Ness (SSBB)

Ness in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	EarthBound
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	PK Starstorm
Tier	D (26)

Ness (ネス, Ness) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Ness was initially confirmed in Brawl through leaked on January 18th, 2008 through a topic in the game site's message board about an official trailer in a promotional video on the Japanese Wii website about sticker power-ups that leaked him being playable in the game, alongside Lucario and Jigglypuff. He was officially confirmed on February 1st, 2008 on the Smash Bros. DOJO!! website, the day after Brawl came out in Japan. He is once again voiced by Makiko Ōmoto, with a combination of new voice-clips and recycled ones from Melee.

Ness is ranked 26th out of 38 on the tier list, a notable improvement from his placement in Melee, where he was ranked 23rd out of 26. Ness possesses a strong aerial game with a strong, quick and disjointed set of aerial attacks capable of racking up damage and comboing at lower precents and KOing at higher ones, alongside possessing arguably the best grab game across the entire cast (even competing with the Ice Climbers) due to possessing the fastest grabs in the game, a quick pummel and effective throws; in particular, back throw is the most common killing throw in the series. Furthermore, Ness boasts a flexible special moveset: PK Fire is versatile for racking up damage and leading to free follow-ups, PSI Magnet is capable of edgeguarding and leading to early KOs, PK Thunder is useful for mindgames, and PSI Magnet absorbs energy-based projectiles while healing Ness himself. Despite being a small middleweight, Ness boasts high overall KO potential and damage output, courtesy of his aerials, forward smash, back throw, PK Flash and PK Thunder 2. Ness is greatly hindered, however, by his exploitable recovery by either hitting Ness to an undesirable angle or nullifying the projectile, alongside the poor reach in his normal attacks, which allows characters with disjointed hitboxes (such as Ike and Mr. Game & Watch) to easily outrange him, possessing a limited grounded game (due to his aforementioned poor range, his almost non-existent approaching options on the ground, sub-par mobility and situational smash attacks), and by the 10 additional frames of lag he suffers when grab released, leaving him extremely vulnerable to followups out of a grab release from almost every character, as well as infinites and zero-to-death chain grabs out of a grab release (most infamously from Marth and Donkey Kong). Overall, Ness overall has below-average matchups with several counters, but he has acheived above-average tournament results regardless.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play 5 VS. matches.
• Reflect 10 projectiles.
• Have Ness join the player's party in the Subspace Emissary (Subspace (Part I)).

With the exception of the third method, Ness must then be defeated on Onett.

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 leads well into other attacks, and his PK Thunder can trap opponents and lead into PK Thunder 2, one of the strongest attacks in the game. Also, PK Thunder and PK Flash both leave Ness very vulnerable because he can't move or attack when controlling these projectiles. Ness can use his PSI Magnet to absorb any energy projectile. The best for Ness, however, are his powerful throws, most notably his back throw, the only throw in Brawl that can reliably KO under 150% without relying on being on the edge and bad DI. Combining these with proper projectile use and appropriate Smash timing, and Ness can be a powerful foe. Shield grabs tend to be a problem for Ness since he has the shortest standing grab range in the game. He's fairly balanced in the areas of weight, falling speed, and air speed with none of them being particularly good nor particularly bad.

Ness' true game can be found by utilizing 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 one needs to do the aerial immediately when one jumps off the ground. Looking at his aerials individually, his neutral aerial is fast and a great combo and defensive move. His forward aerial can set up into itself, making it good at damage-racking. His back aerial deals powerful knockback when sweetspotted, making it his best aerial finisher, while it can be used for a wall of pain when sourspotted. His up aerial is a very strong vertical KO move with a decent amount of range. Lastly, his clean down aerial is among the best meteor smashes in the game, and when hit late, it has strong horizontal knockback, making it good for edgeguarding.

However, his ground game is underwhelming. With slow dash speed and short range tilts, he suffers in matchups against characters with disjointed hitboxes such as Ike or Marth. The only upside of his tilts are that they come out very quickly, which can be used to rack up damage. His forward smash is slow and needs to be sweetspotted for it to reliably KO under 100%. His up smash is very weak in terms of knockback, being among the weakest in the game, although it is one of the only two smash attacks able to damage people while charging, the other being Ness's down smash. All of Ness's smashes also give Ness some much needed range in his ground game, although their lack of speed and KO power limit their use.

