Ness (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

This page is about Ness's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the character in other contexts, see Ness.

“	A psychic boy with a distinct midair jump.	”
—Description from Melee's manual.

Ness
Universe	EarthBound
Also appears in	SSB Brawl SSBWU/3DS
Availability	Starter
Tier	F (23)
Character Statistics
Number of Jumps	2
Can Wall Jump	No
Voice Actor
Voiced by	Makiko Ōmoto

Ness (ネス, Ness) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Announced at E3 2001, he was originally going to be replaced by Lucas from Mother 3; the ultimate cancellation of the game for the Nintendo 64, however, caused Masahiro Sakurai to retain Ness.

He is currently ranked 23rd in the F tier. While still having fantastic throws and a great aerial game due to his double jump cancel, Ness has a poor approach on the ground and in the air due to significant range issues in most of his attacks; his recovery is also easy to intercept and edge-guard against, and he also has significant trouble KOing opponents, again owing to his poor range. As a result of these significant weaknesses, Ness has terrible matchups, with six nearly unwinnable, one even (against Yoshi), and only three slightly favorable (against Bowser, Kirby, and Pichu).

Attributes

Ness is an unusual blend of character archetypes; many of his attributes are unique in comparison to other characters, such as his projectiles, his recovery and his midair jump. Ness has above-average traction and a moderately low falling speed, giving him an average wavedash that is relatively quick.

Arguably Ness's greatest strength is his double jump cancel (often abbreviated DJC). By cancelling out of his midair jump with an aerial, Ness can quickly and efficiently use his multiple aerial attacks; as Ness's ground-based options are poor, his various aerial attacks can act as superior alternatives to them, with his neutral aerial and forward aerial attacks acting as potential combo starters and his back and up aerial attacks acting as potent KO moves. Furthermore, Ness alone has access to the Yo-yo glitch, which can significantly increase his range and options when performed properly. While Ness's up and down smashes's knockback are poor, they can be very versatile when used properly, being the only smashes who can damage opponents while charging; they have powerful juggling, tech-chasing and spacing ability.

Ness also has some good KO options. On the ground, Ness's forward smash is very powerful, moderately fast, has a long, safe disjointed hitbox and has the ability to reflect some projectiles. Within the air, Ness's up and back air attacks are short-ranged, but very powerful, with the former acting as an excellent replacement for his weak up smash when DJCed and the latter powerfully semi-spiking opponents. Ness's back throw is one of the most powerful in the game, and it acts as among Ness's best KOing options. Ness's forward throw has poor knockback scaling; while this makes it weak at high percentages, this low knockback growth can set up edge-guarding affairs and gimps. Ness's up and down throws can begin new combos, with the former easily comboing into his DJC'd up air at some damage percentages.

Ness, however, suffers from a poor ground-based approach in the game, which, in turn, significantly increases his difficultly in KOing opponents. Ness's tilts have little range or knockback, with only his up tilt acting as a practical combo starter; furthermore, while Ness does have a decently-lengthed wavedash, his existing smash attacks are all too situational for use in wavesmashing. While his forward smash does contain a long and safe disjointed hitbox, Ness's up and down smashes have poor knockback, making them ineffective for KOing. Ness's ground-based approach also suffers by his lack of an effective projectile; while Ness has three projectiles, none can be effectively used in all cases. PK Flash has long starting and ending lag, and it can only KO reliably after being charged for a long time; as a result, it can only be utilized as a situational edge-guard technique. PK Fire has multiple hits, but it is easy to DI out of, has high starting and ending lag, and has short reach for a projectile. PK Thunder is slightly more useful, as it is controllable and can be used for mindgames; however, it suffers from long windup and cooldown lag, and it also cannot be cancelled out of, making it very easy to punish. As a final flaw for Ness's ground-based approach, Ness's grab has the second shortest range in all of the game, thus making it difficult for him to KO opponents via his powerful throws; while his dash grab does slightly increase its range, it also features considerable lag if it whiffs.

