 ✔
| ||
|
This Hero was proposed and approved by Heroes Wiki's Pure Good Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this hero from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a "villainous" attempt to demonize said character) and the user will have a high chance of being | ||
|
| “ | I'm Ness... It's been a long road getting here... Soon, I'll be... Soon, I'll be... What will happen to us? W... What's happening? My thoughts are being written out on the wall... Or are they? | „ |
| ~ Ness' thoughts about his adventure and wondering about his and his friends' fate being written on the wall of Lumine Hall. |
| “ | Okay! | „ |
| ~ Ness' most famous catchphrase.
|
Ness (ネス Nesu) is the titular main protagonist of Nintendo's video game, EarthBound, released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Ness is a psychic child who is gifted with PSI as his unique fighting ability, and upon defeating his evil nightmare within him, Ness unleashes his full power and becomes the strongest member of his entire party. Living a traditional life at first, when a meteor crashes in the outskirts of his hometown, Onett, Ness investigates the debris and finds a bug, Buzz Buzz, who sends Ness on a globe-trekking journey to recruit three friends into the "Chosen Four" and save the world from Giygas, an "embodiment of evil" that exists outside of spacetime.
Ness is voiced by Makiko Ohmoto in the Super Smash Bros. series, alongside Kirby.
Appearance[]
Ness is a short and black-haired boy with light skin complexion, black button-like eyes (including a purple hue in Melee and Brawl, like Lucas and the Ice Climbers), and lacks eyebrows. While it is up to the player to imagine Ness' fashion taste because of various items that he can equip in-game, from a hard hat to a star pendant, Ness's traditional attire consists of a red baseball cap with a blue brim and a white button, a yellow and blue-striped shirt, a tan backpack with brown shoulder straps and silver buckles, jorts, white socks, and red sneakers with white laces and heels. Three tufts of black hair stick out from Ness' cap and are swept to his right on his forehead. Ness is also often portrayed with a wooden bat that reads, "Onett," in vertical lettering on the bat.
In his earlier childhood, Ness wears a blue baseball cap with a purple bill turned to his left side. He wears blue overalls and the same-colored shoes.
Biography[]
Earthbound[]
Ness is woken up from a sound sleep by a meteorite that crashes north of his house in Onett. His mother and sister are agitated, but Ness leaves to investigate it. After meeting up with Lier X. Agerate and Porky 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, Porky and King return to the hillside where they find Picky (who reveals it was Porky 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, two other boys and one girl will stand against Giygas and save the universe from total annihilation.
Vested with this knowledge, Ness escorts Porky and Picky home before setting off on his quest, but is assaulted by a Starman Jr. The alien confirms the prophecy before attacking the group, but Buzz Buzz and Ness subdue it. Upon arriving at Pokey's house, Lardna Minch unceremoniously kills Buzz Buzz for his resemblance to a dung beetle. Before expiring, Buzz Buzz passes the Sound Stone to Ness, and starts him on his journey to save the world.
Mother 3[]
A YoYo belonging to Ness appears in "King P.'s" room that is guarded by a robotic maid, which says it is a Yo-Yo belonging to an old friend. Several references of his journey appear throughout New Pork City but Ness only appears in a film playing at New Pork City's theater during Chapter 8 of Mother 3.
Other Media[]
Super Smash Bros. series[]
Super Smash Bros.[]
Ness appears in the first Super Smash Bros. installment as an unlockable character, alongside Luigi, Captain Falcon, and Jigglypuff. Ness is unlocked by completing the 1P Game on a difficulty of Normal or higher, using three lives or less and no continues.
Super Smash Bros. Melee[]
Ness makes a return in the sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, but this time, he makes his representative appearance as a starter character instead of an unlockable character.
In the development of the game, Ness was going to be excluded as a playable character and replaced with Lucas, the main protagonist of Mother 3. However, as a result of the delay and ultimate cancellation of Mother 3 on the Nintendo 64, Ness was retained instead as a playable fighter. Ness and Lucas would ultimately appear in the game's sequel.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl[]
Ness returns as a playable unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and makes his major appearance in the game's story mode, the Subspace Emissary. Ness arrived at the Ruined Zoo and saved Lucas in a nick of time from the King Statue (which was seemingly about to crush Lucas) with his psychic powers, eventually culminating to Ness exploding the statue using PK Flash, revealing Porky Minch. He and Lucas subsequently defeated Porky Minch in an electromechanical spider, but encountered Wario after so, plotting to capture them with a Dark Cannon, which causes trophication. Ness evaded each shot Wario fired toward him, but pushed his blond-haired companion out of danger, and became a trophy after Wario pivoted his Dark Cannon towards Lucas.