Ness's major problems are his awful ground grab release and recovery. He and Lucas both suffer from having extremely long grab release animations. Most characters have some sort of ground grab release on Ness, and/or Lucas, leading to chaingrabs, infinities in walls, and other moderate to major problems. Two examples of this would be Marth and Donkey Kong's 0-death on Ness and Lucas. Another example is Wario using his forward smash out of the grab release, which Ness can't avoid. As mentioned above, Ness's other major problem is his atrocious recovery. Although Ness has a very large 2nd jump (second only to Yoshi's in terms of height), his PK Thunder, though faster than Lucas' PK Thunder, has a much wider turning angle, thus requiring more room for Ness to recover than Lucas. Its PK Thunder 2 also travels less distance than Lucas' version. In addition, his PK Thunder will stop in its tracks when it hits most projectiles, walls, or a character. As such, some opponents may take a risk and jump in front of PK Thunder's path to intercept Ness's recovery, giving Ness little to no hope of making it back onstage, which is easier with disjointed moves. However, this is a risky way of intercepting Ness's recovery, due to his recovery move having an extreme amount of knockback, KOing below 50% in most situations, although a projectile could still be used to halt his recovery, especially if it's controllable. Ness's double jump has a unique quality that sets it apart from others in the game. It consists of four PSI flashes that propel him upward. If Ness uses an aerial or air dodge at the beginning of the jump, he will obtain a directional boost depending on the aerial used and if it is used on the first or second flash (his up aerial gives the longest boost, and the boost is longer if activated on the first flash). He can also use his double jump from the ground if the jump button is pressed during lag, which is helpful for starting up aerial combos. Using an aerial will make Ness move up faster, which complies for his slow double-jump and floatiness. After this, he will take a small pause in the air as a "filler" for the frames lost by the faster double-jump.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee

Near the end of Melee's metagame, Ness was considered one of the worst characters in the game due to his lack of range, underwhelming grounded game, non-existent approaching options, poor KOing ability and a catastrophic recovery. As such, Ness has received a mixture of buffs and nerfs during the transition from Melee to Brawl, being noticeably buffed overall. While he has received relatively few direct changes compared to the other returning characters, he has nevertheless received improvements.

Ness' aerial game has received noticeable improvements, as his aerial mobility has been improved, the reduction of landing lag improves the safety and combo potential of his aerial attacks, his forward aerial connects more consistently to make it a more effective spacing tool at the expense of the final hit's weaker power, and his back, up and down aerials have more range and are overall more effective KO options due to the changes to Brawl's mechanics, partially reducing his most glaring weaknesses from the previous games: his range. The utility of his grounded game has been considerably improved: neutral attack and down tilt benefit from jab locking and tripping, respectively, while forward tilt remains a relatively strong KOing tool and up tilt is a more versatile anti-air due to its extended hitboxes while being able to KO at high precents. His smash attacks have all been comparatively improved, as his forward smash, while slower, has much more range while remaining its high power, while up and down smashes can now KO at very high precents. His underwhelming special moves have all received notable improvements. PK Flash's hitbox is much less misleading, improving its overall utility. PK Fire is much harder to SDI out of. His recovery, while still exploitable, is more reliable due to his faster air speed, slower falling speed, PK Thunder's tighter arc and slower speed, and the removal of double jump canceling. PSI Magnet's new windbox enhances its defensive utility, and can now be canceled with a roll, a spot dodge or a jump, drastically improving its saftey and allowing it to lead into punishes. Finally, a number of moves deal stronger knockback; some examples being his up and down aerials, his smash attacks, and PK Thunder 2. These give him much more reliable and stronger KO potential.

However, Ness also received a few drastic nerfs that not only magnify his flaws, but also feature new unique weaknesses and tone down some of his most potent key strengths. The most fatal of which is the 10 additional frames to his grounded grab released animation, which is widely detrimental for Ness as it makes him vulnerable to inescapable KO confirms and even infinite chain grabs from some characters. Additionally, his combo potential has also been drastically toned down—due to the introduction of hitstun canceling, the universal reduction to falling speeds and the removal of double jump canceling. Altogether, this drastically changes the way his neutral game works: while his neutral game still remains decent, Ness is forced to rack up damage easily with either over-reliance on PK Fire or multiple aerials instead of relying on combos to successfully do so. Furthermore, several of his notable buffs have failed to completely alleviate most of his most glaring flaws; his improved recovery remains extremely easily to gimping or edgeguarding, his approaches can still be stuffed out due to his non-existent grounded approaching options and his sub-par overall grounded mobility, while his marginally better overall range is still short relative to the cast, which is exacerbated by the loss of his powerful yo-yo glitch. This, alongside his overall sub-par mobility, still causes him to heavily struggle in approaching most of his opponents. Finally, while his KOing ability is much better than in Melee, Ness still struggles to KO opponents consistently, as his slightly better smash attacks are still sluggish and somewhat situational compared to the rest of the cast, while his other most powerful KOing options still suffer from his aforementioned poor range.

Overall, Ness' Brawl iteration is considered to be a vast improvement over Melee and Smash 64. However, his lengthened grounded grab releases, watered down combo game, the loss of advanced techniques from DJC and yo-yo jackets, and his retained flaws have all prevented him from rising up into the game's higher tiers.

