Ness

is a fictional character in the Mother role-playing video games published by Nintendo, created by Japanese video game designer Shigesato Itoi. His first appearance was in the 1994 Super NES game EarthBound (known as Mother 2 in Japan), the second entry from the series, in which he serves as the game's main protagonist and playable character. He also appears as a playable fighter in the Super Smash Bros. series of fighting games where he is voiced by Makiko Ohmoto. Ness is depicted as a thirteen-year-old boy residing in the fictional town of Onett in Eagleland who has psychic abilities referred to as PSI. In EarthBound, Ness teams up with several other characters to battle Giygas, the main antagonist of the game and a recurring character in the series. Conception and creation Ness is the protagonist of EarthBound, the second game in the three-part Mother series. Upon lackluster sales in North America, EarthBound became the first game in the series at the time to receive an English-language release, and, subsequently, became a cult classic. The game presents a humorous parody of American culture and the role-playing video game genre. Ness was created by Shigesato Itoi, the creator of the EarthBound series, who intended the game to have real characters whom players would recognize in the people around them. Ness's name is a reference to "NES", the abbreviation for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In EarthBound, the player is able to rename all playable characters including Ness before beginning the game's story. Itoi has stated that by doing so, it allows the players themselves to decide if Ness is the same character as Ninten, the main character of Mother, the previous game in the series. Ness's favorite food and favorite thing are also decided by the player, although by default, his favorite thing is "Rockin", and his favorite food is "Steak". In the Japanese release of EarthBound, players could choose other default names for Ness, one of which was John (in reference to The Beatles John Lennon). Players could also choose Honey Pie as their favourite food and LOVE as their favourite thing (in reference to The Beatles songs "Honey Pie" and "All You Need Is Love"). Players could also choose the default name Mario, based on the Mario series' character of the same name.