Fine, this will be a lot shorter and not as good as I would have liked it to be, but I'm at work and just kinda want to get it done since you're being a **** yedi.
I apologize in advance if I switch between the name Mofo and Julien a lot, it's the same guy, I'm just writing this stream of consciousness style and don't plan on editing it afterwards.
Mofo and Yedi will be staying with with me (or PC or someone close) for ROM, so the Ness dojo will be in full capacity for once... which is ********.
Anyway, since I started playing and hanging with Chris on a regular basis, I've gotten know and hang with a lot of smashers I don't think I would've ever dreamed to meet otherwise. Mofo is one such player, an old friend of Chris's from freaking 2002, an awesome guy (and musician), and the best Ness that's ever existed.
To give you guys an idea of how good Mofo is, I grabbed him and PC from the Port Chester train station the Saturday of that freak Snowstorm (The weekend of Halloween) and we drove on down to the FNNNA lab in the Bronx. We sit down to play, and he tells me he hasn't picked up a controller since the last time he came to visit for Chris's birthday 2 months earlier... and go figure his last opponent was me, and on this same TV. Despite his rust and lack of practice, in the first game we played, he was able to YYG me twice (2 for 2 in attempts) and do flawless DJC combos; basically his execution was still absolutely perfect. Later on he picked up Fox (and for those of you who haven't seen it, Mofo was one of the first players to Drillshine infinite people on FD, there are old videos of him from 2003 and doing it, and none existed beforehand iirc) and lo and behold his techskill is also once phenomenal, especially for someone who touches the game for maybe 3 or 4 weeks total throughout the entire year.
The problem is, he's Ness. When we first began our session that Saturday, I was beating him consistently just because Mofo hadn't played in awhile and was getting warmed up and back into the groove of things. By the time he had finally gotten the rust off and was playing at his full capacity, I was still winning because by that time I had figured out how to beat Ness. It got to the point where it didn't matter what character I used; once you know how to exploit Ness's weaknesses it becomes so uphill for him to do stuff....
But I think that's the thing I really admire about Mofo; his stubbornness and love for this character. He's just adamant about playing Ness at top level and feels that there is untapped potential in flawed character. I have a similar relationship with Dr.Mario. I love him, Mario was my first character in 64 and in Melee when they both came out respectively, once I figured out Doc could actually kill **** as a scrubadubdub, there was no going back. People who stick out there mains from the get go and never look back end up developing an insane understanding with their character, especially once you hit jankier characters lower in the tier list. I always ***** about how Doc holds me back, but then I see someone like Mofo who still sticks it out and puts in that 9-5 with his character and I just have to hold my tongue. I dont think it's possible for Ness to win a tourney or a national, but place well in tournament? Make bracket at a national? I'd like to see it.
Now as for some thoughts on Mofo/Ness specifically, Mofo is held back a bit as a player. I do genuinely believe that PC, since he is a better player than Mofo, has a higher potential of beating people with Ness that Julien cannot (and for the record PC's Ness and my Ness are both dirty good). However, Julien's better understanding of the character and the ability to perform more Ness specific tricks and mindgames set him definitely as the best Ness imo. I can't comment on where I think he needs improvement as a player... but I think a good first step would be somehow breaking the game to make Ness a better character LOL. I am convinced that if Ness was better, Julien would probably have Axe level recognition and W's that back it up.
Finally, some things that I watched Julien doing that I don't see other Ness's implement. I really should have done this write up after the tournament. It's been two weeks and I don't remember everything, but the following things stand out.
- Using Usmash as an Anti-air
Julien would charge Usmash as if to do a YYG, and if he missed, he would hold the Usmash til his opponent would approach and then release it at the perfect time EVERY SINGLE TIME to either Anti-air them, or release it in time so he could move and escape before an opponent follow up.
- Setting up YYG out of Jab resets
Ness BnB right now is to dtilt forever when you get a Jab reset. Considering that you get a free Fsmash out of this after 30+ damage in Dtilts, that's pretty freaking good. Julien would mix it up at higher %'s tho, using the forced get up to set up YYG's and thus jackets, or jank hits, combos, etc.
- Crouch/Utilt
This beats out a lot of approaches. Specifically Spacies nair. WD in, duck where you think they will try to connect and then Utilt. The utilt has disjointed priority in his fingertips, and if spaced and timed properly sets up a combo.
- Play Version 1
In Version 1, Ness can sometimes be saved by his tail if he is hit while maneuvering the PKT towards his body. In the other versions of the game, it just disappears entirely, so instances where you might have been spiked into the PKT's tail and given another chance to survive disappear entirely. Why they would nerf his already horrendous recovery is beyond me, but w'e.
I could probably write more, but this is going on longer than I want it to. I'll hopefully have more to add after this weekend. Hope this was helpful for you guys in some way and not just a waste of 15 minutes for me
OOOOH, Final big thought.
I'm also very confident that Julien has the potential to beat someone really good. If you guys watched his set vs Hax from last summer, it just shows that no one has any idea how to deal with Ness. Combine that with his years of experience and hundreds of little tricksies with this dumb character, and you have the recipe for a monster waiting to happen. Low tier/mid tier jank/inexperience can go a long way, especially in a community that is so over-centralized by Top Tiers. Not implying that it will happen soon or ever, but don't be surprised if Julien pulls out a crazy upset at ROM4.
That's it for me.
