Ness (SSB)

Ness in Super Smash Bros.
Universe	EarthBound
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	C (10)

Ness (ネス, Ness) is a secret character in Super Smash Bros. He is well-known for his unique second jump and recovery. He, along with Yoshi, can double jump cancel, allowing him to use quick aerials and specials.

Ness ranks 10th on SSB's tier list for a predictable and at times unreliable recovery, which many foes use to their advantage, as well as some range issues. However, he does have a decent amount of combos, due to the aforementioned double jump cancel. Ness is ranked 5th on the Japanese tier list. He ranks higher because he is much stronger in the Japanese version, rather than the international release, in which he was nerfed.

How to unlock

Complete 1P Game on normal difficulty or higher with three stocks or less without continuing, then defeat Ness on Dream Land.

Attributes

File:Ness ending.jpg

Ness's ending picture in Super Smash Bros.

Ness is a fairly small, medium-lightweight character with very high damage attacks. His greatest metagame comes from his air game, although his air speed is among the slowest. He has the game's lowest double jump cancel, which can be used to perform devastating combos, and a quick meteor smash in his down aerial as a finisher to many of them (example here). Ness's special moves serve a variety of purposes; his neutral and up specials (PK Fire and PK Thunder respectively) are projectiles, and his down special (PSI Magnet) can absorb energy projectiles such as Fireballs or Charge Shots and recover some of his damage. This can be used to his advantage in doubles - when the opponents are unable to do anything (usually during the time they are KO'd), a partner Pikachu, Fox, Mario, or Samus can repeatedly fire projectiles at PSI Magnet to recover Ness's damage. In addition, Ness possesses some of the most powerful throws in the game, and if followed up with edgeguarding, it can be extremely difficult for characters with poor recoveries such as Link and Samus to recover. However, his special moves are slow to execute. Ness himself is somewhat slow normally, but his fast roll and certain advanced techniques can help this problem. Perhaps his greatest disadvantage is his overall poor range, which can severely limit his otherwise excellent combo ability.

Ness's recovery, distance-wise, is one of the greatest in the game due to PK Thunder 2's sending him a very far distance, coupled with his large double jump (second only to Yoshi), with its maneuverability also making it difficult to attack Ness out of it. However, he is disadvantaged by PK Thunder 2 being easy to gimp, due to taking some time to complete and having to go in a semicircle around Ness - if anyone touches the thunderbolt, Ness will become helpless. Even projectiles such as Pikachu's Thunder Jolt and Fox's Blaster or Reflector can gimp the move easily. A "solution" to this, used by many Ness players, is to use the double jump away from the stage, and then use PK Thunder. At this distance, it is difficult for most of the cast to follow up with an edgeguard, as it will likely be too far for them to recover, resulting in a SD for them. However, even then, there are a few characters who can recover from that distance, such as Kirby, Pikachu, or another Ness.

On a competitive level, Ness was originally rather dominant, being ranked 3rd in the S tier on the first well-known international Super Smash Bros. tier list. In the second tier list, he dropped to 8th place, and dropped again on the third list. Theoretically, this is the largest tier drop of any character in the series. Ness's strong point are his excellent combos and air game, but his poor range gives him big problems facing excessive range such as Captain Falcon's up smash, or Kirby or Pikachu's up tilt. Ness's approach is also easily read, with his two projectiles being slow and predictable. Ness overall has below average international (except Japan) matchups, with an especially terrible matchup against Pikachu, and only two advantageous matchups (against two bottom tier characters). Ness has better matchups (being 5th) in the Japanese version compared to the international versions. This is mainly because Ness is stronger in the Japanese version and was nerfed in the international versions.

