Ness (SSB4)

Ness in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	EarthBound
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl
Availability	Unlockable (3DS) Starter (Wii U)
Final Smash	PK Starstorm

Ness (ネス, Ness) returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. Ness was officially confirmed on October 3rd, 2014, alongside Falco and Wario, meeting up with the the North American release of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

As in every previous Smash installation, Ness is voiced by Makiko Ohmoto speaking English in all versions of the game, who recorded new voice clips for the game.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play 10 VS Matches.
• Clear Classic Mode on any difficulty.

After completing one of the two methods, Ness must then be defeated on Magicant.

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Ness is a starter character.

Attributes

Ness is an unusual blend of character archetypes, being a short, projectile-heavy character with a lot of versatility with his moves. Ness's weight and falling speed are average, giving him no disadvantage with weight alone. He possesses three projectiles: PK Flash, PK Fire, and PK Thunder. While PK Flash is very powerful, it has little mobility, huge amounts of lag, and is generally only used as a situational edgeguard. PK Fire is fairly quick, possesses a good amount of range, and the projectile holds opponents in it when it hits them, allowing Ness free follow ups as long as he acts quick enough. PK Thunder is one of the more unique projectiles in the game. When used, the player will lose control of Ness and instead take control of a large thunder ball for a few seconds. PK Thunder can essentially be used to knock opponents towards Ness for follow ups or juggle opponents. The knockback it provides can also hit an opponent over the upper blast line, allowing it to be used as a very situational KO move as well, and it can allow him to use the powerful PK Thunder 2. His fourth special move, PSI Magnet, provides a psychic shield that can heal him when hit with an energy based attack, however, it does contain a bit of starting and ending lag.

Ness's biggest strength is found in his superb aerial game. Four of Ness's five aerials are very strong and can be used to combo, space, and kill. Neutral aerial possesses very little starting and ending lag, and hits on both sides of Ness, making it a very useful out of shield option. His forward aerial has little lag, a large, disjointed hitbox, and traps opponents, essentially allowing it to chain into either itself or another move. It is a powerful spacing tool and very useful in approaching opponents. His up aerial can be used to combo at lower percents and KO reliably at higher percents. It possesses a large hitbox and little lag, allowing it to be of low risk to use. His back aerial is another reliable KO move that possesses low lag. His down aerial, while being unarguably his worst aerial due to its slow startup and its large ending lag, can still be useful as a situational edgeguarding option.

Ness's grab game is also very strong. While he has a short grab range, he can easily trap opponents with PK Fire in order to set up for a grab. Ness possesses one of the fastest pummels in the game, allowing him to deal a decent amount of damage before throwing. His down throw sets up for an aerial attack and can lead into a forward air at lower percents, or an up air at higher percents. Ness's infamous back throw is arguably the best throw in the game. While it possesses very low base knockback, it has extremely high knockback scaling and is often regarded as his best KO option.

Ness isn't completely infallible, however. Ness possesses below average speed in both the ground and the air, making it hard for him to chase faster opponents. His ground game is also generally weak as he possesses weak and low range tilts. His smash attacks are also below average. While his up and down smashes have a disjointed hitbox and can KO, they KO considerably later than his other KO options, and his forward smash, while very powerful, possesses high ending lag and is easily punishable if it misses. Ness's biggest flaw, however, is his recovery. While there have been various buffs to his recovery, it's still relatively easy to gimp for characters with multiple jumps, such as Jigglypuff, Kirby, and Meta Knight, or with moves that reflect or absorb, such as Rosalina, Fox, Villager and Pit. Nonetheless, Ness's strengths drastically outweigh his weaknesses and he is viewed as a very potent character in tournament play.

Changes from Brawl

Ness has been greatly buffed from Brawl, with the most notable improvement being that his 10 extra frame grab release animation, which was one of his most significant flaws, has been removed.

Aesthetics

• Ness has been given a brighter color palette, and he has lost the blushes on his cheeks and the purple hue in his eyes. He's also slightly taller and thinner, with a smaller and more proportionate head.
• Ness has become more expressive than before like most other characters.

Attributes

• Ness has overall greater speed on the ground and in the air.
• Ness no longer has an extra 10 frames of lag from being grab released, bringing him in line with everyone else. This severely reduces his vulnerability to follow-ups.

