Ness (PM)

Ness in Project M and Project+
Universe	EarthBound
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Ness (SSBM), Ness (SSB)
Alternate costume	Pajama Ness

Ness is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. Because of his very low position on the Melee tier list, he has been significantly buffed from his Melee version for his appearance in Project M.

Attributes

Ness is a very versatile character. He has three projectiles that each have varied but important uses. PK Fire can be used as a punishing option, leading to many follow ups, such as a grab or a smash attack. Ness maintains momentum after using PK Fire, making the move occasionally useful for recovery. PK Thunder can juggle airborne opponents for a long time, and can be used to knock grounded opponents closer to Ness. PK Flash has a slow startup, but can be an effective finisher or edgeguarding move.

Ness's down special move, PSI Magnet, has been vastly improved from its other iterations. The move inflicts damage and Ness can jump out of it, giving the move a pseudo-waveshine capability, greatly increasing Ness's combo game.

Ness's aerial moves are all very useful and effective. His neutral aerial comes out quickly and deals moderate knockback, making it a good choice for interrupting combos. The individual hits of his forward aerial cause low damage, but the move is useful in advancing combos. Ness's down aerial is a powerful and quick meteor smash, making it effective for edgeguarding opponents. His up aerial is an excellent juggling move at lower percentages, and makes a great combo finisher for KOing foes above the upper blast line. Ness's back aerial is very strong when sweetspotted, and is a great aerial for getting a KO off of the side blast lines. Ness's ability to double jump cancel advances his already potent air game by giving him even more combo options.

Ness's smash attacks all have unusual properties. His forward smash can reflect projectiles if timed correctly, and deals extreme damage and knockback if the sweetspot near the tip of the bat is hit. His up and down smashes both involve his yo-yo, which do not deal more damage after charging but rather have a hitbox on the yoyo during the charging period, dealing a little damage and slight knockback.

Ness's throws are generally effective. His back throw is a very reliable KOing move at high percents. Ness's forward, up and down throws can be used as combo starters, sending opponents into the air and setting up for an aerial attack.

Ness's primary recovery move, PK Thunder is both a blessing and a curse. It deals massive damage and knockback, as well as travelling a very far distance, at the cost of being easy to gimp and having a huge amount of ending lag. The ending lag can be mitigated by sweetspotting the ledge with PK Thunder 2, however this can be difficult, and doesn't help the fact that any projectile that causes knockback can destroy the PK Thunder and leave Ness helpless. Once one masters how to direct the PK Thunder, it becomes one of the most reliable recovery moves in the game.

Aside from a sometimes punishable recovery, Ness's greatest weakness is his lack of range. His grab range is very short, and his standard attacks also do not go far. These traits hinder Ness's approach. Additionally, his relatively floaty falling speed makes him vulnerable to many vertical finishers (ie Fox's up smash).

Changes from Melee to PM

Ness received many considerable buffs from Melee to Project M, having many more options for racking up damage and KOing.

Ness's down aerial in Project M.

Aesthetics

• Forward smash's sourspot produces the "wooden bat" SFX from Brawl, while the sweetspot displays a ping sound like in Melee and Smash 64.
• Revamped on-screen appearance: the vortex of Teleport now appears as well, similar to in Melee's opening.
• Ness now has a Smash Taunt that can be done using his up taunt: he poses at the screen and a "photo" flash is displayed, based on the iconic Fuzzy Pickles moments in his origin game, EarthBound.

Attributes

• Ness retains his double jump cancel ability, though it is now optional; just pressing and then releasing the jump button when attacking will cause him to DJC, while holding the jump button causes him to perform a rising aerial, just like characters who cannot use this technique. Special moves will always DJC.
• Midair jump speed increased.
• Ness's additional lag from a grounded grab release has been removed.