Aesthetics

• The overall universal graphical boost from Melee to Brawl gives Ness much more detail.
  • Due to this, Ness' design has been drastically altered: his skin is darker and noticeably more paler in-color, his blushy cheeks are less visible on his face, his eyes are marginally bigger with a slightly more visible blue hazel tint on them, his smile his lower, and the details on Ness' design, attire, clothing, shoes and schoolbag are aesthetically more graphic. Additionally, his aforementioned clothing is also brighter.
  • Altogether, these alterations collectively make his appearance more in-line wit his Japanese design in Earthbound.
• Ness' tumbling animation has been changed: he is now more expressive while tumbling, as he winces and faces slightly more away from the AI, and his arms and head are positioned lower during it.
• Ness emits a different voice-clip when performing PK Fire.
• His voice is slightly slowed down and lower-pitched.
• His double jump and his special moves (PK Flash, PK Fire, PK Thunder, by extension, PK Thunder 2, and PSI Magnet) emits different and more aesthetic sound effects.
• Ness has received two new alternate costumes (a blue and black costume, respectively) and his costumes have been tweaked: his first yellow alternate costume is now his white costume instead of his blue one, his blue costume has been replaced with his yellow one, and his second blue costume is now his fifth alternate costume.
  • Additionally, his black alternate costume provides a potrait of Mr. Saturn on his shirt.

