Ness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Ness (disambiguation).
| Ness | |
|---|---|
 Ness's original clay model |
|
| Game series | EarthBound series |
| First game | Mother 2/EarthBound (1994/1995) |
| Creator(s) | Shigesato Itoi |
| Character designer(s) | Shigesato Itoi |
| Voice actor(s) | Makiko Ohmoto |
Ness (ネス Nesu?) is the hero of EarthBound. He is an unassuming young boy, gifted with special powers. He comes from Onett, a small town in Eagleland, and lives next door to a boy named Pokey Minch, who becomes one of the main antagonists later in the game. Ness is a silent protagonist, however, his thoughts are shown at one point.
[edit] EarthBound
Ness is the first controllable character in EarthBound. His appearance is simple: most of the time he wears a striped blue and yellow shirt, blue pants, a red and blue baseball cap, and a yellow backpack. His hair and eyes are completely black, and his most unique trait consists of three spikes of hair coming out from the front of his hat. He is considered somewhat overweight, even though his sprite physique does not reveal it; a policeman calls him "fat boy" and some characters remark that he has lost weight on his journey.
His arsenal in EarthBound is composed of baseball bats, and miscellaneous toys such as yo-yos and slingshots. His "armor" consists of various kinds of hats and badges. Ness has below average Speed (until Magicant), high Offense (determines attack power) and Guts (determines frequency of critical attacks, and also determines the probabilty that fatal attacks against the character will not kill them, but will instead leave them with 1 hp), high HP, and average PP (analogous to MP). He's the only character with recovery PSI until Poo joins. Ness is the most versatile character, with a powerful PSI attack based on what the player inputs as his or her favorite thing, healing abilities, and good physical power.
Occasionally, he will become "homesick", causing him to skip turns in battle (thinking about his home and his favourite food, chosen by the player, the default setting being steak) and requiring a call to his mother from one of EarthBound's plentiful pay phones or the use of a Chick item to heal. His father adds money to his bank account throughout the game (more money is added as enemies are defeated, the amount being generally related to how much experience Ness receives), and his sister provides storage for the player's items through the Escargo Express service, where she works part-time.
Ness is chosen by an alien named Buzz Buzz to save the world from Giygas, a malevolent entity which is causing the citizens and animals of Onett to become hostile. To do this, he must first travel to eight sanctuaries and record the eight melodies there in his Sound Stone (given to him by Buzz Buzz), then he must combine those melodies and make the "Sound Stone melody", which will give him the power of the Earth (and thus a huge boost to his stats and a large amount of experience, both of which make him the most powerful member of the party). Over the course of the game, he makes many friends, three of which become permanent members of your team (Paula, Jeff, and Poo).
The name "Ness" may be an anagram of the acronym "SNES" (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). This idea is more supported by the fact that the main character of the first Mother was named Ninten, which is a shortened form of Nintendo. However, in Japan, where the game was developed, his name is still Ness, although the video game console is called the Super Famicom. The name may also be a reference to the original Nintendo Family Computer which was sometimes referred to as the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System).
[edit] Super Smash Bros.
Ness has also appeared in Super Smash Bros. as a hidden character and Super Smash Bros. Melee as a base character. He uses moves like PK Fire and PK Thunder (PK stands for psychokinesis and is the original name of PSI), which he does not actually use in EarthBound; they are only used by Paula and Poo. (Paula's trophy suggests tongue-in-cheek that she taught him the moves beforehand.) Ness's own PK Flash move was introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He is considered to be a good character to play as due to his excellent jump motion, and his moves being more towards ease for larger combos or attacks.
To unlock Ness in Super Smash Bros., you must beat one-player mode on normal, with a stock of three lives, using no continues. In SSB, Ness is a mid- to lightweight character whose PK Thunder Attack produces a guidable ball of energy which a player controlls with the analog stick to direct into other players. When directed at himself, the PK Thunder attack acts as his third recovery jump, propelling him back onto a stage when he is knocked off; when he propels himself into opponents, he deals a massive amount of damage. Ness is the only character in the game that can lower his damage percentage without items, using his PSI Magnet to absorb energy attacks. His powerful grab and very effective aerial spike kick made him a real threat in any game.
In the sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Ness is slightly faster. His PK Thunder knocks him a tiny bit less far when he collides with it. He is also given an additional move, PK Flash, as well as slight adjustments to basic moves, one of which makes his aerial spike kick much harder to pull off. However, to balance this out, Ness has been given an extended psychic attack in melee form that boosts from the palms when the player moves forward (A), making his reach longer. Ness retains his PSI Magnet and, if unarmed, can deflect most projectiles using his smash attack with his bat, though this requires good timing. It is unknown if he will appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
In the Super Smash Bros. series, Ness is voiced by female seiyu Makiko Ohmoto, who also voiced Kirby.
[edit] Mother 3
Ness makes a cameo appearance in Mother 3, along with the rest of the Mother 2 gang. A theatre in New Pork City displays screenshots of Ness and co. in action taken directly from the game. One of the weapons that every party member can use in the game is a yo-yo which is said to belong to Ness, called the "Friend's Yo-Yo" with 40000 ATT. Also, one of the equip items is the "Red Hat" (Which is the same as Ness' hat), that can be equipped by Lucas and Boney. In Chapter 2, the "Zombie Man" Duster fights, though clearly not Ness, is dressed like him.
