- "Awooooof! (If I knew this was going to be such a scary place, I wouldn't have come along... I'm outta here!)"
- — King
Concept art of King and Ness facing their house
King is a character in EarthBound. He is Ness's cowardly pet dog, whose thoughts Ness can understand as a result of his Telepathy. When spoken to before setting out in search of Picky Minch at the beginning of the game, King will join Ness's party for a short time, until he becomes scared and remains home after the night is over for the remainder of the game. As with the main characters, King's name can be chosen by the player before the game begins. He is not affected by the evil power of Giygas, but he is aware of it.
King's breed is never stated. However, the second Japanese Don't Care for him is Bernard, implying that he may be a Saint Bernard (though he doesn't look like one, he is more likely to be an old english sheep dog); however, he also mentions that he is a mutt.
Trivia
- Using the Don't Care naming option, possible names for King are "King", "Peach", "Sparky", "Rex", "Baby", "Rover", and "Misty".
- King has unused climbing sprites, despite never appearing in an area where he would have to climb. This could mean that King was originally intended to have a bigger role in EarthBound that was later abandoned.
- The name "King" may be a reference to Old King, a song by Neil Young, in which the singer sings about his beloved dog that has since passed away.
- He can be seen praying for Ness in the fight with Giygas, weakening Giygas.