Attributes

• Ness walks slightly faster (0.84 → 0.86).
• Ness' traction is lower (0.06 → 0.0546), going from the 15th-highest in Melee to the 24th-highest in Brawl. Compared with the returning veterans, however, Ness' traction is higher, making it easier for him to punish out of shield.
• Ness dashes slightly slower (1.4 → 1.393).
• Ness' air speed is higher (0.093 → 0.09588).
• Ness' air acceleration is significantly higher (0.06 → 0.1).
• Ness' jumpsquat is longer (4 frames → 5).
• Ness' grounded grab released animation is 10 frames longer (FAF 30 → 41), which makes him vulnerable to chain grabbing releases and combos as the entire cast now has a 10-frame advantage upon ground releasing him (instead of only Bowser, who now has a 20-frame advantage over Ness due to this). He is also more vulnerable to aerial follow-ups off of aerial grab releases due to the general changes to air releases.
• As with the returning veterans, Ness' falling speed is slower (1.83 → 1.31). Compared to the returning veterans, however, Ness falls faster. While this improves his endurance, it worsens his recovery and makes him more vulnerable to combos.
• Ness' gravity is lower (0.09 → 0.0711).
• The removal of double jump canceling greatly hinders his already poor approach and weakens his combo ability, but significantly improves his recovery's safety and the versatility of his aerial prowess.
  • The loss of double jump canceling now allows Ness to perform aerials while rising from the momemtum of his double jump, allowing him to juggle/chain and rack up damage with his aerials much easier, as well as improving the combo ability of his aerials. This also gives him much safer options out of a ledge getup without the risk of leading to self-destructs.
• Spot dodge grants more intangibility (frames 2-18 → 2-20) and has less ending lag (FAF 28 → 26).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The third hit of neutral attack has increased base knockback (16 → 40).
  • The introduction of jab locking also improves the first and second hits' utility.
• Up tilt:
  • The reduction to falling speeds improves up tilt's KO potential, but hinders its combo potential.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt deals more damage (3% → 4%), but deals less knockback (4 (base), 50 (scaling) → 3/20).
  • It has less ending lag if Ness performs another down tilt (frame 8 → 6).
    • Altogether, this improves its damage-racking ability.
  • It now has a 30% tripping chance, improving its versatility.
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 3-5 → 3-4).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack deals more damage due to changes to stale-move negation (12% → 13%).
  • All of dash attack's hits connect more consistently due to the weakening of SDI.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has much more range (offset: 2.3436u, 2.9295u, 3.1248u, 3.3201u → 2.9u/3.6u/3.8u/4.1u).
  • Forward smash has more startup (frame 16 → 22) and ending lag (FAF 50 → 56).
  • Forward smash now produces a more realistic sound of a bat hitting a baseball instead of using the sound effect of the Home-Run Bat.
• Yo-yo (up and down smashes):
  • Up smash now provides a clean hit and a late hit, now possesssing the properties of a sex kick.
  • Both up and down smashes deal more knockback (up smash: 60 (base), 45 (scaling) → 90/60 (clean), 70/60 (late), down smash: 70 (base), 60 (scaling) → 90/60), drastically improving their KO potential, now being able to KO at high percentages (though the former is still among the weakest up smashes, while the latter now boasts only average power).
  • Up and down smashes deal more damage (9%/4%/6%/6% (up), 11%/4%/7%/7% (down) → 4%/9%/13%/4%/13%), when combined with the previous point, drastically improves their KO potential and increases up smash's total damage output (25% → 26%).
  • Up and down smashes have longer hitbox-durations (frames 12-31 → 13-35 (down), 13-36 (up)).
  • Down smash has less ending lag (FAF 62 → 57).
  • Up and down smashes' hitboxes are larger (2.34/1.9/2.34/2.34u → 3.5/4.0/4.2u (up), 4.0/5.0u (down)), improving their range.
  • Up and down smashes' charging hitboxes have altered knockback (20 (base), 50 (scaling), 0 (set) → 0/100/90), now dealing fixed knockback instead of minimal knockback, allowing it to connect into the unleashing hitbox with more consistency.
  • Up and down smashes' charging hitboxes launch at a more favorable angle (80° → 110°), allowing the former to connect with the second hit more consistently.
  • Down smash launches at a much lower angle (70° → 55°).
  • Up and down smashes' charging hitboxes have less start-up (frame 12 → 10) and can be charged earlier (frames 13-14 → 11-12), combined with its longer duration.
    • However, up smash's total duration was not fully compensated (FAF 49 → 55), giving it six more frames of ending lag.
  • Both up and down smashes' start-up hitboxes have been removed, which greatly decreases down smash's damage output (29% → 17%), though its increased knockback was compensated.
  • Both up and down smashes no longer increase their damage or knockback when charging. This notably prevents Ness from making utility of a charged up up/down smash to greatly increase their power to KO under high precentages, and prevents them from mitigating their nature of being among the weakest smash attacks in the game.
  • Up smash and down smashes have more start-up (frame 12 → 13).
  • Up smash has more ending lag (FAF 49 → 64).
  • The yo-yo/jacket glitch has been fixed.
    • The removal of the yo-yo/jacket glitch has significantly hindered his previously poor range.
  • His yo-yo has gained an aesthetically new, less saturated, more realistic, detailed and brighter design.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials excluding down aerial have less landing lag (22 frames → 18 (neutral), 18 frames → 12 (forward/back/up)), although due to the removal of L-canceling, their landing lag was not fully compensated.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has increased base knockback (15 → 20 (clean), 0 → 10 (late)), improving its utility as a get-off-me option.
  • Sourspotted neutral aerial deals less damage (8% → 7%), although its base knockback was compensated.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial's multi-hits have less knockback scaling (100 → 60). When combined with the weakening of SDI, this allows them to connect more consistently.
  • Forward aerial has a lower hitlag multiplier (1x → 0.5x), and the multi-hits have a higher SDI multiplier (1x → 1.5x). This makes the move harder to SDI, but makes SDI more effective against it.
  • The move deals much less damage (3%/2% → 2% (loop hits), 5% → 3% (final hit), 15.74% → 11% (total)), although the final hit's knockback scaling was somewhat compensated (135 → 145).
  • The move has less range due to only having a single hitbox per hit, although it is larger than the previous hitboxes (6.8u/4u → 8.1u (loop hits), 9u (final)).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has a slightly bigger sweet-spot compared to Melee version. And its sourspot is also much larger, greatly increasing the move's overall range.
  • Back aerial deals less damage (16% (clean), 10% (late) → 15%/8%) hindering its KO potential.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has a larger hitbox (5.964u → 7.2u).
  • The universal reduction to falling speeds have improved up aerial's KO potential, allowing it to used as a effective vertical finisher.
  • The removal of double jump canceling allows the move to be used safely as a edge-guard breaker out of a ledge getup without the risk of leading to unintentional self-destructs, and makes the move more versatile as a juggling tool.
  • The universal reduction to falling speeds and the removal of double jump cancelling has significantly hindered the move's juggling ability.
    • The loss of double jump canceling has also weakened the move's combo ability.
• Down aerial:
  • Sweetspotted down aerial has more effectiveness due to the changes to meteor canceling and the universal reduction to falling speeds.
  • The move has much larger hitboxes (5.452u → 6.54u), making it easier to meteor smash with.
  • It also has a powerful sourspot which sends opponents horizontally, which can KO grounded opponents earlier.
  • Sourspotted down aerial deals less damage (12% → 9%).