Furthermore, despite the high potential power of his DJC, Ness's aerial approach is also below-average. Like his ground approach, it also suffers from the short range in many of his attacks, and against opponents with particularly good spacing games, like Marth, Ness can easily and quickly be overwhelmed in his attempts to approach opponents. As two of Ness's best finishers are aerial based attacks, KOing in the air requires a good read in order to potentially pull off a DJCed aerial. As Ness has a high short hop and a low falling speed, he also has a very poor SHFFL.

Outside of his poor approach, Ness also suffers from a flawed recovery. Ness has the second highest midair jump in the game (second to only Yoshi) and his midair jump has unusual properties in its trajectory; PK Thunder 2 also grants a rather long distance, with a moderately large sweetspot and a long period of invincibility frames. Despite these benefits, however, Ness still has a very predictable and inflexible recovery, in spite of its long length. In the process of having to start PK Thunder 2, characters with good recoveries (such as Jigglypuff or Samus) can merely jump into the projectile and take negligible knockback and damage, immediately sending Ness into a state of helplessness. Projectiles such as Link's Boomerangs and the Ice Climbers' Ice Shot can easily disrupt the projectile as well, and in these cases, damage is not even inflicted to the opponent. PK Thunder 2 also has significant angling issues, and it can easily curve under lips of stages, most notably on Battlefield. Additionally, should Ness end up parallel to the ground while using the attack, the ending lag can easily be abused and punished. Finally, its linear nature can make it easy to read and edge-guard for many characters, despite the invincibility frames found within it; attacks like Mario's Cape or Link's Spin Attack can easily intercept the attack as Ness charges to the stage.

Changes from Smash 64 to Melee

Ness was overwhelmingly nerfed in his transition from Smash 64 to Melee, despite being ranked 10th on the Smash 64 Tier list. His nerfs significantly counter the various buffs he received, with his nerfs impairing his already-poor recovery, and significantly reducing his KO options. As a result, Ness has a lower tier placing in Melee; while already placing in the low tier of Smash 64, Ness is currently bottom tiered in Melee, and he is now regarded as non-viable in tournaments.

Aesthetics

• Ness's grounded jump is no longer psychokinetic.
• Ness has new voice samples.
• Ness's backpack is two strapped.

Attributes

• Ness is heavier, now being a middleweight.
• Ness's air speed and dashing speed were greatly improved. His walking speed was improved to a lesser extent.
• The speed and reach of Ness's attacks was generally decreased.

Ground Attacks

• Forward tilt is much stronger.
• Down tilt is much faster.
• Dash attack: Does more damage and has more range.

• It now has psychokinetic properties.

• Forward smash: Has longer reach and is faster.

• Forward smash now has two sourspots.

• Both his up and down smashes have less reach, and they have been drastically weakened to the point where they can no longer KO at realistic percentages.
• Ness now has access to the Yo-yo glitch.

Aerial Attacks

• Just like Yoshi, his DJC'd combos are slower and harder to perform.
• Neutral aerial: Animation has changed; it is now a spinning attack rather than a split kick.
• Both his forward and back aerial have psychokinetic properties.
• Forward aerial: Deals more damage and has more range.
• Up aerial: Has more reach with a bigger hitbox.

• Ness's head no longer has intangibility frames.

• Down aerial: Has much higher base knockback, making it a deadly 0-death KO tool if not meteor-canceled.

• Ness's down aerial now has significantly more startup lag, and it also has much lower knockback scaling.

Grabs and Throws

• Ness has been given an up throw and a down throw, providing him with more options.
• Forward throw does 5% less damage.
• Back throw does 6% less damage.

Special Moves

• PK Flash: Ness's new neutral special move. PK Fire was moved to Ness's side special.
• PK Fire: Travels a smaller distance, and it is now considerably easier to DI out of.
• PK Thunder: Travels faster, and it has a tighter radius which it can travel.

• Ness's PK Thunder 2 travels a shorter distance, damage when hitting an opponent is 5% less, and has a lot more endlag. As such, despite the projectile prior to PK Thunder 2 moving faster (while also having a tighter radius), Ness's recovery is considered to be worse overall.
• The crowd no longer gasps when Ness hits himself with PK Thunder.

• PSI Magnet: Is considerably faster, improving Ness's defensive game.

• The color of PSI Magnet is now blue instead of green.
• The crowd no longer cheers when Ness absorbs a projectile with PSI Magnet.