Ground Attacks

• Forward smash has slightly more range and is much more powerful (went from on par with Mario's to being slightly stronger than Captain Falcon's forward smash).
• Up smash is much faster and deals better damage and knockback, being more reliable at juggling and KOing.
• Down smash covers more distance and also deals higher damage and knockback, serving as a powerful on-stage edge-guarding tool.
• Both up and down smashes can now be held even when near an edge.
• Down tilt now sends opponents at a more vertical angle, making it able to combo into other moves at higher percentages.
• Down tilt can no longer infinite.

• Yoyo/Jacket glitch has been removed.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral aerial initiates slightly faster.
• Up aerial and the sweetspot of back aerial were given more KO power.
• Down aerial reverted to Smash 64 speed, which almost removes its startup lag entirely. It also has much higher knockback scaling and deals 2% more damage.

Grabs and Throws

• Dash grab range from Melee increased.
• Back throw is slightly stronger from Melee.

Special Moves

• PK Flash moves farther horizontally and is faster, greatly improving its use as an edgeguarding move. It also no longer enforces helplessness.
• PK Fire's flame effect has the same power as in Brawl. Ness also keeps his forward momentum when using it in midair. The move can additionally "Fobble": the knockback of other hitboxes that hit within a 3 frame window of one of the PK Fire's repeating hitboxes gets completely canceled due to Project M's new knockback engine, allowing the player to rack up deadly amounts of damage.
  • The pillar has been reduced from being active for 100 frames to being active for 45 frames.
• PK Thunder 2 travels farther and keeps its hitbox throughout the move.
• Ness can jump out of PSI Magnet (like how the space animals can jump out of their Reflectors), and the move additionally deals consecutive damage, with a strong initial hit that sends foes above Ness and link into aerial attacks. When absorbing a projectile, he can also cancel the move to go into the ending animation afterwards, preventing rapid-fire projectiles such as Fox's Blaster from trapping him into the move indefinitely.
• PK Flash, though retaining its powerful knockback, is smaller and deals much less damage.

Ness' alternate costume.

Revisions

v2.1

• Ness' PK Flash no longer causes him to become helpless.

v2.5b

• Dash attack cannot be DI'd down or shielded in between hits.
• Up tilt has better coverage in front of Ness, and can be interrupted earlier.
• Down tilt can be interrupted into itself quickly like in Melee and Brawl.
• Forward smash can now be angled, and its tipper hit has increased knockback scaling.
• PK Flash can be charged for slightly longer.
• PK Fire travels for slightly longer.
• PK Thunder has a hitbox during startup, and the thunderbolt no longer vanishes when entering the horizontal blast lines. It also no longer dies when Ness is hit, and instead becomes unfriendly towards any player and continuing in the same direction before he got hit.
• PK Thunder 2 travels a bit faster over the same distance, and its hitboxes have more coverage over Ness.
• PSI Magnet's healing multiplier was slightly increased, and the move can be jumped out of. It additionally causes Ness to float for much longer at the start when used in midair.
• PSI Magnet was given damaging hitboxes; a weak launching one at the start, then repeated non-flinching ones afterwards.
• Down throw has more ending lag.
• PK Thunder does not clip stages as easily.
• PSI Magnet's absorb collision is decreased in size (matching the graphic better).
• Midair jump animation touched up near the end.
• Forward air animation touched up near the end.
• Back air animation touched up.
• Dash grab has a new animation.
• Up Smash Taunt implemented.

v2.6b

• Up tilt has a slightly reduced cooldown.
• Up and down smashes' refresh time between hits while charging has been slightly reduced.
• PSI Magnet can be released during the absorb lag to go into the end animation afterwards, preventing rapid hitting projectiles like Fox's Blaster shots that can re-hit before the absorb lag ends from trapping him into it indefinitely. The absorb lag was also reduced greatly.
• Pivot grab has more startup, matching other pivot grabs.
• PSI Magnet no longer allows Ness to roll, sidestep or jump upon absorbing a projectile while grounded.