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs:
  • All grabs have less startup lag (frame 8 (standing)/10 (dash) → 6/8).
    • In addition to this, Ness now possesses a frame-6 pivot grab, which is the fastest in the game.
  • Dash grab has less ending lag (FAF 41 → 36).
  • Dash grab grants Ness a much more faster and substantial speed-boost, and covers significantly more distance in a shorter amount of time, making it much easier to land.
  • Ness' grabs have larger hitboxes (3.32u/2.34u (standing)/3.32u/2.73u/2.32u (dash) → (4u/3.5u)/(4u/3.5u/3.5u)) and the furthest grabboxes are positioned further outwards (z offset: 6.65 (standing)/7.81 (dash) → 6.8/8), slightly improving their range.
  • Standing grab has more ending lag (FAF 31 → 35).
• The universal reduction of falling speeds and the introduction of hitstun canceling hinder up throw and down throw's ability to combo and chain grab.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel has much less startup (frame 16 → 3) and ending lag (FAF 25 → 10), making it tied with Lucas for the second-fastest pummels in the game (surpassed by Wolf).
  • Its hitbox is now rendered static, rather than being attached to Ness' head.
  • It deals less damage (3% → 1%).
  • It has a smaller hitbox (6.25u → 5u), hindering its safety against bystanders.
• Back throw:
  • Back throw now emits the same sound effect as PSI Magnet.
• Up throw:
  • The universal reduction of falling speeds improve up throw's KO potential, especially on platforms.
    • However, this also hinders its combo and chain grabbing potential, even on fast-fallers.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw's hitboxes are larger (3.51u → 4.32u), resulting in them now connecting against all characters and no longer flatting out whiff against Mr. Game & Watch.
• Ledge attack:
  • Fast ledge attack launches at a much higher angle (361° → 45°).
  • Fast ledge attack deals more damage (6% → 8%).
  • Ledge attack deals more set knockback (90 → 110).

Special moves

• • Ness is now capable of B-reversing all of his special moves (excluding PK Thunder), improving their versatility.
• PK Flash:
  • PK Flash activates faster, charges and travels further, improving its safety.
  • PK Flash deals slightly more damage at full charge (36% → 37%) without compensation on knockback, improving its KO potential and overall utility, especially for edgeguarding.
  • It no longer activates automatically once it hits the ground, slightly hindering its edgeguarding potential and the ability to punish ledge rolls.
  • Uncharged PK Flash deals less damage (11% → 9%).
  • PK Flash hits in a smaller radius.
  • PK Flash's graphics feature a more blueish coloration instead of green.
  • PK Flash's explosion is smaller, matching the size of its hitbox.
• PK Fire:
  • PK Fire activates faster and can trap opponents more consistently due to the weakening of SDI, improving its damage-racking utility.
• PK Thunder:
  • PK Thunder travels/curves in a tighter arc and has much less angling issues, making it easier to hit himself to recover with. When combined with the universal reduction to falling speeds in Brawl and Ness' increased air speed, this allows Ness to connect PK Thunder into himself and travel into the desired direction to recover much easier, considerably improving his recovery.
  • PK Thunder 2 has drastically less ending lag (FAF 70 → 56).
  • PK Thunder 2 deals significantly stronger knockback (60 (base), 70 (scaling) → 83/80), now KOing at around 50%, and the late hitbox deals 1% more damage (20% → 21%) with more knockback scaling (65 → 70), allowing it to KO under 100%.
  • The camera no longer follows the ball of lightning as it moves away from Ness.
  • The lightning ball is now indigo instead of blue in color.
• PSI Magnet:
  • PSI Magnet now has a weak windbox when released, making it slightly safer, as well giving it a bit of extra utility.
  • PSI Magnet has a shorter ending animation (20 frames → 19).
  • After absorbing a projectile, PSI Magnet can now be cancelled with a roll, spot dodge or jump. This greatly improves PSI Magnet's safety as it not only heavily limits the opponent's ability to punish Ness if he absorbs a projectile, but it can even allow Ness to punish opponents after absorbing projectiles if he is close enough.
  • PSI Magnet heals less damage (x2.0 → x1.6).
  • PSI Magnet can now only heal up to a maximum of 30% damage.
  • PSI Magnet is now colored indigo instead of blue. It also has a different sound effect
• PK Starstorm:
  • As with the rest of the cast, Ness now has a Final Smash: PK Starstorm. Using PK Energy, Ness yells "PK... Starstorm!" to summon a series of multiple meteorites falling straight down from the sky, which each deal 20% to opponents.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Ness punches twice, then kicks.
			2%
			4%
Forward tilt	↗		12%	Ness kicks with a foot forward. Can be angled.
	→		11%
	↘		10%
Up tilt			7%	Ness pushes upward with both hands.
Down tilt			4%	Ness swiftly kicks out in front of him. Extremely spammable. Has a chance of making the opponent trip.
Dash attack			5% (hit 1), 4% (hits 2-3)	Sends three PSI sparks out in front of him with the third spark knocking the opponent up into the air. Each hit sends the opponent in a different direction, with different knockback. Great, disjointed range. If all hits connect, it can be followed up by an aerial combo.
Forward smash			18% (body), 20% (bat base), 22% (bat mid), 24% (bat tip)	Ness swings his bat. There are four hitboxes on the bat, dealing 18%, 20%, 22% and 24% uncharged, the strongest part being at the tip of his bat. The bat will reflect incoming projectiles when he swings it.
Up smash		Around The World (シャトルループ, Shuttle Loop)	4% (startup & charge), 9% (front), 13% (back)	Ness sends his yo-yo forward and performs "around-the-world" over himself. Interestingly, when it's 'charging', it doesn't increase in damage or knockback.
Down smash		Walk the Dog (ヨーヨーショット, Yo-Yo Shot)	4% (startup & charge), 13% (attack)	Ness sends his yo-yo backwards and "walks-the-dog" with it before pulling the yo-yo back. Similar to his up smash, the yo-yo doesn't increase in damage or in knockback when it's "charging".
Neutral aerial			11% (clean), 7% (late)	Spins diagonally in the air with arms outstretched.
Forward aerial			2% (hits 1-4), 3% (hit 5)	Ness sticks out his palms out, sending a stream of PSI sparks in front of him.
Back aerial			15% (clean), 8% (late)	Ness kicks out backwards with both feet. If sweetspotted, it electrifies the opponent and semi-spikes them with extreme power.
Up aerial			13%	Ness headbutts up into the air.
Down aerial			12% (clean), 9% (late)	Ness pulls his legs to his body before stomping down into the air. This attack can meteor smash in the first frame of the move. Somewhat laggy in the startup.
Grab			—	Grabs opponent with both hands.
Pummel			1%	Ness quickly headbutts the opponent. Very fast.
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. Has the highest KO potential of all throws.
Up throw			10%	Ness psychokinetically spins the opponent above his head before sending them up. Leads into many PK Thunder tricks and juggles. Good knockback for an up throw, though the opponent will have to be around 200% to actually KO.
Down throw			1% (hits 1-5), 4% (throw)	Ness throws his opponent onto the ground and scorches them with PK Fire. Combined with pummeling and PK Fire, it can be used to rack up a high amount of damage quickly.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Gets up and kicks both sides of himself.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Gets up and kicks both sides of himself.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Gets up and kicks both sides of himself.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8% (leg), 6% (body)	Flips onto the stage and does a sweep kick.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Slowly pulls himself up and delivers a powerful punch.
Neutral special		PK Flash	9-37%	Ness generates a green pulse of energy 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.
Side special		PK Fire	4% (lightning), 1-2% (fire)	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. When used in midair, Ness fires the bolt at a 45° angle.
Up special		PK Thunder	PK Thunder: 8% (head), 1% (tail); PK Thunder 2: 25% (clean), 21% (late)	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.
Down special		PSI Magnet	0%, heals x1.6 the damage of absorbed projectiles.	Creates a blue energy field around himself which allows him to absorb all energy-based projectiles. It can be held in order to use it repeatedly. The move pushes nearby opponents when the button is released.
Final Smash		PK Starstorm	20% (each star)	Ness calls down a rain of stars from the sky, yelling "PK... Starstorm!".

