- This article is about Ness's appearance in Super Smash Flash 2. For general information about the character, see Ness.
Ness is a veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. He is a starter character, which is a recurring change in the main Super Smash Bros. games, where his availability status switches between starter and unlockable. His sprites are custom-made and based on his appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, with his moveset taken from the same game. However, his voice clips are taken directly from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Ness is currently ranked 44th of D tier on the tier list. Ness possesses a strong aerial game, decent combo potential and strong finishers in his forward smash, a sweet spotted back aerial, up aerial, down aerial, PK Flash, PK Thunder 2, and his back throw. He has a solid projectile with PK Fire, and can deal with opponents' projectiles by reflecting them with forward smash or absorbing them with PSI Magnet. His aerial game is very potent due to his solid aerials and his ability to double jump cancel.
However, Ness suffers from an extremely predictable recovery that is very easy to gimp by either neutralizing the projectile or by hitting Ness into it at an undesirable angle. He has problems with range in many of his attacks and a slow movement speed, giving him a weak selection of approach options, which forces him to play defensively or risk losing the neutral. Due to his below average accelerated falling speed, he can be KO'ed vertically earlier than most characters.
Attributes[]
See also: Ness (Super Smash Flash 2)/Hard data
See also: It is difficult to generalize Ness due to his diverse attributes. He has finishers in his forward smash, PK Flash, PK Thunder 2, back throw, up aerial, back aerial, and down aerial.
He has a great air game with fast and powerful aerials combined with his ability to double jump cancel which gives him a great flexibility in the air that most other characters do not posses.
He has a good grab and throw game, despite possessing the sixth shortest grab in the current demo. He can chain grab certain characters with his down throw or use it to start combos. His back throw is one of the strongest throws in the game, that can KO opponents at around 100%. His up throw sets up for good air combos.
He has a good projectile in his PK Fire which can help him rack up damage by trapping the opponent while also being useful for edge guarding and can create shield pressure. He also has multiple different options to deal with other projectiles. He has the ability to absorb energy-based projectiles with PSI Magnet, healing himself in the process, and can reflect most of them with his forward smash.
However, Ness's major flaw is his poor range which leaves him vulnerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes (ex. Marth and Meta Knight). Another disadvantage of his poor range is that most of his finishers requires Ness to be close to his opponent while his only finisher with reach, his forward smash, is slow and predictable.
Ness's second major flaw is his recovery, which will leave Ness as a sitting duck until he sets up the PK Thunder 2. During this time, his opponent can get easy hits, cancel out the thunder (thus gimping his recovery), or even hit Ness into his own thunder, causing him to rocket off at a bad angle and die.
Ness has average weight, but below average accelerated falling speed, which allows him to be KO'd vertically early.
Ness also has problems dealing with projectiles that he is unable to absorb, which makes him struggle against characters like Link and Mega Man.
Moveset[]
Ground attacks[]
| Attack | Description | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Neutral attack | A quick one-two punch followed by a front kick. | 3% |
| 2% | ||
| 5% | ||
| Forward tilt | Kicks out in front of him. Should be only used to apply pressure or get them off stage. | 11% |
| Up tilt | Thrusts his palms into the air and creates a blast of PSI. Decent combo starter. | 7% |
| Down tilt | Kicks in front of him very quickly. Good poking tool. Can be rapidly used. It is very safe on shield even on close range since he can act out of it instantly. | 3% |
| Dash attack | Shoves his palms outward and creates three sparks of PSI before him. Hits thrice, and has significant range. | 3% |
| 7% | ||
| Forward smash | Swings his bat with both hands. Very powerful if sweetspotted. Otherwise, not very strong. Can reflect projectiles. Landing the sweetspot causes the ping sound effect to be heard | 16% |
| 20% | ||
| 22% | ||
| 16% | ||
| Up smash | Performs the "around-the-world" trick with his yo-yo, hitting above him in an arc. It has a hitbox while charging, allowing it to be a useful gimping and edgeguarding tool. | 5% |
| 3% | ||
| 12% | ||
| 6% | ||
| Down smash | Performs the "walk-the-dog" trick with his yo-yo, hitting behind and then in front of him. It has a hitbox while charging. | 12% |
| 3% | ||
| 9% |
Aerial attacks[]
| Attack | Description | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Neutral aerial | Spins diagonally in the air with his arms outstretched. | 11% |
| 8% | ||
| Forward aerial | Sticks out his palms sending a stream of PSI sparks in front of him. The last spark has decent knockback. | 3% |