King Dedede eventually stole the trophicated Ness from Wario and attached a Dedede Brooch to his chest, which is for revival.
After Tabuu decimated and reduced all surviving fighters into trophies by unleashing his "off waves," Ness' brooch activated, and he promptly returned to being and found himself in Subspace. He took a similar brooch off Luigi's nose and deduced that King Dedede had warranted their revival, and they activate King Dedede's trophy in return. Ness eventually joined Luigi and King Dedede in revitalizing the trophies of all other fighters that Tabuu turned into trophies, before accessing the Great Maze and defeating Tabuu himself with the assistance of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Ness is an unlockable character in the game as in 64 and one method to unlock him early is to reflect 10 projectiles.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U[]
Ness returns in the fourth game, alongside Lucas, as a unlockable character in the Nintendo 3DS edition, but is available from the start in the Wii U.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[]
Ness, like all playable characters in the Super Smash Bros. series, returns in this installment, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He is once again an unlockable character, along with the other non-DLC playable characters.
Powers and Abilities[]
In EarthBound, Ness is a supportive character who can restore HP, heal status effects, and apply shields to his teammates. However, he is also a heavily formidable fighter, especially given his high "Guts" stat and his penchant for striking his adversaries with baseball bats that he collects in his journey. This, however, comes at the cost of Ness being a rather sluggish fighter. The only PSI ability he learns that deals direct damage is one only he can learn: PSI Rockin. Ness eventually becomes the strongest member of his party after entering Magicant, an otherworldly dimension inhabiting his mind, and conquering his inner propensity for evil.
In the Super Smash Bros. series, Ness makes usage of his trademark baseball bat (which can reflect projectiles) in his side smash and a taunt. He also makes usage of his yo-yo in his up smash and down smash. His neutral special move is PSI Flash (also known as PK Flash), an ability he learns in his original game. Originally, this made enemies cry, act strange or had a low chance of instantly killing enemies. In the Super Smash Bros. series, this has been inspired from the latter, as Ness can charge PK Flash for greater damage and knockback. Much of his moveset consists of PSI abilities that either he did not learn in EarthBound, including PK Fire, PK Thunder, and PSI Magnet, or were original inventions for his appearances in Super Smash Bros. games.
Ness's trophy description in Super Smash Bros. Melee notifies that Paula had taught Ness these attacks in his preparation for the Smash Bros. series, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl claims that Poo taught Ness PK Starstorm, a PSI attack that summons a tempest of stars from above, and comprises Ness' Final Smash in the series.
Trivia[]
- Ness is the only main protagonist in the Mother series who is unable to run traditionally. He can temporarily run with a speed-boost from 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.
- Both Ness and Lucas would ultimately end up being playable in Brawl as playable characters and remain as playable characters in Smash 4 and Ultimate.
- 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.
- When Ness enters Magicant in the Japanese version of EarthBound — MOTHER 2 — he appears stripped instead of appearing in his pajamas. This is explained by nudity being a sign of purity in Japanese culture.
- Ness's name is likely a homophone of NES and an anagram of SNES, two Nintendo consoles that were out at the time.
- In an attempt to balance out his gargantuan Offense and Max HP/PP stats (especially after he becomes one with the Earth), Ness has by far the overall slowest (playable character) "Speed" stat in Earthbound, with almost all enemies in Onett being able to easily outpace him during said game's Giant Step segment; Earthbound's distinct lack of a sprinting button is or is not potentially be a reference to said fact, since Ness is typically the leader of the main (playable) protagonist team in said game.
- Ness' Super Smash Bros. incarnations can perform numerous actions that his original Earthbound incarnation was incapable of, such as using PK Fire, PK Thunder and PK Starstorm (not to mention equipping both a baseball bat and a yo-yo at the same time). Additionally, his "lack of agility" weakness is nowhere near as crippling in the Super Smash Bros. series as it is in Earthbound.
- Ness was originally intended to be a playable character for Mother 3's earlier iteration, Earthbound 64, before its cancellation.
- Ness is said to be thirteen in international versions of EarthBound, but in the Japanese version, he is twelve.
- It is strongly implied that Lucas reminded Porky of Ness, which would explain his strong disdain towards him.
External Links[]
- Ness on the Pure Good Wiki
- Ness on the EarthBound Wiki
[]
 Heroes
| ||
|
Earthbound Beginnings/Mother Earthbound/Mother 2 Mother 3 | ||