Announcer call

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• Spanish

Wii Remote selection sound

• Ness says "Okay." like his up taunt.

Ness's selection sound

On-screen appearance

• Ness teleports onto the stage with PSI Teleport, ending in an explosion leaving him covered in soot after crashing, which he then shakes off his body.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Turns toward the screen, positions his arms on his hips and nods while saying "Okay." The pose is similar to that of his clay model from EarthBound. When the player confirms the name one is giving a character, the player hears a sound effect of the game's creator, Shigesato Itoi, saying "Ok desu ka." This means "Is this okay?" in Japanese.
• Side taunt: Point his bat outward in front of him and strikes a pose, similar to how baseball players use it to indicate they are hitting a home-run.
• Down taunt: Waves his hand in an S-motion while emitting a sparkling stream of PSI from his finger.

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Idle poses

• Closes his eyes and places his fingers on his forehead, concentrating his PSI, and then points it forward, similar to Lucas' down taunt.
• Looks around cautiously while frowning.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Ness Ness Ness OOOO!	Ness Ness Ne-su!
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

A flourished, sped-up remix of a portion of the title theme from the original MOTHER for the Famicom.

• Up: Skips into the victory screen, jumping while lifting each respective arm up after each jump, then nods slightly while facing the screen with his arms akimbo, holding a pose similar to his official clay model, up taunt, and his official Brawl render. The pose is similar to that of his clay model from EarthBound.
• Left: Looks around quickly while exclaming twice before facing the screen, rubbing the back of his head with his hand (his "character chosen" animation in Super Smash Bros., albeit much more subtle).
• Right: Swings his bat multiple times before holding it with his right hand, outstretched and pointing it diagonally upwards.

