Taking on Ness

[Tripswag]

How do you guys handle the Ness matchup as Diddy Kong? I've been having a lot of trouble against Ness players, and that's probably just something on my end not clicking well. Their grabs outrange ours, their PK fire does insane amounts of damage, and PK Thunder wrecks our day in terms of recovery. What's the best way to beat a Ness?

 

[cardboardowl]

monkey flip over pk fire

out aerial him

dont let up pressure

I don't normally have trouble vs ness. i dont think his grab outranges anyway....

 

[Agro_98]

My friend mains ness, I normally just keep up good pressure with my banana and use a lot of aerials so i do not get caught in his pk fire. Force him to make poor decisions with your pressure

 

[DeLux]

I'll try to get some sets in with our local Ness main (some random named Shaky) and record some video.

I'll look up some video of Diddy vs. the other high level Ness's and link when I get the chance.

 

[SmashBro99]

Just played some rounds with a good Ness (on For Glory but meh)

flip over pk fire is good, and his grab range definately beats Diddy's.

 

[DeLux]

I played shaky (former best Brawl Ness player in the world) in tournament last night, and we split sets (he won winner's side 2-1, I won winner's side 2-1). I think we saved most of the replays, so I'll stream and youtube them over the next couple of days. Spoiler alert: I miss a dthrow followup because of RNG balloon on smashville almost costing me the game in one of them lol

I think if you're disciplined overall, Diddy gives Ness the business. But if you get put off stage, it's bad news lol

 

[Tripswag]

I played shaky (former best Brawl Ness player in the world) in tournament last night, and we split sets (he won winner's side 2-1, I won winner's side 2-1). I think we saved most of the replays, so I'll stream and youtube them over the next couple of days. Spoiler alert: I miss a dthrow followup because of RNG balloon on smashville almost costing me the game in one of them lol

I think if you're disciplined overall, Diddy gives Ness the business. But if you get put off stage, it's bad news lol

I guess that's my main thing with Ness, is getting thrown offstage. The amount of ways he can gimp you is incredible.

 

[Empty Number]

What I've found works pretty well against a lot of Ness players is to play the ranged aerial game very intelligently, and abuse banana mix-ups.

• Some of Ness's aerials beat ours. Some of our aerials beat Ness's. The trick is knowing to use what and when. When Ness is coming up off the ledge and going for that Fair, concede the space. Its quick, disjointed hitbox usually beats anything you throw out and puts him in an advantage. If you're right underneath him, by all means go for the easy Uair. But on the whole given how floaty he is, his airgame beats yours. Play it smart. Space with Fairs and Bairs when necessary. Uair when you see an opening.
• Holding a banana will change the behavior of lots of non-rushers like Ness. Abuse this. Creep closer through dash shields. If you notice him toggling shield, go for the command grab in monkey flip or toss a banana and go in for the grab. (I usually do the monkey flip when the opponent is sitting >130%. Other percents I will usually F-Throw to force them offstage or D-Throw if they're in the 100%-125% range.) If your opponent is rolling a lot, go for the Monkey Flip Kick, it has a long lasting hitbox and if you smash input it you usually land far enough away to make it difficult enough to punish. Plus you still have your banana to throw backwards if they come rushing at you out of shield.

But I agree Ness is pretty rough sometimes. I try not to get caught in a PK Fire and use Monkey Flip to close distance in punish in other instances.

 

[Pazx]

Holding a banana will change the behavior of lots of non-rushers like Ness. Abuse this. Creep closer through dash shields.

I'm currently toying with both Ness and Diddy and doing this more than once is a great way to get grabbed. This isn't even a "don't get predictable" situation, it shouldn't be relied upon at all. Bad Ness players fish for the grab and good Ness players will have the awareness to grab you if you do that so you're more than likely to get punished. Definitely agree with the rest of your post though, Monkey Flip Kick is invaluable against those who spam back rolls.

Edit: Dash shielding is good if the Ness is bad enough to spam PK Fire.

Don't forget that while Ness is great at gimping he's even better at being gimped. You can jump into his PKT1 after he launches it to make him freefall to his doom and getting hit by PKT2 halves the distance he travels (be prepared to tech the stage). That combined with bananas, bair/fair and a mostly stationary target for dair means you shouldn't be having trouble gimping Ness.

Also PK fire is slow as hell, flip over that ****.

 

[DeLux]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8gYwEKN7_U&index=2&list=PLdZNsTckBqcNY-QaLiOVMmcohFR-a2ceF

There's some video if you scroll through it with me playing Shaky in some friendlies. Win some lose some