Ground attacks

• Forward tilt does 1% more damage with slightly more knockback scaling when angled in either direction.
• Up tilt has more range.
• Up tilt changed to its SSB64 animation.
• Down tilt now has a sourspot at the end of Ness' foot that deals 2% less damage.
• Dash attack now has vertical knockback, as opposed to vertical and slightly behind Ness, making follow ups easier.
• Dash attack's now does 3% less damage to grounded opponents.
• Dash attack has more intense lighting effects.
• Forward smash is much stronger, can now be pivot-cancelled, and the hitbox beneath Ness' hand has now been removed.
• Yo-yo smashes (up smash and down smash) now deal properly-increased damage when charged, can be charged while near the edge, and are now stronger.
• Yo-yo smashes are charged while still in Ness's hand, removing the pre-charge hitbox.
• Yo-yo is colored green instead of yellow.
• Up smash now has a small hitbox behind Ness that comes out on frame 6. While this new hitbox is considered a sourspot, dealing less damage and knockback, it is a buff as it puts out a hitbox earlier and covers his back during startup.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial's hitbox is now shorter in duration.
• Forward aerial's individual hits now chains into itself significantly better, and can now result in multiple forward aerials in a row, improving Ness's combo and damage capabilities.
• Forward aerial deals 4% less damage.
• Down aerial has more range.
• Down aerial is significantly weaker, the meteor smash is much harder to hit with and the autocancel window is now a massive 21 frames later in the animation. It is now Ness' worst aerial.
• Down aerial has an extra spin in its animation.

Throws/other attacks

• Pivot grab comes out slower, but now has large disjointed range.
• Up throw's ending lag has been significantly decreased.
• Down throw has PSI graphics added to its fire graphics, similarily to Zelda's down throw.

Special moves

• PK Flash travels faster. It travels even faster if instead directed behind Ness, gaining even more distance. Turning around before using this move might prove useful, depending on prediction.
• PK Flash is a much darker green.
• PK Fire travels a little farther.
• When interrupted whilst starting up PK Fire, Ness stops reciting the attack's name.
• PK Fire now travels much farther back to Ness if reflected rather than petering out after traveling its set distance.
• PK Fire's effect after hitting an opponent produces darker colored flames, and produces more smoke.
• PK Thunder and PSI Magnet are now light blue like in Melee.
• PK Thunder travels faster, has less cooldown, a larger hitbox, travels in a drastically tighter arc, and goes through opponents until the tail disconnects from Ness (making him less trivial to gimp). PK Thunder 2 is also much stronger and faster, and when Ness bounces off a wall while recovering with it, he can initiate PK Thunder again during the bounce.
• PSI Magnet has less ending lag and is larger, increasing its range.
• PSI Magnet swirls projectiles around it, causing a slight delay until Ness can actually be healed. If Ness were to drop PSI Magnet and/or be launched, the absorbed projectiles may take longer to reach him (but they will still heal him eventually).
• The swirling of captured attacks by PSI Magnet utterly nullifies even projectiles that would continue past Ness, including Thunder and Thoron.
• PK Starstorm now fires a thin, aimable line of meteors from the top-center of the stage (similar to Aura Storm). This leaves it with blind spots but deals more reliable damage when it does hit.

Update history

1.0.4

• Ending lag of PK Thunder 2 is increased.
• Down throw damage reduced from 9% to 7%.
• Down throw now does proper damage to Mr. Game and Watch.

