In the Super Nintendo video game EarthBound, Pokey Minch is Ness's portly, cowardly next-door neighbour.

Pokey temporarily joins Ness to find his little brother, Picky, at the top of Onett's mountain, where the meteor landed. After meeting Picky, a bee flies out of the meteor. It verbally identifies itself as "A bee I am... not" and calls itself Buzz Buzz. It informs Ness that he is one of four boys (and girl) who will defeat the evil Giygas. Pokey reassures himself that he is not one of those four, and after an encounter with another time traveller, Starman Junior, Pokey and Picky arrive him and receive a harsh scolding from their father, Aloysius.

Pokey is not seen again until Ness finds Paula imprisoned near Happy Happy Village. He sics some Insane Cultists and Spiteful Crows on Ness, but Ness prevails and defeats Mr. Carpainter, the leader of the Happy Happy cult. Outside the Happy Happy headquarters, Pokey feigns shaking off the effects of mind control, asks Ness if they can still be friends, and then runs off.

When Ness and his friends arrive at the Monotoli building in Fourside, Pokey and his dad are working for Mr. Monotoli. Pokey acts like a typical rich snob when Ness meets him, and has his bodyguards throw Ness out. After Ness confronts Monotoli himself, he goes for the businessman's helicopter on the rooftop landing pad, but Pokey is there before they can take it, and he flees. The helicopter is later found in the Deep Darkness swamp, crashed and wrecked beyond repair, with its engine missing.

The last place Pokey appears is after Ness and his friends use Dr. Andonuts's time machine to travel through time to fight Giygas. Pokey has allied himself with Giygas, and now rides an organic-looking mecha. Pokey taunts Ness throughout the fight, but loses, and when Giygas is destroyed, Pokey flees after taunting Ness one last time.

Pokey's fate is unknown, but he leaves a message for Ness via Picky: "Don't think you've won. I'll be back."

Strangely, the planned sequel, Mother 3 (which never came), did not have an involvement from Pokey.