| Back aerial | Does a dropkick behind himself with both feet embedded with PSI. | 12% |
| 5% | ||
| Up aerial | Headbutts up into the air. Very strong and good for juggling. | 12% |
| Down aerial | Charges up a single powerful stomp imbued with PSI. Has a devastating meteor effect. Can KO opponents recovering even at 0%. | 14% |
Grab and throws[]
| Attack | Description | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Grab | Grabs in front of him. | N/A |
| Pummel | Headbutts the opponent. Moderately fast for a pummel. | 2% |
| Forward throw | Uses telekinesis to twirl the opponent and throw them. It has high base knockback but low knockback growth. Not the most reliable for KOing. | 10% |
| Back throw | Uses telekinesis to arc the enemy behind himself, then throws. Unlike his forward throw, it has low base knockback but high knockback growth. This is arguably the strongest back throw in the game. | 13% |
| Up throw | Uses telekinesis to spin the enemy over his head, then throws them skyward. | 11% |
| Down throw | Throws the opponent on the ground before igniting with PK Fire. Can chain grab. The fire hits multiple times. | 2% |
Other attacks[]
| Attack | Description | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Floor attack | Kicks both sides. | 8% |
| Ledge attack | Climbs up, then swings his foot in front of him. | 6% |
Special moves[]
| Attack | Name | Description | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral special move | PK Flash | Creates a green pulse of energy that generates an electrical explosion. Can be charged and controlled. Has high knockback and a big hitbox when fully charged. | 7.5% |
| Side special move | PK Fire | Fires a small lightning bolt which bursts into flames when colliding with opponents, shields or walls. | 4% |
| 1% | |||
| Up special move | PK Thunder | Creates a controllable ball of electricity that has a tail following behind. Hitting Ness with it causes him to get launched in the direction opposite from where he was hit; this attack, dubbed PK Thunder 2, has great knockback. | 8% |
| 25% | |||
| Down special move | PSI Magnet | Creates a blue psychic field around him that absorbs energy-based projectiles. Has a windbox when released and can be jump canceled. | 0% |
| Final Smash | PK Starstorm | Summons a rain of meteors that fall from the skies. | 20% |
Misc.[]
| Misc. | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| On-screen appearance | Teleports in using PK Teleport, then shakes off the soot he gathered upon impact. | ||
| Taunts | Neutral | Nods while saying "Okay!". | |
| Side | Points his baseball bat forward. | ||
| Down/Up | Fires a series of sparkles in front of him. The pattern in which he fires the sparkles may be a reference to PK Rockin. | ||
| Idling | Looks around curiously. | ||
| Victory theme | A remix of an excerpt of the Eight Melodies from EarthBound. This victory theme uses the final four melodies of the eight. | ||
| Victory pose | Jumps twice, then nods his head two times. | ||
Changes from v0.9a[]
- Main article: Ness (Super Smash Flash 2)/Changelog
Ness has received a string of buffs. His KO options and recovery are overall better. However, Ness appears to not be more effective than he was last demo.
Ground attacks[]
- Forward smash appears be stronger.
Aerial attacks[]
- Back air is stronger.
- Down air's hitbox appears to bigger and linger more.
Grabs and throws[]
- Ness's grab range was increased.
Special moves[]
- PK Flash is stronger.
- Ness now does a flip at the end of his PK Thunder 2, thus giving him more distance when he is trying to recover.
- Ness no longer goes into a helpless state when someone gets hit by the Thunder ball. This makes Ness overall recovery better and he can now play mind games with PK Thunder canceling.
- PK Fire is easier to SDI out of.
In competitive play[]
Match ups[]
Notable players[]
- Appley
- Nstinct
- WRXJoey
Tier placement history[]
Ness was seen as a bottom-low tier character when he was first introduced in demo v0.7. In the tier lists for demos v0.7; Ness was ranked 14th of D tier on the first list and 13th of E tier on the second list. In demo v0.8b; like Wario, Ness had a huge tier leap with ranking 2nd of S tier. In demo v0.9a; Ness had a huge tier drop(the biggest drop between demos v0.8b and v0.9a) by ranking 22nd of what can considered C tier where he is now viewed as a low tier character. In demo v0.9b, Ness rose up one position where he is currently ranked 21st of B tier and is seen as a middle tier character. However, the changes in the metagame led to Ness's drop to 24th place of C+ on the second tier list for demo v0.9b. Ness's placement in the current Beta tier list is 25 of B-.
Gallery[]
Costumes[]
Artworks[]
.png "SSF2 Ness (early).png (663 KB)")
Screenshots[]
Early designs[]
Designs[]
Misc.[]
Trivia[]
- Ness' sprites in SSF2 prior to Beta 1.2 are custom edits of Fuusuke's sprites in Jump Ultimate Stars.
- These were made by a developer, and they appeared in SSF2 before being released to websites such as The Spriters Resource.
- Ness' early artwork was based on his artwork in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
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