Up	Left	Right

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Ness has a poor matchup spread overall. He counters one character (Ganondorf), soft counters 5 characters, and goes even with 8 characters. On the other hand, he gets soft countered by 11 characters, countered by 8 characters, and hard countered by 3 characters. Ness is generally vulnerable against characters who can grab release him to death (most notably Marth and Donkey Kong), exploit his poor recovery with good edgeguarding tactics (such as Mr. Game & Watch) and overwhelm him with long-ranged disjointed attacks and superior mobility (such as Zero Suit Samus and Meta Knight). However, Ness can make usage of his disjoints to frustrate certain characters (like Olimar and Lucas) from approaching easily, and can use his jumps to maintain a decent presence in the neutral game. Ness also performs strongly against floaty or air-based characters (such as Kirby), because of his excellent aerial game and manueverability. Even most of Ness' disadvantageous matchups are debatable: in turn, Ness can easily abuse Donkey Kong and King Dedede's considerable sizes, Pikachu's aerial game is inferior compared to Ness, Ness' efficient KO power prevents Lucario from using the benefits of Aura at higher precents and allows him to heavily abuse R.O.B.'s troublesome KO power, and Ness can counter Pokémon Trainer in several ways: Ness' good KO options allow him to heavily abuse Ivysaur's lack of KO power and Squirtle's low endurance, and his excellent attacking speed allows him to overwhelm Charizard, who has slow attacking speed and a large size.

Notable players

See also: Category:Ness players (SSBB)

•  FOW - Considered one of the best Ness mains in the world before switching to Meta Knight.
•  Fsann - Japan's top Ness player.
•  Shaky - Considered the undisputed best Ness following FOW's switch to Meta Knight.

Tier placement and history

Ness' competitive standing in the metagame initially had been somewhat intact, despite his notable buffs in the transition to Brawl. He was originally considered to be a low-tier character, lying as low as 31st on the third tier list. In the early days, players immediately noticed the presence of the 10 additional frames to his grab released animation, making him very vulnerable his grab-releasd combos by several characters in the cast, where common characters (like Marth) could easily exploit such detriments, resulting in his quality-of-life buffs being insufficient to alleviate his most significant problems (most notably his exploitable recovery, his barely improved mobility, range, and his overall awkward neutral game), as well as the loss of double jump canceling, the overall reduciton to falling speeds and the ability to act out of hitstun having severely decreased his combo ability. In addition, Ness also suffered from lackluster fundamental advantages as well, such as his poor range, inconsistency in KOing opponents despite his strong KOing ability, mediocre grounded game (due to his situational smash attacks, non-existent approaching options, and his aforementioned poor range) and sub-par mobility.

However, the general consensus later discovered the potency of Ness' strengths overtime, such as his disproportionate KOing power, strong combos, excellent damage output combined with his quick frame-data, formidable aerial and grab games, as well as the versatility of his special moves (such as PK Fire and PK Thunder's zoning abilities, and PK Flash and PK Thunder 2 capable of leading into early KOs, and PSI Magnet giving Ness a healing move by absorbing energy-based projectiles), which makes his neutral game dominant when combined. In turn, new Ness professionals were discovered and Ness received surprisingly above-average tournament results for a character of his own viability. While he suffers from poor matchups against certain characters who can abuse his long grab releases, such as Donkey Kong, Marth and King Dedede, Ness performs reasonably well against most other mid/high-tiers, such as Kirby, Pokémon Trainer, R.O.B., Fox and Pikachu, as well as some top-tiers, such as Olimar, Diddy Kong and Ice Climbers, since they lack the tools to outmatch Ness' devastating aerial game because of their poor aerial mobility. As such, he has risen up to 27th place by the fourth tier list, and he remained there for every single tier list in Brawl, until the last one, where he was slightly bolstered by a single tier. Overall, while Ness had heavily struggled throughout the game’s competitive lifespan in the early days because of his amplified consequences upon getting punished that made it extremely hard for him to approach most of the cast, those few acheivements have allowed Ness to find a rather solid placement as a mid-tier in the current tier list due to the expansion of tiers.

His current ranking, however, remains a high topic for debate, as most players regard Ness as underrated and rank him slightly higher, with Mew2King and Salem ranking him 24th on their tier list, with some even assessing Ness as a high-tier, as Enigma has ranked Ness as high as 21st on his own tier list, citing Ness' strong aerial and grab game, tilts and projectiles, as well as the versatility of his special moves.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

Ness in SSE.

Ness shows up saving Lucas from the giant Pig King Statue, which is soon revealed to be their mutual nemesis, Porky Minch. Ness and Lucas team up to defeat Porky and his machine. Afterward, 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 arrow from the Dark Cannon, which turns him into a trophy. As Lucas is too scared to face Wario, he leaves Ness behind as Wario cackles in the rain. Most of Lucas's story in SSE involves getting revenge on Wario and trying to find Ness.

