For Ness's appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series, see Ness (Super Smash Bros. character).

Ness
ネス Nesu
Sprites
Unused sprites
Origin	Onett
Relatives	Tracy, mother, father
Vulnerable to	Hypnosis, Paralysis
Appears in	EarthBound

Ness (ネス Nesu) is the silent main protagonist of EarthBound, and is analogous to Ninten and Lucas in their respective games. He greatly enjoy baseball; not only are most of his weapons various types of baseball bats, but he can also equip several baseball caps. In the EarthBound Player's Guide, he is said to wear a special baseball cap with his favorite team's logo on the front.

BiographyEdit

At the beginning of EarthBound, Ness is awoken from a sound sleep by the impact of the meteorite north of his house in Onett. His mother and sister are agitated, but Ness leaves to find out what happened. After meeting up with Lier X. Agerate and Pokey Minch, he returns home and tries to get back to sleep. Soon thereafter, Pokey arrives and demands that Ness help him look for his little brother, who has gone missing during the calamity surrounding the impact.

After a pep-talk from his mother, Ness, Pokey and King go back out to the hillside, where they find Picky (who reveals it was Pokey who actually ran away). They also encounter Buzz-Buzz, an insectoid warrior who has returned from the future to warn Ness of the threat that Giygas poses to the universe. It is from Buzz-Buzz that Ness learns of the prophecy surrounding his future; that he, along with the help of two other boys and one girl, will stand against Giygas and save the universe from total annihilation.

Vested with this knowledge, Ness accompanies Pokey and Picky back to their home, but is assaulted by a Starman Jr.. The alien confirms the prophecy before attacking the group. It is defeated through Buzz-buzz's massive PSI powers and Ness' physical attacks. Upon arriving at Pokey's house, Buzz-buzz is unceremoniously killed (for his alleged resemblance to a dung beetle) by Lardna Minch. Before expiring, Buzz-buzz passes on the Sound Stone to Ness, and starts him on his quest to save the world.

In Super Smash Bros. BrawlEdit

Ness has a sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl based off his EarthBound clay model. Attaching this sticker to the bottom of Ness or Lucas's trophies in The Subspace Emissary increases their PK attack by 33.

TriviaEdit

• Ness is the only main protagonist in the Mother series to not normally have the run ability. He can temporarily run with the aid of a Skip Sandwich or Skip Sandwich DX, however.
• Ness was originally planned to be replaced by Lucas as the character representative of the Mother series in Super Smash Bros. Melee; however, Ness reprised his role due to the original cancellation of EarthBound 64.
• Using the Don't Care naming option, possible names for Ness are "Ness", "Alec", "Roger", "Will", "Brian", "Tyler", and "Lane".
• In an early video of EarthBound 64, footage was shown of what appears to be Ness riding a Pork Bean and walking in the forest. It is speculated by fans that he would have been playable, as a 3D model of Onett was also shown.
• Ness is the only Mother character to have his game released out of Japan.
• In Mother 2, when Ness enters Magicant, he appears naked (sprite seen above) instead of being in his pyjamas as seen in EarthBound. This is because nudity is a sign of purity in Japanese culture, whereas it is considered sexually explicit in the West and changed during localization.
• Ness's name may be due to the fact that it is a homophone of NES and an anagram of SNES.
• A younger version of Ness appears in Magicant, saying "It's me... I'm you when you were younger. Hey, let's play ball. Do you prefer reading comics or playing games? What? You're busy?..."
• In the trailer for the cancelled Earthbound 64/Mother 3 trailer (shown below) it seems to show ness, riding a pork bean, trying to out run some pork masks . It is most likely Ness, as a screenshot was released of a destroyed Onett. also he is walking in a jungle, it dose seem like he would be a playable character.