Well, the chain grab is OK. Think of it, Marth (the main Ness chain grabber) was tough before the glitch was discovered in the first place. That leaves just charizard who any confadent Ness player can overcome.
Ness is higher in ability than most would come to think. Ness takes a long time to master, but he is probably one of the most potent characters in the game if you sit down with him. When I first started up Melee (good times...), Ness was the first non mario character I tried. Let's just say he sucked. Few years of melee battles and what not, I picked Ness up again and tried to learn what I could. It took about a week, but aftarwards I just fell in love. I could aim both PK cannonbolt and an aerial PK fire with almost perfect acuracy, reflect with the bat, and generally became unbeatable with my opponets (just family and friends). Picked up brawl and Ness became the highlight of my ability set. My win/lose ratio with Ness is a lot lower than most of my mains and I think that his ability set deserves a bit more recognition.