Flying Man

Flying Men (, Flying Man) are minor characters in the series, and residents of Magicant.

Origin
The Flying Men are a race of humanoid bird creatures that can be found in in both ' and ', where  or Ness can recruit them to help in battles while exploring Magicant. Should a Flying Man be defeated, however, it will be permanently dead and a grave will appear outside their house. Like in Smash, there are only five Flying Men available in both Mother and EarthBound.

As a stage element
Flying Men occasionally appear in the Magicant stage, coming out of their house on the top right platform. When passed by or attacked by a character, they start fighting alongside them, brawling against their opponents and even teammates.

Flying Men move around and approach opponents by running and jumping, and have an infinite amount of midair jumps. They have two attacks at their disposal: Both attacks inflict 12% damage and have high base knockback which can KO an opponent as early as 90%.
 * Flying Cross Chop, a dash in the air towards an opponent in an attempt to body slam them similarly to Incineroar's Cross Chop.
 * Somersault Kick, an upward kick similar to Mario's up aerial, which can be performed both on the ground and in the air.

Flying Men can be attacked and grabbed like a regular fighter, and be launched farther the more damage they accumulate. When they are KOed, either by being launched beyond the blast line or by taking enough damage, a small tombstone appears near their house. Only five Flying Men in total will spawn in a single match, and if all five Flying Men have been KOed, they will no longer appear for the remainder of the match.

The Flying Men on Magicant appear as 2D sprites, similar to their original appearance in EarthBound (albeit with new, more fluid animations). During development, a 3D model was also created, but scrapped in favor of the sprite; it lessened the strain on the 3DS hardware, and the team felt it looked better in comparison. The scrapped model was modified to be used for the Flying Man Mii costume.

Suicide grab glitch
Previously, if attempted to use the Flying Slam offstage on a Flying Man, he would not be KO'd upon reaching the lower blast line, but instead fall indefinitely. It is possible that Bowser could not be KO'd until after the opponent he was grabbing (in order to ensure the opponent lost if they both had one stock remaining), and that the Flying Man did not properly interact with this. Due to the nerf to Flying Slam in version 1.0.4, this is no longer the case; Bowser will be KO'd as normal, with the Flying Man being able to recover back to the stage.

In Smash Tour
A Flying Man can appear as a random event. He follows the first player who bumps into him, and when bumping into another player he knocks them away before disappearing.

As a costume
Flying Man's costume serves as the basis of a paid downloadable content costume for the s. It was created by modifying the Flying Man's scrapped 3D model.

Trophy
In the Flying Man trophy is a Challenge reward, obtained by starting the final battle in Smash Tour with the maximum 10 characters.

As a stage element
Flying Men reappear on Magicant, just like in. Both attacks deal more damage, with Flying Cross Chop dealing 14% and Somersault Kick dealing 16%.

As a costume
The Flying Man costume for the Mii Brawler also returns and can be bought in the Shop.

Spirit
The Flying Man also appears as an Ace-class primary spirit.

In Adventure Mode: World of Light, the Flying Man is presumably one of the countless spirits captured by Galeem during his takeover of the universe. The Flying Man's spirit is located in the cloud section of The Light Realm.

The Flying Man uses a puppet fighter wearing the Flying Man Hat and Outfit and is fought on the Magicant stage. He is fought along a puppet fighter. During the battle, the player's fighter must defeat five Mii Brawlers, referencing how the Flying Men can be defeated in battle and cannot be revived.

The Flying Man can be summoned using the cores of and.