesc=Flips onto the stage and does a sweep kick.

|edgesdesc=Slowly pulls himself up and delivers a powerful punch.

|nsdesc=Ness generates a green pulse of energy that is sent upwards, then explodes. It can be charged, increasing damage and knockback while causing it to curve downwards, and it can be moved sideways.

|ssdesc=Fires a yellow, lightning-bolt shaped projectile, that travels in a straight line until it hits an enemy or destructible portion of a stage, at which point it explodes into flames. When used in midair, Ness fires the bolt at a 45° angle.

|usdesc=Ness creates a stream of lightning that can be aimed into opponents to deal damage with the head and stun with the tail. Aiming the head into Ness himself will launch him in a trajectory opposite to the side he was hit on, which is referred to as [[PK Thunder 2]]. PK Thunder 2 has invincibility frames during the first half of the move.

|dsdesc=Creates a blue energy field around himself which allows him to absorb all energy-based projectiles. It can be held in order to use it repeatedly. The move pushes nearby opponents when the button is released.

|fsdesc=Ness calls down a rain of stars from the sky, yelling "PK... Starstorm!".

Ness shows up saving {{SSBB|Lucas}} from the giant [[Pig King Statue]], which is soon revealed to be their mutual nemesis, [[Porky Minch]]. Ness and Lucas team up to defeat Porky and his machine. Afterward, {{SSBB|Wario}} attacks him with his [[Dark Cannon]], but Ness successfully dodges each shot. Wario, however, then aims at Lucas, forcing Ness to push Lucas out of harm's way and take the arrow from the Dark Cannon, which turns him into a trophy. As Lucas is too scared to face Wario, he leaves Ness behind as Wario cackles in the rain. Most of Lucas's story in SSE involves getting revenge on Wario and trying to find Ness.

As Wario is driving his [[Cargo]] with Ness' and Peach/Zelda's trophies on board, he finds {{SSBB|Luigi}}'s trophy and prepares to take it until he is ambushed by an army of [[Waddle Dee]]s, who throw Luigi's trophy into the cargo, which is stolen by {{SSBB|King Dedede}}. At his hideout, Dedede puts a [[Dedede Badge|badge]] on Luigi's, Ness', and Peach/Zelda's trophies before the roof collapses on them, turning Dedede into a trophy in the process, and {{SSBB|Bowser}} takes Peach/Zelda's trophy. Soon afterward the Ancient Minister detonates a Subspace Bomb that consumes Dedede's castle along with Ness', Luigi's and Dedede's trophies by Subspace.

Ness is not seen again until much later in the story, where he and Luigi are revived thanks to the Dedede Badges. Upon inspecting Luigi's badge, he notices that it looks like Dedede, and, assuming that Dedede made them, proceeds to revive him. Upon being revived, King Dedede gives both of them a hug before they team up and rescue Lucas, along with most of the other characters. Kirby, who was revived by the Dedede brooch he swallowed earlier, revives whatever characters that Ness' group did not come across, including Wario. Wario then bashes Dedede in the head as revenge for Dedede stealing his cargo and trophies. He is then surprised to see Ness and Luigi on Dedede's side. They offer to let Wario join them, and he agrees and rides his bike up to the entrance of The Great Maze. Ness, along with {{SSBB|Sonic}} and the other characters team up to defeat [[Tabuu]].

Ness was captured by {{SSBB|Wario}} during [[The Ruined Zoo]], and he is brought into {{SSBB|King Dedede}}'s castle after he previously stole Wario's trophy cart. But after [[The Cave]], a Subspace Bomb was detonated near his castle, bringing Ness into Subspace.

*Despite being the first [[unlockable character]] through playing [[Brawl]]s, Ness is one of the last unlockable characters by playing [[Subspace Emissary]]. He is also the first unlockable character to be playable in the Subspace Emissary, despite not joining the player's team until near the finale of the game.

*Ness and {{SSBB|Captain Falcon}} are the only two characters to have their unlockability-status change between ''Melee'' and ''Brawl''. In Ness' own case, Ness was previously able to be unlocked by playing [[1P Game]] on normal difficulty or higher with three stocks or less without continues in ''Smash 64''. In ''Brawl'', he can be simply unlocked by either playing 5 [[VS. match]]es or [[reflect]]ing 10 [[projectiles]].