In Response to "Ness gets Shafted?"
First off, yes, I know this article is painfully late. I read over Falcon24’s article months ago, about two weeks after he wrote it. He asked for people to give their thoughts on the matter, so I decided to. Unfortunately, much has come up since then, and I stopped about 75% through the article. Spring Break is upon me though, and I decided to finish it off...I didn’t want it to go to waste.
I was reading over Falcon24’s article regarding whether or not Ness was reduced from Number 1 to a weak, hardly useful character in the transition between Super Smash Bros. on the 64 to the GC. While I agree with much of what he said, some of his statements annoyed me enough to get me to right this response-article. Well, here we go...
Let’s start off with PK Thunder. Yes, it is indeed weaker, which is a downfall. And yes, it projects you only about 1/2 as far as it did in the original. But did they developers make this change for a reason? I think so. If you compare the stages in the two games, you’ll notice that most of them are quite different. So what does this have to do with Ness’ PK Thunder move? Well, what I’m getting at is that if you sent too far in Melee, you’d fly off the obscurely shaped Brinstar Depths, slam into the bomb blocks at Green Greens, or soar off the tiny Mute City stage. But can’t you still do this with the new, shorter version? Of course, but it’s now a lot easier to control the attack, so you can now use the technique without worrying about spiraling out of control.
Falcon24 also claimed that the sluggish PK Flash is useless, even for those who are picking up the controller for their first time. Now, in Earth Bound, we all know that PK Flash was a very useful attack, if you knew when to use it. Same with the PK Flash in SSB: M. Sure, when you use it as a head on attack, not only will your attack be dodged, but you’ll be left wide open for a counter strike. So, what can you use it for? Think about it. In a four-player melee, the attack is perfect. Picture this: the other three combatants are going all out on each other, while you watch on nearby. If you use the PK Fire, minimal damage will be inflicted, and the gang would probably fight back. PK Thunder? Too weak. What’s Ness to do? Whip out the PK Flash, fully charge it, and let it loose! The other three will be so busy battling each other, they won’t even notice that glowing green sphere of energy looming above. One notices, alerts the others, but it’s too late! The floating orb explodes, and just like that, Ness gets three points, while the others have hardly even figured out what had just happened. And this is just one of those types of situations where PK Flash is in its element. That’s why I love the attack: true to Earth Bound itself, the attack is excellent, if you know when and how to use it.
As for Ness’ Smash attacks, the Yo-Yo has indeed become rather obsolete. The drop kick has also become needlessly hard to use, minus the fact that his actions look a lot more human than in the original. (When performing the drop kick in the original, he had immediate reaction, making it look rather choppy. Chances are, they changed this to make it a bit more fluid) On the flip side, Ness’ Baseball Bat Smash is incredibly useful. While there is a slight delay, this remains true with every character’s equivalent of the attack. But, even with the delay, I find the attack incredibly useful; whenever I use Ness, I usually use that attack for head-on assault.
All in all, I agree, Ness’ ability has been dumbed-down quite a bit, but not as much as Falcon24 claims. On top of that, I feel as if each character that was in the original is less powerful than their 64-bit selves, so it all evens out.
First off, yes, I know this article is painfully late. I read over Falcon24’s article months ago, about two weeks after he wrote it. He asked for people to give their thoughts on the matter, so I decided to. Unfortunately, much has come up since then, and I stopped about 75% through the article. Spring Break is upon me though, and I decided to finish it off...I didn’t want it to go to waste.
I was reading over Falcon24’s article regarding whether or not Ness was reduced from Number 1 to a weak, hardly useful character in the transition between Super Smash Bros. on the 64 to the GC. While I agree with much of what he said, some of his statements annoyed me enough to get me to right this response-article. Well, here we go...
Let’s start off with PK Thunder. Yes, it is indeed weaker, which is a downfall. And yes, it projects you only about 1/2 as far as it did in the original. But did they developers make this change for a reason? I think so. If you compare the stages in the two games, you’ll notice that most of them are quite different. So what does this have to do with Ness’ PK Thunder move? Well, what I’m getting at is that if you sent too far in Melee, you’d fly off the obscurely shaped Brinstar Depths, slam into the bomb blocks at Green Greens, or soar off the tiny Mute City stage. But can’t you still do this with the new, shorter version? Of course, but it’s now a lot easier to control the attack, so you can now use the technique without worrying about spiraling out of control.
Falcon24 also claimed that the sluggish PK Flash is useless, even for those who are picking up the controller for their first time. Now, in Earth Bound, we all know that PK Flash was a very useful attack, if you knew when to use it. Same with the PK Flash in SSB: M. Sure, when you use it as a head on attack, not only will your attack be dodged, but you’ll be left wide open for a counter strike. So, what can you use it for? Think about it. In a four-player melee, the attack is perfect. Picture this: the other three combatants are going all out on each other, while you watch on nearby. If you use the PK Fire, minimal damage will be inflicted, and the gang would probably fight back. PK Thunder? Too weak. What’s Ness to do? Whip out the PK Flash, fully charge it, and let it loose! The other three will be so busy battling each other, they won’t even notice that glowing green sphere of energy looming above. One notices, alerts the others, but it’s too late! The floating orb explodes, and just like that, Ness gets three points, while the others have hardly even figured out what had just happened. And this is just one of those types of situations where PK Flash is in its element. That’s why I love the attack: true to Earth Bound itself, the attack is excellent, if you know when and how to use it.
As for Ness’ Smash attacks, the Yo-Yo has indeed become rather obsolete. The drop kick has also become needlessly hard to use, minus the fact that his actions look a lot more human than in the original. (When performing the drop kick in the original, he had immediate reaction, making it look rather choppy. Chances are, they changed this to make it a bit more fluid) On the flip side, Ness’ Baseball Bat Smash is incredibly useful. While there is a slight delay, this remains true with every character’s equivalent of the attack. But, even with the delay, I find the attack incredibly useful; whenever I use Ness, I usually use that attack for head-on assault.
All in all, I agree, Ness’ ability has been dumbed-down quite a bit, but not as much as Falcon24 claims. On top of that, I feel as if each character that was in the original is less powerful than their 64-bit selves, so it all evens out.