1.0.6

• Forward smash now makes a hit-sound when projectiles are reflected.
• Screen shakes more violently when down throw is used.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2%	Ness punches twice, then kicks.
			2%
			4%
Forward tilt		rowspan="1"	9-10%	Ness kicks with a foot forward. If angled, does 1% more damage and has slightly more knockback scaling.
Up tilt		rowspan="1"	5-7%	Ness pushes upward with both hands. Produces a PSI spark. His hands have a sourspot of 5% damage.
Down tilt		rowspan="1"	2-4%	Ness swiftly kicks out in front of him. The tip of his foot has a 2% damage sourspot.
Dash attack			4-7%, 2%, 4%	Ness sends three PSI sparks out in front of him with the third spark knocking the opponent up into the air. The first spark will do 7% damage to aerial targets and 4% damage to opponents on the ground.
Forward smash			18%-22%	Ness swings his bat. There are three hitboxes on this move which do 18%, 20% and 22% uncharged, the strongest part being at the tip of his bat. The bat will reflect incoming projectiles when he swings it.
Up smash			9%-13%	Ness sends his yo-yo forward and performs "around-the-world" over himself. The yo-yo will hit first behind Ness for 9%, then swing in a circle, doing 13% for the rest of the move.
Down smash			1%,1%,10%,1%,1%,10%	Ness sends his yo-yo backwards and "walks-the-dog" with it before pulling the yo-yo back. The yo-yo hits behind him first for two hits of 1%, then 10% and then in front of him for another two hits of 1%, and then 10%.
Neutral aerial		rowspan="1"	7-11%	Ness spins diagonally in the air with his arms outstretched. If hit initially, the opponent suffers 11% damage. If hit later in the attack, 7% is dealt.
Forward aerial		rowspan="1"	1%, 1%, 4%	Ness sticks out his palms out, sending a stream of PSI sparks in front of him.
Back aerial			8-15%	Ness kicks out backwards with both feet. If hit initially, the move does 15%, otherwise the damage is 8%.
Up aerial			13%	Ness headbutts up into the air.
Down aerial			10-12%	Ness pulls his legs to his body before stomping down into the air, producing a PSI spark. This attack can meteor smash in the first frame of the move, dealing 12%, and the sourspot dealing 10% damage.
Grab			—	Grabs with both hands.
Pummel			1.2%	Ness headbutts the opponent.
Forward throw			11%	Ness psychokinetically swings his opponent in a small circle in front of himself before sending them off forward.
Back throw			11%	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, usually KO'ing at 125%.
Up throw			10%	Ness psychokinetically spins the opponent above his head before sending them up.
Down throw			0.6%, 0.6%, 0.6%, 0.6%, 0.6%, 4%	Ness throws his opponent down and shoots out fire onto his opponent.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			7%
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			7%
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			7%
Edge attack Edge getups			7%	Ness flips onto the stage and does a sweep kick.
Neutral special	Default	PK Flash	9% - 37%	A sphere of green light appears above Ness. As the attack button is held, the sphere moves downwards and increases in power, until the attack button is released or until it is fully charged, it explodes.
	Custom 1	Rising PK Flash	6% - 24%	The attack moves upward with minimal control. It has a larger hitbox at the cost of damage.
	Custom 2	PK Freeze	10% - 19%	Inflicts less damage, but freezes opponents. Works like Lucas's neutral special, except with the same movement as PK Flash.
Side special	Default	PK Fire	4% (lightning), 2% (fire)	Ness 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.
	Custom 1	PK Bonfire	2% (lightning), 3% - 5% (fire)	The lightning-bolt doesn't travel as far and has more cool down, but the flame pillar is stronger and it sticks around longer.
	Custom 2	PK Fire Burst	1% (lightning), 8% (fire)	Releases a single flame when it hits and knocks opponents farther. It will always travel horizontally even when used in the air, similar to Lucas's variant of PK Fire.
Up special	Default	PK Thunder	8% (PK Thunder), 1% (Thunder's tail), 25% (PK Thunder 2 initial hitbox), 21% (PK Thunder 2 late hitbox)	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.
	Custom 1	Lasting PK Thunder	7% (PK Thunder), 1% (Thunder's tail), 1,5% (PK Thunder 2, each hit), 10% (PK Thunder 2, last hit)	Functions identically to Lucas's counterpart, with tighter turning and both the projectile and Ness piercing enemies.
	Custom 2	Rolling PK Thunder	12% (PK Thunder), 1% (Thunder's tail), 30% (PK Thunder 2)	Slower yet larger PK Thunder. Both the projectile and Ness do more damage and knockback. However, the distance Ness moves with PK Thunder 2 is much shorter.
Down special	Default	PSI Magnet	0%	Ness creates a purple energy field around him which allows him to absorb almost any incoming projectile. It can be held in order to use it repeatedly.
	Custom 1	PSI Vacuum	10%	Ness draws opponents in, releasing an explosion that damages nearby foes when the move is released. It cannot absorb projectiles.
	Custom 2	Forward PSI Magnet	9%	Ness draws his Magnet in front of him, just like Lucas's version. It damages an opponent inside the magnet when the move is released.
Final Smash		PK Starstorm	8% per hit	Large meteorites fall from the sky and cover the stage.

