Ness (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)


 * This article is about Ness's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Ness.

Ness (ネス, Nesu) is an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and has appeared in every installment of the Smash Bros. series thus far. Ness is currently ranked 28/29th on the tier list, having the same amount of points as his "clone" Lucas. Ness does have some powerful, high priority moves, as well as many useful special attacks, but his unsafe recovery and below average tournament results have given him his low tier ranking.

How to unlock

 * Play five Brawls, then defeat Ness
 * Reflect ten projectiles, then defeat Ness
 * Get Ness to join your party in The Subspace Emissary.

Attributes
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 combos well into other attacks, and his PK Thunder can trap opponents and combo into PK Thunder 2, one of the strongest attacks in the game. The best for Ness, however, are his powerful throws, which are among the best in the game, and among the few with true KO potential. Combining these with proper projectile use and appropriate Smash timing, and Ness can be a powerful foe.

Ness's true game relies in 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 you need to do the aerial immediately when you jump off the ground. His weakness is his ground game. With weak and very short range tilts he suffers fighting people with disjointed hitboxes such as Ike or Marth. The only upside of his tilts are that they come out very quickly, can be used to continue a combo, and have extremely high priority. His forward smash, although powerful, seems somewhat slow and laggy (Though it really is only slightly slower than his counterpart, Lucas). His up smash, though not very powerful in terms of knockback, is very versatile when used properly, being one of the only two smash attacks able to damage people while charging, both belonging to Ness. Ness has very bad time with grab releases in Brawl, because he and Lucas suffer from having an extremely long grab release animation. Almost every character in the game has some sort of grab release on Ness, or Lucas. Thanks to the user Ref of Smashboards, a majority of grab release combos can be avoided with the discovery of EIDI. Still, enterprising Ness players can make him highly dangerous.

One of the most difficult problems with Ness is using PK Thunder 2 as recovery. Since Ness's PK Thunder curves in a larger arch than Lucas's PK Thunder, thus requiring more room for recovery than Lucas. In addition, his PK Thunder will stop it's tracks when it hits an item, wall, or character. As such, many opponents may take risks and jump in front of the PK Thunder's Directional Influence to interrupt Ness's recovery, making Ness having little to no hope of recovery.

Normal

 * Neutral Attack - Jabs twice and kicks. 3% first hit, 2% second hit, and 4% third hit.
 * Dash Attack - Sends three sparks out in front of him with the third spark knocking the opponent up into the air. 5% first hit, 4% second hit, and 4% third hit.
 * Strong Side - Kicks out in front of him. Can be tilted upward or downward. Downward, 10%. Forward, 11%. Upward, 12%.
 * Strong Up - Raises his hands, which grow large, up into the air. Can cancel many moves. 7%.
 * Strong Down - Ness crouches and very quickly kicks out in front of him. The quickest Strong Down attack and one of the overall fastest attacks in the game (can be used multiple times in a row to rack up damage). 4% each hit. Can trip opponent. Has extremely low range.

Smash

 * Side Smash - Ness swings his bat. The bat has a sweet-spot at the tip of it. Similar to Lucas' Forward Smash, but with a slightly slower start-up time, much more power, and slightly longer range. One of Ness' more average killing moves. Functions as a reflector when timed right. 18%-24% uncharged, 25%-33% fully charged.
 * Up Smash - Ness sends his yo-yo forward and performs "around-the-world" over himself, with the yo-yo ending behind him before he pulls it back. This is the only smash attack in the game (along with Ness' down smash) that does damage while it charges (which actually isn't a charge at all). If connected properly, the opponent hit by the forward yo-yo will then be sent up to be hit by the swinging yo-yo and then sent up into the air. 4% while "charging", 9% on opponents in front on the ground, 13% on opponents in the air or behind Ness.
 * Down Smash - Ness sends his yo-yo backwards and "walks-the-dog" with it before pulling the yo-yo back. Works much like Ness' Up Smash. 4% while "charging", 13% during the actual attack. If connected properly (the first hit), the enemy will be hit twice. Certain characters like Link, Sonic, and a few others for some odd reason will only be hit by the weaker hitbox, and will be sent over the stronger hitbox, only doing 4%.

