Ness (SSB)/Neutral aerial

Overview

Ness does a quick split kick with his feet in front of him in the air, dealing 14% during its first eight frames with average knockback for a neutral aerial and very high shield stun. This move is a sex kick, dealing less damage over time with the move dealing 11% with lower knockback for the rest of its animation. Like most of Ness's aerials, this move is excellent for juggling purposes, though a bit less so than his other aerials (though more than back aerial) due to its horizontal launch angle. Combined with the double jump cancel technique, which is very important to Ness's metagame and vital in most of his matchups, it is possible for Ness to do even shorter short hops, allowing him to use the move a very short distance from the ground, making it possible to chain multiple hits of this move together. Ness can also potentially perform zero-to-death combos on opponents, as he can rack up huge damage with his neutral aerial in conjunction with his other aerials (especially forward aerial into a down aerial spike but his other aerials are considered to be much more useful for this. This move in short is more commonly used at low percents, as the hitstun is high enough combo but the knockback isn't too high to follow up or at mid percents (around 30-50 depending on character) to lead immediately into a down aerial.

However, the move, along with Ness's other moves used for DJCing, has short range, so the technique has since lost recognition and known effectiveness.

Even though it is one of Ness's slower aerials, it still has shield break potential due to its high amount of shield stun, though it is noticeably harder than down, forward, or up aerial due to its awkward hitbox combined with its poor auto-cancel window; forcing Ness to Z-cancel it, especially when used out of a DJC.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Damage	SD	Angle	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			Clang	Effect	G	A	Sound
Clean hit
0	0	14%	0		15	100	0	120	26	10	0	0					Kick
1	0	14%	0		15	100	0	120	20	10	0	0					Kick
2	0	14%	0		15	100	0	130	5	0	0	0					Kick
Late hit
0	0	11%	0		0	100	0	120	26	10	0	0					Kick
1	0	11%	0		0	100	0	120	20	10	0	0					Kick
2	0	11%	0		0	100	0	130	5	0	0	0					Kick

Timing

Attack

Initial auto-cancel	1-4
Clean hit	5-12
Late hit*	13-39
Ending auto-cancel	43-
Animation length	39

Landing lag

Animation length	14
L-cancelled animation length	4

Normal

L-cancelled

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Autocancel

Trivia

* The late hit's hitboxes are programmed to be active until frame 43 although due to the move's animation length, they are only active until frame 40. It is likely that the developers intended for the late hit to only be active from frames 13-29 but due to a timing error, the hitboxes are programmed to be active for 30 frames, rather than being active until frame 30.

Ness's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · 3) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Forward throw · Back throw
Floor attack (front) · Floor attack (back) · Edge attack (fast) · Edge attack (slow)
Neutral special · Up special · Down special