EarthBound


 * For the series, see Mother (series).

EarthBound (Japanese: ＭＯＴＨＥＲ２ ～ギーグの逆襲～ Mother 2: Strikes Back, title occasionally rendered as マザー２) is a role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System developed by Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. It is the sequel to the Japan-only NES game, Mother. EarthBound was first released in Japan on August 27, 1994. The game was later released on June 2, 1995 in North America.

Meteor Crash
The story of EarthBound starts with a young boy named Ness from the city of Onett. He hears about a recent meteor in the area. Going to the site, he is told to turn back and come later. Later that night, he is woken up by his neighbor Pokey, who requests for Ness' help to find his brother, Picky. They go the site of the meteor, and find not only Picky, but also a bee that came from the meteor. The bee introduces himself as Buzz Buzz, and tells Ness about a prophecy. This prophecy is about three boys and one girl going to save the world from Giygas. He then joins Ness, and in the middle of the adventure home, they meet Starman Junior, and a fight commences. Buzz Buzz protects the group with PSI Shield, and they manage to defeat Starman Junior safely. The group returns home, and Pokey and Picky are grounded. Buzz Buzz dies at this point, being killed by Pokey's mother and gives Ness the Sound Stone, instructing him to find eight sanctuaries and record songs from them. After that, Ness returns home, tells his mother about his adventure, and takes off. A bit later, he enters the main part of the town of Onett. The town is being terrorized by a group known as The Sharks. Ness decides to help the citizens, and defeats the Sharks, including their leader, Frank. After saving the town, the mayor allows him to go to Giant Step as thanks. There he battles and defeats the Titanic Ant, reaching the first sanctuary of the game.

A companion
After he leaves the Giant Step, he is stopped by cops. The cops attempt to kill him, though he beats all but one, which chickens out. He then defeats Captain Strong, who takes the place of that cop. Strong then opens up the path to Twoson for Ness. In the town, he goes through the rummage sale, and meets (and fights) Everdred. He then stops by Polestar Preschool, and finds the parents of a girl named Paula. They say that she was supposed to meet with him, receiving a dream saying something about a boy named Ness. She's gone, and Ness goes to the hotel to rest. She contacts him in a dream, asking for help. The only clue Ness is giving is water running in the distance. To find her, Ness goes east through a small cave into Peaceful Rest Valley. He then explores more, and goes through another cave. At the end is a happy place, known as Happy Happy Village. Many cultists chase Ness and he meets Mr. Carpainter and pays $50 to stay in the village and convert of Happy-Happyism. He then goes out of the cave he went through earlier, goes into a house, and sees Paula locked up. He tries to open the door, but learns that Mr. Carpainter has locked it. To help defeat Carpainter, Paula gives Ness a Franklin Badge. Ness exits the house, and sees cultists and Pokey, who was made an important person in Happy-Happyism. Being who he is, he makes the cultists and a crow fight Ness. Ness beats them, and Pokey runs away. He then faces many more cultists, and eventually Carpainter himself. To apologize, Carpainter gives Ness the key to release Paula. When he exits, he sees only 3 of the thousands of the cultists remaining, and then Pokey too. Pokey apologizes to Ness, but it was a lie. Ness then frees Paula, and she joins him to save the land. The duo then go into Liliput Steps, and take it back from Mondo Mole.

Milky Well
The duo then go back to Twoson, and go to the Chaos Theater. They find the Runaway Five here, who want to leave but can't due to having a debt to Poochyfud. Ness pays the debt, and to thank Ness and Paula, the band takes them to Threed. At Threed, Ness and Paula save the town from zombies.

Playable Characters
Ness is the protagonist of EarthBound. Ness is a boy from the town of Onett. Ness uses his psychic abilities to perform PSI Flash and PSI Rockin' attacks. In addition to PSI attacks, Ness uses various baseball bats as weapons.

Paula is a girl from Twoson. Paula is able to perform PSI Freeze, PSI Fire, and PSI Thunder attacks. Paula uses various fry pans as weapons.

Jeff is a boy from Winters. Jeff is unable to perform PSI attacks; instead, he relies on his high IQ to help the team. Jeff is able to repair certain items that would otherwise be unusable. To attack, he uses various types of guns. He is the son of the famous scientist Dr. Andonuts.

Poo is the oldest member of the team. Poo is a prince from Dalaam and a martial arts master. He is able to perform PSI Freeze, PSI Thunder, and PSI Starstorm. Poo specializes in a sword known as the Sword of Kings.

Trivia

 * ESRB, the American rating system for video games, incorrectly stated that EarthBound was being released for the Wii's Virtual Console. This has yet to happen, however.
 * EarthBound is somewhat infamous because of Nintendo's odd marketing campaign, which included the tagline "This game stinks!" (that was actually a reference to the included scratch-and-sniff cards). This may even have contributed to it's lack of success in America.