Taunts

• Ness turns to the screen and nods his head while saying "Okay".
• Ness takes his bat out and points it in front of him.
• Ness releases a wave of PSI from his finger.

On-Screen Appearance

Ness teleports on the screen using Teleport. He then shakes the ash off of his body.

Victory Fanfare

A flourished remix directly from Brawl. It is a remix of a portion of the title theme from the original MOTHER for the Famicom Disk System.

Alternate costumes

Trophy

Ness

Hailing from Onett, a small town in Eagleland, this young boy's ordinary looks hide his psychic powers. Ness fought against the evil Giygas in Earthbound, and in Smash Bros. he unleashes some of the same PSI moves. Watch out for PK Thunder, a guided attack that can also launch Ness like a rocket!

From Onett in Eageland comes this young lad. He may not look like much, but he has powerful psychic abilities, and they really come in handy in EarthBound. They come in handy in this game, too. Did you know you can control his PK Thunder bolt? Aim it at Ness himself to send him flying, absolutely clobbering anyone in his path!

: EarthBound -- 06/1995

: Mother 1+2 -- 2003 (JP)

Ness (Alt.)

Ness may have psychic powers, but that doesn't mean he shies away from getting physical. His side smash packs a real punch if you hit enemies with the end of his bat, and it can even deflect projectiles! His up and down smashes also have a lot of range - Ness can land his strikes with ease!

Ness may have psychic powers, but that doesn't mean he shies away from getting physical. His side smash packs a real punch if you hit enemies with the end of his bat, and it can even reflect projectiles! His up and down smashes have a lot of range, meaning when you play as Ness, it's always easy to land hits on your foes!

: EarthBound -- 06/1995

: Mother 1+2 -- 2003 (JP)

PK Starstorm

In EarthBound, this PSI ability belonged to Poo, the Crown Prince of Dalaam and one of Ness's friends. Ness must have learned it especially for Smash Bros.! The attack makes a shower of meteors fall onto the stage, damaging any foes it hits. While the attack's in progress, Ness is invincible and can adjust the meteors' trajectory.

• 

  Classic (3DS)

• 

  Alt. (3DS)

• 

  Classic (Wii U)

• 

  Alt. (Wii U)

• 

  PK Starstorm

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• All-Star Battle: Secret: Ness is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are characters that have been unlockable in previous Super Smash Bros. games.
• It's Past Your Bedtime!: As Jigglypuff, the player must make Ness, Bowser Jr. and Toon Link fall asleep at the same time by using Sing.
• Playing Tricks: Ness must bury two Villagers at the same time with Pitfalls.

Co-op Events

• The Ultimate Battle: Two players select a character and must defeat the entire roster.
• Visiting Onett: Ness and Villager must defeat Kirby, Meta Knight, Fox, Falco, Olimar, and Rosalina & Luma.

Gallery

• 

  Ness' amiibo

• 

  Posing with Jeff.

• 

  Posing with Pikachu.

• 

  Showing off his yo-yo.

• 

  Posing with Toon Link.

• 

  Posing next to Mr. Saturn.

• 

  Attacking Sheik.

• 

  Using PK Starstorm.

• 

  On Battlefield.

• 

  On Magicant.

• 

  Attacking Starmen.

• 

  Using PSI Magnet.

• 

  Using PK Flash.

• 

  Using PK Fire.

Trivia

• Many of his alternate special moves are similar to Lucas's special moves.
  • Because Ness possesses PK Freeze, he's the only character besides Palutena to have a sound clip unique to a custom move.
• Ness's amiibo description on the North American amiibo website is based on his trophy description from Melee.
• Ness's yo-yo in this game reads "SUPER NINTENDO 2014" and "MOTHER", in reference to his console of origin, SSB4's year of release, and his home series.