As Wario is driving his Cargo with Ness' and Peach/Zelda's trophies on board, he finds Luigi's trophy and prepares to take it until he is 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', and Peach/Zelda's trophies before the roof collapses on them, turning Dedede into a trophy in the process, and Bowser takes Peach/Zelda's trophy. Soon afterward the Ancient Minister detonates a Subspace Bomb that consumes Dedede's castle along with Ness', Luigi's and Dedede's trophies by Subspace.

Ness is not seen again until much later in the story, where 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 Lucas, along with most of the other characters. Kirby, who was revived by the Dedede brooch he swallowed earlier, revives whatever characters that Ness' group did not come across, including Wario. Wario then bashes Dedede in the head as revenge for Dedede stealing his cargo and trophies. He is then surprised to see Ness and Luigi on Dedede's side. They offer to let Wario join them, and he agrees and rides his bike up to the entrance of The Great Maze. Ness, along with Sonic and the other characters team up to defeat Tabuu.

Playable appearances

Ness was captured by Wario during The Ruined Zoo, and he is brought into King Dedede's castle after he previously stole Wario's trophy cart. But after The Cave, a Subspace Bomb was detonated near his castle, bringing Ness into Subspace.

• The Ruined Zoo
• Subspace (Part I)
• The Great Maze

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• Event 21: Visit to Onett: The player controls Lucas and must defeat Ness on Onett.
• Event 25: The Aura Is With Me: As Lucario at 182% damage, the player must defeat Sheik and Ness on Spear Pillar.
• Event 26: The Slow and Easy Life: Ness must defeat three tiny Olimars on Smashville before K.K. Slider's song ends.
• Event 29: All-Star Semifinal Regulars: Ness is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are characters that were unlockable from the original Super Smash Bros. game.

Co-op Events

• Co-Op Event 9: Those Who Wait in Onett: Lucas and Ness must defeat Luigi and Yoshi on Onett.
• Co-Op Event 16: Jigglypuff's Great Comeback: Jigglypuff and Mr. Game & Watch, who are tiny, must defeat Lucas and Ness, who are giant, on Castle Siege. As the stage changes to different backgrounds, Jigglypuff will grow and Lucas and Ness will shrink.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Trophies

Ness's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing Classic Mode and All-Star mode respectively with Ness.

Classic Mode trophy

Ness

An average boy whose life changed when he found a meteor and an alien on a nearby mountain. The alien warned him of a future threat, and adventure ensued. He can use psychic energy known as PSI and also wields a bat and yo-yo. This brave youth gives his all to defeat the evil Giygas.

: EarthBound

: Super Smash Bros.

: EarthBound (Japan and US Only)

: Super Smash Bros.

PK Starstorm (Ness) trophy

PK Starstorm (Ness)

Ness as he calls down a host of damage-dealing stars in his Final Smash. Everyone on the screen must dodge like crazy to avoid getting hurt, but that's no easy task. This attack appeared in the Mother series, but it was Poo, not Ness, who wielded it. Perhaps Poo taught Ness the secret of the attack for use in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Using his up smash on Smashville.

• 

  Taunting alongside Lucas on Skyworld.

• 

  Using his forward tilt on Olimar on Distant Planet.

• 

  Taunting on Bridge of Eldin.

Trivia

• Despite being the first unlockable character through playing Brawls, Ness is one of the last unlockable characters by playing Subspace Emissary. He is also the first unlockable character to be playable in the Subspace Emissary, despite not joining the player's team until near the finale of the game.
• Strangely, Ness possesses visible teeth during the cutscenes of the Subspace Emissary, but not during the actual gameplay. Lucas shares this distinction as well.
• During his metailic period while under the effect of the Metal Box, Ness' baseball bat is also metailic, but his yo-yo is not, remaining the same design when Ness is non-metailic.
• Ness' yo-yo possesses a noticeable dialouge on it, reading "Super Nintendo 2008" along the top, above "MOTHER."
• Ness and Captain Falcon are the only two characters to have their unlockability-status change between Melee and Brawl. In Ness' own case, Ness was previously able to be unlocked by playing 1P Game on normal difficulty or higher with three stocks or less without continues in Smash 64. In Brawl, he can be simply unlocked by either playing 5 VS. matches or reflecting 10 projectiles.
• Ness is the only fighter to provide his trophy list another Super Smash Bros. game for his game appearances. This is most likely due to the fact that outside of the Super Smash Bros. series, he only made a playable appearance in EarthBound. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U instead lists the second appearance as Mother 1+2, released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance.
• Ness is the only character to be fought on a Melee Stage (Onett) when being unlocked.
• Ness is one of the only four unlockable characters to make an appearance in the opening cinematic of Brawl upon starting the game. The three others sharing this attribute are Marth, Snake, and Sonic.

External links

• Image still from the trailer leak confirming Ness' presence
• DOJO!! page
• Ness Character Guide on SmashBoards
• Ness' hitbox size of each of his moves