Ness

Ness is the main protagonist of the cult classic game EarthBound. He is an adventurous 13-year old boy who tries to stop an alien invasion in EarthBound. Ness has also appeared in all games in the Smash series.

Super Smash Bros.
Ness was a little bit of a surprise addition to the original Smash game's roster. No one expected such an obscure character to turn up in a fighting game. Anyways, Ness is an unlockable character in this game, and he can be unlocked by beating Classic Mode on Normal difficulty with at least 3 lives without using a continue. Once the player is successful completing this task, Ness will go up against the player, and when defeated, Ness will be playable.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Ness makes an appearance as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but this time, Ness is a starter character. He keeps all his special moves and gains a fourth move (PK Flash) like every other veteran.

When Melee was in development, Ness was supposed to be excluded as a playable character and replaced by Lucas from Mother 3. The delay and cancellation of Mother 3 on the Nintendo 64, however, cause Sakurai to keep Ness in the game.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Ness returns as a veteran fighter in Brawl. This time around, he is accompanied by Lucas due to Mother 3's long-awaited release in April 2006. Ness is also an unlockable character, and he can be unlocked by playing The Subspace Emissary, reflecting 10 projectiles, or playing 5 VS Matches.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U
Ness is brought back as a playable character in SSB4. He is an starter character on the Wii U version of the game, but he has to be unlocked on the Nintendo 3DS version. Ness can be unlocked on the Nintendo 3DS by playing 10 VS matches or beating Classic Mode.

Strangely, Ness was announced for SSB4, but Lucas was not. This led players to speculate that this was a similar case to Ness's appearance in Melee, where Lucas was planned to replace Ness. In Super Smash Bros. 4, however, there was no confirmation that Ness was going to be replaced by Lucas. It was simply just a matter of Sakurai choosing Ness over Lucas as the Mother representative. However, Lucas would be announced as a DLC fighter later on, proving players wrong.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Ness returns with the rest of the entire roster in Ultimate, and he is an unlockable character. He was announced on June 12, 2018. As the first character in VS. Mode and Kirby's Classic Mode route, Ness can potentially be the first character unlocked in the game.

Trivia

 * If Mother 3 was not delayed prior to Melee's release, Ness would have been the only character from the Original 12 to be cut from a game.
 * Ness would have also been the first character to be replaced by another character. He would be followed by Young Link, who was replaced by Toon Link in Brawl.