v3.5

• Forward tilt has less endlag.
  • It has a more horizontal angle.
  • It deals slightly less knockback.
• PK Thunder can no longer hit Shy Guys and Smashville balloons.
• PK Thunder 2 has a constant landing lag of 20 frames instead of it being height dependant.
• PK Thunder 2 can now be properly edge cancelled.
• PK Fire no longer activates on shielded opponents.
  • Opponents can no longer shield between the fireball hit and 1st pillar hit.
• PK Fire pillar duration has been reduced by half.
• PK Fire's bolt now does 8% but the three pillar hits does 1% each to compensate.
• PK Fire pillar has higher gravity, preventing opponents from whiffing between the first few hits.
• Can no longer reverse ledge grab after missing PK Thunder 1.
• The knockback values for Ness' down throw has been altered making it a slightly worse combo starter.
• Dash attack, forward aerial, and PK Thunder all have normal hitlag.

v3.6 Beta

• While using PK Thunder 2, Ness can now reverse ledge-grab at the peak.
• PSI Magnet causes more damage and has more base knockback.
  • The move's knockback growth has been significantly decreased, making it a better combo tool at higher percents.
• Down throw has slightly higher base knockback, but less knockback growth which enables followups at higher percents.
• Up and down smash charging hitboxes have less base knockback.
• Up and down smash charging hitboxes have had their angles changed, making it harder to gimp with them.
• Forward aerial now does more damage at the beginning of the move and less later on, as opposed to doing the same amount of damage the whole way through.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.5.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		3% (hit 1), 2% (hit 2), 4% (hit 3), (9% total)	Ness punches twice, then kicks.
Forward tilt		12% (high), 11% (mid), 10% (low)	Ness kicks forwards with a foot. Can be angled.
Up tilt		7%	Ness extends his arms quickly upwards. Can be used to juggle fast fallers up to 70% which can then lead into an aerial attack.
Down tilt		3%	Ness kicks his foot out slightly. Short ranged attack, but can be used in quick succession.
Dash attack		5% (hit 1), 4% (hits 2-3) (13% total)	Ness runs forward and creates three disjointed PSI bubbles from his hands. The first two hits have a semi-spike trajectory, while the last hit sends opponents straight upwards which can lead into aerials.
Forward smash		18% (body),20% (handle), 22% (mid), 24% (tip)	Ness takes out his trusty cracked bat and swings it at his opponents. The sweetspot is located at the bat's tip. Reflects projectiles.
Up smash		2% (hits 1-7 [hold]), 12% (swing)	Ness takes out his yoyo and swings it above him. Fast for an up smash; covers a wide area above him. Can be charged, but doing so does not increase the attack's damage. It is also affected slightly by gravity when used near an edge.
Down smash		2% (hits 1-7 [hold]), 12% (swing)	Ness takes out his yo-yo and swings it across the floor. Strong power, can be used to safely edge-guard from the stage. Same properties as the up smash.
Neutral aerial		11% (clean), 8% (late)	Ness spins around with his arms stretched out.
Forward aerial		4% (first two hits) 2% (hits 3-4) 3% (last hit) (15% total)	Ness produces PSI bubbles in front of him that hit consecutively, the last hit having stronger knockback.
Back aerial		15% (clean), 10% (late)	Ness extends his feet outward. Sweetspot is electrical and possess high KO potential.
Up aerial		13%	Ness headbutts upwards. Good for juggling at lower percents and a good KO move at higher percents.
Down aerial		14%	Ness kicks with one foot downward. A fast meteor smash useful for edge-guarding. Combined with double-jump canceling and L-canceling, it can also pressure shields efficiently.
Grab		—	Grabs with both hands. The fastest grab in the game, but has short reach.
Pummel		3%	Hits grabbed opponent with his head.
Forward throw		11%	Throws the opponent forward with PSI power.
Back throw		11%	Uses PSI to throw the opponent backwards. Has low base knockback, but a surprisingly strong knockback scaling, becoming a powerful KO move and also one of the strongest throws in the game.
