Ness (Super Smash Flash 2)

This article is about Ness's appearance in Super Smash Flash 2. For general information about the character, see Ness.

Nessin Super Smash Flash 2
Universe	EarthBound
Stock icon	File:SSF2 Ness head.png
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	PK Starstorm
Tier	B- (25)

Ness is a veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. His moveset is based on his attacks in the Super Smash Bros. series. His sprites are custom made and based on his appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. 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 early voice clips were from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, while his current voice clips hail from the fourth and fifth installments of the official series.

Ness slightly fell to 25th, but stayed at B- tier. Ness possesses a strong aerial game, decent combo potential and strong finishers in his forward smash, a sweet spotted back aerial, up 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.

Ness appears to have a small player base and poor representation in online tournaments. This is not surprising, given that Ness is one of the most vulnerable characters when taking lag into account. However, Nstinct and Appley, who are the two most notable Ness players, tend to place high in tournaments with him.

Attributes

See also: Ness (Super Smash Flash 2)/Hard data

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, back and up aerials.

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	Knockback	Priority	Total frames	Active frames
Standard attack	A quick one-two punch followed by a front kick.	3%	0, 100, 70°	1	9	2
		2%			10	3
		5%	40, 90, 40°		13	3-4
Forward tilt	Kicks out in front of him. Should be only used to apply pressure or get them off stage.	11%	12, 100, 43°	2	16	4-6
Up tilt	Thrusts his palms into the air and creates a blast of PSI. Decent combo starter.	7%	35, 126, 90°	3	11	3-4
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.	2%	N/A
Dash attack	Shoves his palms outward and creates three sparks of PSI before him. Hits thrice, and has significant range.	4%	N/A			2
		2%				2
		7%				2
Forward smash	Swings his bat with both hands. Very powerful if sweetspotted. Otherwise, not very strong. Can reflect projectiles.	18% 36%	N/A
		23%
		27%
Up smash	Performs the "around-the-world" trick with his yo-yo, hitting above him in an arc. It has a hitbox while charging.	6%	N/A
		4%
		13%
Down smash	Performs the "sleeper" trick with his yo-yo, hitting behind and then in front of him. It has a hitbox while charging.	13%	N/A
		4%
		10%

Aerial attacks

Attack	Description	Damage	Knockback	Priority	Total frames	Active frames
Neutral aerial	Spins diagonally in the air with his arms outstretched.	12%	20, 100, 52°	4	16	3-7
		8%	10, 100, 30°			8-11
Forward aerial	Sticks out his palms sending a stream of PSI sparks in front of him. The last spark has decent knockback.	3%	21, 0, 50°	4	21	5, 7, 9
		3%	24, 145, 43°			11
Back aerial	Does a dropkick behind himself with both feet embedded with PSI.	13%	20, 100, 150°	0	17	6
		5%	30, 60, 150°			7-10
Up aerial	Headbutts up into the air. Very strong and good for juggling.	14%	30, 120, 84°	5	16	5-6
Down aerial	Charges up a single powerful stomp imbued with PSI. Has a devastating meteor effect. Can KO opponents recovering even at 0%.	15%	90, 70, 270°	4	16	8-9

Grabs and throws

Attack	Description	Damage	Knockback	Priority	Total frames	Active frames
Grab	Grabs in front of him.	N/A	N/A	N/A	13	4
Pummel	Headbutts the opponent. Moderately fast for a pummel.	2%	N/A	N/A	12	4
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%	85, 20, 39°	-1	28	17
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.	14%	55, 115, 140°	-1	23	14
Up throw	Uses telekinesis to spin the enemy over his head, then throws them skyward.	12%	50, 83, 83°	-1	26	24-26
Down throw	Throws the opponent on the ground before igniting with PK Fire. Can chain grab. The fire hits multiple times.	11%	100, 1, 0°	-1	26	8-21
		2%	50, 90, 50°			22

Other

Attack	Description	Damage	Knockback	Priority	Total frames	Active frames
Floor attack	Kicks both sides.	6%	69, 57, 40°	2	23	10-11, 17-18
Ledge attack	Climbs up, then swings his foot in front of him.	9%	0, 100, 30°, 110°	3	24	13-15

Special moves

Attack	Name	Description	Damage	Knockback	Priority	Total frames	Active frames
Standard 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.	34%	N/A	40	11-17	5
Side special move	PK Fire	Fires a small ligthing bolt which bursts into flames when colliding with opponents, shields or walls.	0%	N/A	N/A	16	13
			0%			19	9
			2%	5, 10, 90°	5	8	1-8
			2%	50, 20, 90°	5	55	1-49
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.	0%	N/A	N/A	9	9
			25%	50, 50, 30°	7	12	1-12
			25%			29	1-16
			8%	70, 20, 55°	3	70	1-70
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%	N/A	N/A	12	4-6
			0%	40, 75, -4°			8-10
Final Smash	PK Starstorm	Summons a rain of meteors that fall from the skies.	20%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Misc.

Misc.	Description
On-screen appearance	Teleports in using PK Teleport, then shakes off the soot he gathered upon impact.
Taunts	Standard	Ness nods and says "OK".
	Side	Points his baseball bat forward.
	Down	Fires a series of sparkles in front of him. The pattern in which he fires the sparkles may be a reference to PK Rockin.
Idle poses	Looks around curiously.
	Closes his eyes and places his fingers on his forehead, concentrating his PSI, and then points it forward.
Victory theme	Remix of Victory fanfare from Melee.
Victory pose	Jumps around twice, then nods his head two times.
Lose	Claps for the winner.

Changes from v0.9a

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 appears easier to SDI out of.

In competitive play

Notable players

• Nstinct
• Appley
• 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

Artworks

Ness' first art in the DOJO!!!.

Ness' first art, used from v0.7 to v0.8b.

Ness' second pixel art, used from v0.9a to Beta 1.1.

Screenshots

Ness attacking Sandbag with his up throw, on Saturn Valley.

Early designs

Ness and Goku jumping, on Final Destination.

Ness taunting and Kirby using Stone, on Dream Land.

Ness using his up tilt while Ichigo performs his down smash, on Jungle Hijinx.

Ness taunting, on Jungle Hijinx.

Ness using his up smash, on Emerald Cave.

Ness performing his forward smash on Bomberman, on WarioWare, Inc..

Ness taunting on a platform, on Mushroom Kingdom III.

Ness performing his forward smash on Pikachu, at Saturn Valley.

Ness performing his forward aerial, on Tower of Salvation. Note the move's new effects.

Ghost Ness, hitting the other Ness with his forward smash, on Dracula's Castle.

Designs

Ness' first early design, used from demo v0.7 to Beta 1.1.0.1.

Ness' second early design, used in the development of Beta 1.2, but never released to the public.

Ness' current design, used in Beta 1.2

Misc.

Ness' first old design congratulations screen in Classic mode.

Trivia

• Ness, along with Mario, Bandana Dee, Lloyd, and Luffy are the only characters so far to wear their default costumes in Team Battle when they are on the red team.
• Ness' old pixel art was based on his artwork in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.