Other

 * Ledge attack - Flips onto the stage and does a sweep kick. 8%.
 * 100% ledge attack - Slowly pull himself up and delivers a powerful punch. 10%.
 * Floor Attack - Gets up and kicks backward, then spins around and kicks in front of him. 6%.
 * Trip attack - Gets up on his hands, kicks backwards, then brings his legs under him and kicks in front of him. 5%.

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral Air - Spins diagonally in the air with arms outstretched. Ness' fastest aerial. A single, long lasting, hit with moderate knockback. 11%.
 * Forward Air - Ness sticks out his palms in front sending a stream of PK sparks in front of him. Very similar to his dash attack and is an excellent at disrupting opponents. 4 hits of 2%, then one hit of 3%. It's sourspot can sometimes trip opponents, leading into a jab lock.
 * Back Air - Kicks out backwards with both feet. Has a sweet-spot that could, if landed correctly, send the opponent a fair amount of horizontal distance while electrified. The sourspot, easily combos with many of Ness' aerials. One of Ness' killing moves. 8% normal, 15% sweetspotted.
 * Up Air - Headbutts up into the air. High knockback and can Star KO over 100%. Few can be chained together at low %s. Another of Ness' killing moves. 13%.
 * Down Air - Ness pulls his legs to his body before stomping down into the air. This attack can spike but has a lot of start-up lag. When timed right, it is one of the best spikes in the game. 12%.

Grabs and Throws

 * Grabs - Ness' standing grab has fairly short range but little lag. His dash-grab has decent range and comes out very quickly.
 * Pummel - Ness pummels the opponent with headbutts. Has an odd rhythm to it, and if timed right it is quite fast. 1% each hit.
 * Forward Throw - Ness psycho kinetically swings his opponent in a small circle in front of himself before sending them off forward. The knockback of this throw is not set, but does not increase with damage at an expected rate: it changes from Ness' best throw to his worst as the enemy's damage increases. Because of this nature this throw can score cheap KOs on walk off stages and setups for spikes. 11%.
 * Back Throw - Psycho kinetically swings the opponent over his head before sending them off backwards, in a diagonally upwards motion. The knockback (as well as angle) fluctuates from barely noticeable to significant depending on percent. At about 90-140% it can KO any character quite easily changing from the games worst throw to the best. Considered to be the strongest throw in the game. 11%.
 * Up Throw - Psychokinetically spins the opponent above his head before sending them up. Leads into many PK Thunder tricks. Average Knockback. 10%.
 * Down Throw - Throws his opponent down and shoots out fire onto his opponent. Combined with pummeling and PK Fire it can be used to rack up very high amount of damage quickly. 5 hits of 1%, then 4%.

Taunts

 * Up Taunt - Ness bows and says the word "Okay." It's believed to be a reference to the character naming screen in Earthbound.
 * Down Taunt - Ness creates PSI sparkles on his fingers while saying "Hah!"
 * Side Taunt - He pulls out his bat and says "Huah!"