Up throw		10%	Psycho-kinetically spins the opponent horizontally above him, then throws upward. Can chain grab at very low percentage and set up for aerial followups.
Down throw		1% (hits 1-5), 4% (throw) (9% total)	Ness pushes the opponent onto the floor and hits repeatedly with PK Fire.
Floor attack (front)		6%	Does a low kick going from back to front.
Floor attack (back)		6%	Does a low kick going from back to front.
Floor attack (trip)		5%	Kicks with both of his feet from back to front.
Edge attack (fast)		6% (body), 8% (foot)	Ness pulls himself off the side of a stage, rolls, and kicks his feet out.
Edge attack (slow)		10%	Ness climbs up the side of a stage and throws out a punch.
Neutral special	PK Flash	8-22%	Ness generates a green ray 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. This can be used as an effective edgeguarding move, due to its range and power. The explosion can be absorbed and reflected, though the latter only affects Ness if he's close to it.
Side special	PK Fire	8% (bolt), 1% (pillar hits 1-5)	Ness shoots a bolt forwards from his fingers, which then bursts into a pillar of flames upon hitting a foe. When used in midair, Ness instead shoots it at a diagonally downward angle while keeping his forward momentum. The pillar is affected by gravity and can be hit by attacks. The bolt vanishes upon hitting a surface, and can be reflected or absorbed.
Up special	PK Thunder	4% (startup), 8% (head), 6% (tail); PK Thunder 2: 25% (clean), 21% (mid), 15% (late)	Ness produces an electric beam from his head, which he can then control freely. When the beam is produced, a brief hitbox covers his body, repelling foes attempting to stop the attack. If the beam hits Ness, he will be propelled in the same direction that the beam was travelling in surrounded by a powerful electric hitbox, known as PK Thunder 2. If the tip of the beam hits a surface, foe, or disjointed hitbox that deals knockback, or the beam is absorbed, the beam will disappear and leave Ness helpless. If the beam is reflected or Ness is hit while controlling the beam, he will lose control of the beam. When hitting a wall or ceiling with PK Thunder 2, Ness will either travel parallel to it or rebound off it, depending on how perpendicular to the wall he was when he blasted into it. When PK Thunder 2 is launched against the ground, he will lie on the floor. Though an effective recovery move, it's difficult to recover with it between tall walls (such as the buildings in Saffron City).
Down special	PSI Magnet	6% (startup), 2% (loop)	Ness becomes covered by an electrical field that absorbs any energy projectiles shot against him, deducting x1.6 of the damage the projectile would have dealt. As an attack, it first launches enemies diagonally upwards, then hits consecutively with no knockback. When used in the air, it resets Ness's falling speed. He can jump out of the ending lag of the move to string it together with aerials.
Final Smash	PK Starstorm	20% (each star)	Ness calls down a rain of stars from the sky, yelling "PK Starstorm!".

In competitive play

Notable players

• Aki
•  Awestin
•  Boiko
•  Delicious Octorok
•  DeezNutz
•  Reslived
•  Stereo_Kidd
•  Tetraflora
•  The_NZA
•  Zeej

Alternate costumes

Ness' alternate costume is his striped blue pajamas he has been seen wearing in the beginning of EarthBound and while in Magicant in the American version of EarthBound.

3.5 gave Ness' pajamas some recolors to be used for team battles, and a purple costume based off of Yes Man Jr.

Ness's alternate costumes in PM

Trivia

• Prior to 3.6, there existed two cosmetic issues:
  • If Ness gained a Smash Ball while in any of his pajamas, there will appear to be an eerie dark area over his eyes. This issue also happened when Ness performs his Smash Taunt, even if it is not in his alternate costumes. There are, however, unofficial patches that exist to address this problem.
• While in his pajamas costume, Ness wields the cracked bat, the first bat he received in Earthbound as a gift from his family.
• Ness is the only character from an RPG series (Fire Emblem and Earthbound) to lack a spike.

External links

• Project M character page