Ness

"Okay!"

- Ness

Ness is a young boy from Onett, who first appeared in the game EarthBound (Mother 2 in Japan). Although just a normal boy, he ended up on a wild adventure to rescue his country, Eagleland, from Aliens. He also developed Psychic powers during the course of the game. He has been linked to Mario by the Super Smash Bros. Series. Around the start of EarthBound, he is 13, and 14 by the end of the game.

Appearances


Ness's first Mario series appearance is in Super Smash Bros., where he must be unlocked to become playable. To unlock him, the player has to beat 1-P Mode on Normal Difficulty with 3 lives, without continuing, as any character. The player then must defeat Ness in order to unlock him. His powers are based on his PK (Psychokinesis) moves from EarthBound. None of Ness's attacks from Super Smash Bros. were his: all of his moves were Paula's (however Paula's Trophy in Melee stated that she may have taught Ness the techniques after the events of the game). Ness returns in the game's sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee. Here, he is a character available at the beginning of the game. Originally, Ness was to be replaced in the game by Lucas, the protagonist of Mother 3. However, Mother 3 turned out to be delayed until after Melee was released. As such, Ness was kept in to avoid confusion. He adds a new attack to his arsenal, PK Flash, which is one of his EarthBound attacks. This replaced PK Fire as his standard speicial move, and Fire was moved to a side attack. Ness also has one of the most useful smash hits, which involves his baseball bat.

Ness also appears in the third game of the series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where he returns to the status of a hidden character. He is unlocked if the player plays five matches in Brawl or reflects 10 projectiles. Another option is to simply recruit Ness in the player's party in The Subspace Emissary. When any of these requirements are met, the player will battle Ness, and if the player wins, Ness becomes a playable character. Ness's moveset is exactly the same as it was in Super Smash Bros. Melee. However, he shares his Final Smash with Lucas - PK Starstorm. Overall, Ness is a rather difficult character to use, but can be very helpful once mastered. In all games, he was voiced by Makiko Omoto, who also voices Kirby.

Solid Snake Codec Conversation

 * Colonel: That kid... Isn't that Ness?
 * Snake: Ness?
 * Colonel: He may look like a mere boy, but don't let that fool you. He has PSI abilities that defy all scientific explanation.
 * Snake: Just like Psycho Mantis...
 * Colonel: Exactly. He can use teleportation, levitation, pyrokinesis, and psychokinesis.
 * Snake: Yeah, but the question is, can he read minds?
 * Colonel: Not to my knowledge, no.
 * Snake: Good. Then I won't have to worry about him predicting my every move.
 * Colonel: Even if he had telepathic powers, I don't think he'd use them to mess with you like that. I hear he's a good kid.

Role in the Subspace Emissary
When Lucas is attacked by Porky at the zoo, Ness comes and uses PK Flash on the Porky Statue to save Lucas. Lucas and Ness then, both fight Porky and defeat him. However, after his defeat, Wario, with his Dark Cannon, comes and attempts shooting Ness various times. Ness avoids all the shots so Wario decides to aim for Lucas. Wario shoots an arrow out of the gun and it flies straight at Lucas - Ness however jumps in front of the arrow, because he wants to save Lucas, and ends up becoming a trophy. Wario grabs the trophy and starts laughing while Lucas runs away terrified.

Wario later travels in his Cargo with the princess trophy (the one that wasn't rescued at Midair Stadium) and Ness trophy. After finding the Luigi trophy, he decides to take it. However, soon, King Dedede steals the Cargo and drives off with all three trophies, as Dedede had been using Luigi to distract Wario. Later, at King Dedede's Castle, Dedede puts a timed Badge on the Ness trophy, along with the other three trophies. Dedede ends up becoming a trophy not long after, and the princess was captured by the Subspace Army again. Later, the Ness, King Dedede and Luigi trophies end up in Subspace.

Near the end of the game, Tabuu turns all characters into trophies. Meanwhile, Luigi and Ness are both turned back to life. This is because the badges that King Dedede put on them had the power to turn trophies back into living creatues but this didn't happen until a long time later. Ness and Luigi revive King Dedede (who is overjoyed that his plan worked out), and they go out together into Subspace itself where they turn Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus, Fox, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Marth, Mr. Game & Watch, Falco, Pit, Olimar, Lucas, Diddy Kong, the Pokémon Trainer, and Ike back into living creatures. Ness and Luigi also witness King Dedede's battle with Bowser and convince Wario about the truth of the situation. All trophies (including Kirby and the ones he rescued) then endure the Great Maze and fight Tabuu.

Profile Information from Super Smash Bros.
''Ness was a seemingly-average kid from Onett, but in truth, he was destined for much more. When a strange meteorite landed near his hometown, the little boy with psychic powers set out to save the world. Little has been said of Ness's character, and much remains hidden.''

Trivia

 * The Mario Bros. made quite a few cameos in EarthBound. At the Onett Arcade, there are several Donkey Kong arcade machines. A few of the default names for all the characters in the Japanese version of the game are Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach, as well as Yoshi for Ness' dog. Ness also loves Mushroom Meal (the main Mario item is the Mushroom), and his favorite thing in the entire world is Goal (which was the slogan for when Mario or Luigi finished a level in Super Mario Bros.).
 * Ness' name is an anagram of "SNES", as EarthBound was produced for use on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Also, in the prequel of EarthBound, Mother (also called EarthBound Zero), the protaginist's name is Ninten, likely a reference to Nintendo.
 * Ness, and the EarthBound series as a whole, was one of the two series from the original Super Smash Bros. to not appear in Nintendo Monopoly. The other series was Pokémon.
 * Ness and Lucas's victory theme is the title theme for the first Mother game.