Changes from Melee to Brawl

 * PK Flash activates faster and charges and travels further, but is less controllable in horizontal direction. Also, it goes further down than where it starts (it doesn't activate automatically once it hits the ground) and hits in a smaller radius.
 * Back Air is slightly weaker and has smaller sweet-spot compared to Melee version. (Though it's sourspot is much larger, greatly increasing the move's overall range.)
 * No double jump cancel. (except with special moves)
 * PK Thunder travels tighter, making it easier to hit self.
 * Up aerial now has a bit shorter range, but much more powerful, and can be used as a finisher.
 * Running Grab Animation no longer has Ness leaning forward hopping if missed.
 * Forward Smash produces a "CRAAAACK!!" sound, similar to a baseball bat hitting a baseball, when connecting with the opponent instead of the echoing "PIIIING!!" sound of the Home-Run Bat. Additionally, it's slightly slower than its Melee counterpart.
 * Up and Down Smashes are stronger, have greater knockback and are able to kill at high percentages. (Though they are still the weaker smashes in Ness' arsenal.)
 * So far, there is no known way to do the yo-yo glitch, however, the SLAPAYO glitch is very similar.
 * Forward and Down throw sends foes at a higher angle.
 * Victory Theme changed from an orchestrated version of the second half of the "Soundstone Melodies" (from EarthBound) to a sped-up section of the Mother Title theme. Both Ness and Lucas share the same Victory Theme.
 * No longer a starter character.
 * New yo-yo design.
 * Ness' PSI Magnet can be canceled with Up Smash, Jump, Grab or Spot Dodge.
 * No more lag in final of Human Missile.
 * Down spike is faster, stronger, and has much better range.
 * Dash grab has good range, is faster, and has little ending lag.
 * Back throw slightly more powerful.
 * PK Fire activates faster.
 * PK Flash has slightly different animation.
 * New costumes, as he no longer has just striped shirts for alternate colors.
 * When Ness activates PK Fire, his voice sounds different.
 * PSI Magnet's color changed from blue to purple.
 * Has the same "toppling" animation as Lucas.
 * Up Aerial and Side Aerial can replace 2nd jump.
 * When PSI Magnet is deactivated, it blows close opponents away without doing damage.
 * All aerials can cause Ness to rise greatly after he cancels his second jump. (This is much different from Melee's double jump cancel.)

Role in the Subspace Emissary
Ness shows up saving Lucas from the giant Pig King Statue, which is soon revealed to be his nemesis, Porky Minch. Both Lucas and Ness team up and defeat Porky and his machine. Afterwards, 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 trophy-izing arrow from the Dark Cannon. As Lucas is too scared to face Wario, he leaves Ness behind as Wario cackles in the rain.

As Wario is driving his Cargo with Ness's and Peach/Zelda's trophies on board, he finds Luigi's trophy and prepares to take it until he's ambushed by an army of Waddle Dees, who throw Luigi's trophy into the cargo, which is stolen by King Dedede. At his hideout, Dedede puts a badge on Luigi's, Ness's, and Peach/Zelda's trophies before the roof collapses on them and Bowser takes Peach/Zelda's trophy.

Later on, 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 most of the other characters to defeat Tabuu.

Trivia

 * Ness cannot charge his down smash while on the edge of any platform.
 * Despite being one of the first characters unlocked by playing Brawls, Ness is one of the last characters unlocked by playing Subspace Emissary.
 * When in metal form, Ness' bat is also metal, but his yo-yo is not.
 * Ness' yo-yo says "Super Nintendo 2008" along the top, above "MOTHER."
 * Ness' Trophy is the only one that mentions "Super Smash Bros." as one of a character's works. Others only list games of their originating franchises.
 * Ironically, while Ness' game (EarthBound) was released in North America, his in-game voice in the Super Smash Bros. series speaks with a Japanese accent. Whereas Lucas, whose game (Mother 3) was released only in Japan, speaks using a North American accent.
 * Ness' up and down smashes don't show the usual display while charging.
 * Strangely, no matter what level a CPU Ness is at, when they recover by using PK Thunder, they always launch themselves vertically. This occurs even when they can only reach the stage by firing horizontally or diagonally, resulting in their SDs.
 * Ness' PSI Magnet changed color throughout all three games, from green, to blue, and finally purple.
 * Ness' Up taunt is a reference to the naming screen in Ness' game EarthBound. When you confirm the name you are giving a character, you hear a sound effect of the the game's creator, Shigesato Itoi, say "Ok desu ka." which means "Okay." in Japanese. The sound effect was never translated into the the English language, which is why it is Japanese in Earthbound.
 * Ness is one of the only four unlockable characters to appear in the opening cinematic of Brawl.