Moveset

		Image	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack				3%
				2%
				4%
Forward tilt	↗			12%
	→			11%
	↘			10%
Up tilt				7%
Down tilt				3%
Dash attack				5% (hit 1), 4% (hits 2-3)
Forward smash				18% (body), 20% (bat base), 22% (bat mid), 24% (bat tip)
Up smash				9% (startup), 4% (charging), 6% (attack)
Down smash				11% (startup), 4% (charging), 7% (attack)
Neutral aerial				11% (clean), 8% (late)
Forward aerial				3% (hits 1-4), 5% (hit 5)
Back aerial				16% (clean), 10% (late)
Up aerial				13%
Down aerial				12%
Grab				—
Pummel				3%
Forward throw				11%
Back throw				11%
Up throw				10%
Down throw				1% (hits 1-5), 4% (throw)
Floor attack (front)				6%
Floor attack (back)				6%
Edge attack (fast)				8%
Edge attack (slow)				10%
Neutral special			PK Flash	11-36%
Side special			PK Fire	2% (lightning), 3% (pillar hit 1), 2% (pillar 2-7)
Up special			PK Thunder	8% (thunder head), 1% (thunder tail), 25% (PK Thunder 2 clean), 20% (PK Thunder 2 late)
Down special			PSI Magnet	0%, heals 2.0x the damage of absorbed projectiles

Taunt

• Turns to the screen and nods his head while saying "Okay".

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Ness Ness Ness!	Ness Ness Ness!
Voices	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

Template:Victory/SSBM

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

In 1-P Mode

Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Ness can appear as an ordinary opponent, as an opponent in the team battles alongside Yoshi, Peach, or Mewtwo, as a member of a multi-character battle, as a metal opponent, or as an ally in team battle. In Ness's appearance, he appears on either Onett or Fourside (if unlocked) as a regular opponent and on Battlefield as a metal opponent. When on a team with Yoshi, he appears on Yoshi's Island.

Adventure Mode

Ness's appearance in the Adventure Mode is in Stage 9: Onett. In the stage, the player must fight against three computer players, each one being Ness, on Onett; in the fight, the only item that appear is Mr. Saturn. The player must defeat all three opponents within five minutes to continue.

All-Star Mode

Ness and his allies are fought on Onett.

Event Matches

Ness is featured in the following event matches:

• Event 5: Spare Change: the player controls Ness and fights Captain Falcon in a coin battle on Onett. The player must collect 200 coins within 80 seconds in order to clear the event.
• Event 30: All-Star Match 3: Ness is the third opponent to be fought in this series of staged battles. The player battles him on Onett, which will transition to the next stage if Ness gets defeated. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him along with Kirby, Pikachu and the Ice Climbers.
• Event 36: Space Travelers: As Ness, the player must defeat Samus, Kirby, Fox, Captain Falcon, and Falco. The player battles the first three characters on Fourside and battles the last two on Battlefield.

Trophy descriptions

In addition to the normal trophy about Ness as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Ness on any difficulty.

Ness

Ness is a young boy who's mastered the psychic power known as PSI. Ness was living a normal life in the suburbs of Onett until a meteor crashed into a nearby mountain and sent him on a wild adventure. Believing in the ultimate powers of wisdom, courage, and friendship, Ness proves that some heroes come in small packages.

• EarthBound (06/95)

Ness (Smash Red)

The key to mastering Ness is controlling his unique midair jump, which makes up for what he lacks in speed. His PK Flash attack may seem weak at first glance, but it grows more powerful the longer you hold down the B button. To do a lot of damage with PK Fire, try to burn your opponent as many times as possible.

• B: PK Flash
• Smash B: PK Fire

Ness (Smash Blue)

Ness's mind is his best weapon. PK Thunder is a PSI missile weapon that can be guided using the Control Stick, and if Ness hits himself with it, he turns into a living missile capable of doing massive damage. This move can also be used for recovery. PSI Magnet turns energy missile attacks into health; try out certain Pokémon for stamina replenishment.

• Up & B: PK Thunder
• Down & B: PSI Magnet

Classic

Smash Red

Smash Blue

Costume Gallery

Ness's alternate costumes in Super Smash Bros. Melee.