Moveset

Ness' Aerial Attacks; top: up aerial, bottom: down aerial, left: left aerial, right: right aerial.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2%	Two fairly fast punches, followed by a kick. Very similar to Mario's and Luigi's, but it has short range.
			3%
			4%
Forward tilt			9%	Kicks in front rapidly, his body moves with it, giving it minor ending lag. Decent close-up spacer.
Up tilt			7%	Two-handed open-palm uppercut. Thrusts both his hands directly upwards above him, which is a great aerial setup, especially because of its good speed and decent power.
Down tilt			3%	Does a fast kick while crouching, which can chain into itself, or a grab.
Dash attack			10%	Puts both of his hands in front of him with good duration. Usually launches foes in front of him.
Forward smash			18%	Home-run swing. Takes out a bat and swings it, making a pinging sound if it connects. Decent speed and range, but great power. Can also be used as a reflector.
Up smash			17%	Does a "round the world" yo-yo swing, which acts as a good anti-air move. Strange hitbox, does not hit short characters on ground. Above average speed.
Down smash			19%	Extremely low hitbox, though extremely long range. Longest horizontal range of all d-smashes. Fast startup in back, average speed to reach front.
Neutral aerial			14% maximum	Does a falling Split Kick, somewhat similar to Jigglypuff's. The hitbox is Ness's entire body. Has similar properties to a sex kick. Good spacing move.
Forward aerial			12%	Similar to his dash attack, puts both hands in front of him for good damage and knockback. Quick attacking move, though the range is restricted to his small opened hands.
Back aerial			16%	Thrusts his feet backwards for tremendous KO power.
Up aerial			15%	He does a quick and short ranged headbutt above him with good power. Good for juggling.
Down aerial			15%	A stomp kick, powerful spike. Comes out extremely quickly with short range. With double jump cancel, it can be used to rack up extremly high damage, in some cases being used in zero-to-death combos.
Grab			—
Forward throw			16%	Takes foe, lifts them with PSI, and twirls them whilst launching them forward for great power. High knockback.
Back throw			16%	Similar to his f-throw, only he takes the foe and launches them behind him.
Forward roll Back roll		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Gets up and twirls around with his foot extended.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Gets up and twirls around with his foot extended.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Lunges upwards and twirls.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			6%	Gets up and punches slowly.
Neutral special		PK Fire	25% maximum	Fires a lightning-bolt shaped fire projectile that, if it hits, traps the opponent in a multi-hitting pillar of flame. If it does not hit either of the aforementioned objects within a few feet or hits a wall, then it dissipates. If used in midair, travels downwards at a 45 degree angle.
Up special		PK Thunder	6% (bolt), 30% (if Ness hits the opponent while being fired)	Creates a stream of thunder which is controlled using the Control Stick (Ness cannot do anything while the thunder stream is on the screen). The thunder most be aimed into Ness so that he can launch in a direction (recovery move, referred to as PK Thunder 2. If the thunder hits an opponent or a wall, it will disappear and Ness will become helpless - meaning that the thunder can be jumped into to cancel out Ness's recovery. Ness is also extremely vulnerable to aerial attacks and spikes when controlling the thunder. This is one of the main reasons why Ness dropped severely from the first tier list to the second.
Down special		PSI Magnet	0%, restores damage if hit by certain projectiles	The PSI Magnet is not an attack. Rather, it heals damage if an energy or electric projectile hits it.

Taunt

• Says "Okay!" while turning to his right, then nods his head while putting hands on hips.

In Competitive play

Matchups

International versions

Super Smash Bros. (N64) Character Matchups

Avg.

Japanese version

Super Smash Bros. (N64) Character Matchups (JPN Version)

Avg.

Notable players

See also: Category:Ness professionals (SSB)

•  Firo
•  Nangoku
•  SheerMadness
•  Weedwack

Tier placement and history

Ness used to rank very high at 3rd place on the first SSB64 tier list, just only below Pikachu and Kirby. With double jump canceling, Ness was a dominant force in the SSB64 metagame, as his DJC'ed aerials can rack up a huge amount of damage, and can be used to perform deadly zero-to-death combos. However, Ness became less effective as the metagame progressed. His short range in his attacks made his DJC combos lose recognition and effectiveness, and Ness' recovery, despite covering a great distance, can be exploitable due to it being predictable. This caused Ness to drop from a top tier 3rd place to a low-mid tier 8th place by the second tier list and dropping again to 9th in the third tier list and by the fourth tier list, to 10th. This is also currently the proportionally largest tier list drop of any character in any Smash Bros. game. Ness is currently 5th of the Japanese matchups, he is in a higher position due to the fact he is stronger than the international versions.

Techniques

Double jump cancel

A Ness combo performing DJCs.

DJCing is a glitch-technique that can be used by Yoshi and Ness. It involves using an aerial or a special move just after starting a double jump. This cancels the momentum of the double jump and allows quicker movement within the attacks, while also being able to speed up short hops, making short hopped DJC'd aerials especially effective when Z-cancelled. It can also help with aerial comboing. DJCing a special move cannot be Z-canceled.

Double jump landing

Nangoku performing the Nesslevator then quickly attacking Nintendude.

Double jump landing (also dubbed the Nesslevator) allows Ness to cancel his air momentum with an aerial attack while horizontally moving in midair. This results in a quick and smooth landing back onto a platform akin to wavelanding in Melee.

Double jump rushing

Albeit extremely difficult to do outside TAS, Ness can move incredibly quickly on the ground by cancelling multiple double jumps while moving horizontally. This is due to his second jump having very high horizontal movement during its initial frames. Demonstrative video here.

Dash turnaround ledgegrab

Ness is the only character in the game along with Fox who can use the turnaround animation of his full sprint to grab a ledge. This is due to his turnaround animation changing the faced direction before the character "brakes".

Edge sweetspotting

Along with Pikachu, Ness can sweetspot the ledge using PK Thunder 2 if he grabs the ledge at the right angle and from the right distance, allowing him to act very quickly after grabbing the edge.

Special ledge cancel

Ness can grab the ledge while using his PK Thunder move or his PSI Magnet. This makes edgeguarding harder to perform for opponents. Also, these moves cancel his double jump, making them useful for ledge stalling or to refresh the invincibility frames granted by the ledge.

Description

Ness was a seemingly-average kid from Onett, but in truth, he was destined for much more. When a strange meteorite landed near his hometown, the little boy with psychic powers set out to save the world. Little has been said of Ness' character, and much remains hidden.

Works:

• EarthBound (SNES)

Alternate costumes

Ness' changeable clothing in SSB

Trivia

• This is Ness's only appearance on the Nintendo 64. The only other playable character to share this distinction is Samus.
  • This also marks the first appearance of Ness in three-dimensional format. As with the above trivia, this distinction is shared only with Samus.