Pokey

Pokey in Earthbound
Pokey
Species	Human
Hair color	Yellow
Relatives	Picky (Brother), Mom, Dad
Debut	Earthbound

Pokey is one of the villains of Earthbound.

Background

Earthbound

Pokey first appeared in Earthbound. He lives next door to Ness. They were once friends, but have grown apart. Early in the game, he asks Ness to help him find his brother, Picky.

As the game progresses, Pokey reappears from time to time. He becomes one of the leaders of the blue-worshipping Happy-Happyism Cult at Happy Happy Village and is Mr. Monotoli's right-hand man at Fourside. At the end of the game, he battles along side Giygas. After Giygas is defeated, he escapes to a new time using time travel.

Mother 3

Pokey's escape lands him in the era of Mother 3. He creates for himself the identity of King Pig and founds the Pig Mask Army, making him the unseen villain of most of the game. As a side effect of his time travel, he has aged thousands of years and needs a machine to keep him alive, though later on he claims that his time traveling has actually made him immortal. This may have been simply to discourage the group from attacking or implication that his life support systems can keep him alive indefinitely.

Near the end of the game, Pokey declares himself ruler of the world. He sends the Pig Mask Army's commander, the Masked Man, to pull seven needles and awaken a fierce dragon in hopes that he'll be able to control the beast as a result. He also builds New Pork City and moves the people of the Nowhere Islands to it. The city is like an amusement park with many pictures of a younger Pokey and references to his life in Earthbound. He is using the band DCMC to hypnotize the people into worshiping him with their music.

Pokey lures Lucas and co. into the Empire Pokey Building shortly after their arrival and dares them to find him on the 100th floor. He then changes several of the floor numbers to 100 to trick them into thinking that they've succeeded in finding him, while actually leaving various traps for them (including a toilet dungeon and robotic versions of his younger self). When finally found, Pokey offers to race them to the final needle. Despite taking a shortcut, the group catches up to him. He mocks their connection to the Masked Man (at this point revealed to be Claus) and attacks. As the |battle draws to a close, Pokey encapsulates himself and his life-support in Dr. Andonuts's Absolutely Safe Machine. Dr. Andonuts then reveals that the Absolutely Safe Machine was actually designed to keep everyone else absolutely safe from Pokey and rolls him away, feeling sorry for the boy.

After the fake-out destruction of the world, it is possible to locate Pokey on the "End?" screen. He doesn't speak to the player, but it makes reference to a ball rolling around. It also states that the person inside seems happy; Pokey may actually find enjoyment by being the sole person in his own little universe...

Abilities

Pokey's greatest strength is his ability to get into positions of power. His actual fighting abilities are very poor due to Pokey being out of shape. Instead, he pilots mechanical devices in battle.

Trivia

• In the Japanese versions of Earthbound and Mother 3, Pokey is actually called Porky.
• Mother 3 includes sprite rips of Pokey dying at the end of the game which were never used.