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EarthBound: Difference between revisions
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→Trivia: Just noticed this artifact from before the game released... after 11 years
(Cleanup, infobox shouldn't take up half of the screen, initial failure is already mentioned in "reception", I'm iffy on a section reguarding the fan community here though a minor mention shouldn't be a problem, I am in favor of adding a development section but don't have the time to write one up) |
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|caption=American boxart | |caption=American boxart | ||
|other boxart=Mother_2_Box. | |other boxart=Mother_2_Box.png | ||
|other boxart size=250px | |other boxart size=250px | ||
|other boxart caption=Japanese boxart | |other boxart caption=Japanese boxart | ||
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{{incomplete}} | {{incomplete}} | ||
== | ==Release== | ||
''Mother 2'' was released in Japan on August 27th, 1994 for the Super Famicom. The game was then released in North America as ''EarthBound'' on June 5th, 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Each copy of ''EarthBound'' in North America came packaged with the [[EarthBound Player's Guide]] instead of a typical instruction booklet. | |||
In addition, ''Mother 2'' was available as a downloadable game for the [[wikipedia:Nintendo Power (cartridge)|Nintendo Power]], a Japan-only flash-memory cartridge that allowed owners to purchase Super Famicom games at a lowered price. | |||
''EarthBound'' was included as one of the games on the Super NES Classic Edition (known as the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and Oceania and Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom in Japan), released on June 26, 2017. The game appeared in the North American and European variants. | ===Virtual Console re-releases=== | ||
On March 20, 2013, ''EarthBound'' was re-released in Japan for the Wii U Virtual Console, and on July 18 of the same year in North America and Europe. During the Nintendo Direct announcing ''EarthBound'''s approval for the Wii U Virtual Console, Satoru Iwata mentioned the fan outcry being one of the reasons. The re-release was highly publicized, with [[Shigesato Itoi]] himself doing a live stream of playing the game. The game received some minor edits from the original SNES release: a line of text by [[Lardna Minch]] and another in [[Burglin Park]] were slightly tweaked in Japan. In all versions, the animations for [[PSI Fire]] Ω, [[PSI Flash]] Ω, [[PSI Rockin]] γ, [[Brainshock]] Ω, the [[Shield killer]], and both [[PSI Starstorm]] α and Ω were altered to reduce the flashing. | |||
Furthermore, in March of 2016, ''EarthBound'' was re-released again in all three regions for the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console service. | |||
''EarthBound'' was included as one of the games on the Super NES Classic Edition (known as the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and Oceania and Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom in Japan), released on June 26, 2017. The game appeared in the North American and European variants. This version does not contain the changes made to the aforementioned animations with bright flashes as the Wii U version did. Instead, to blur out the flashes the game uses the system's built in anti-seizure filter, which automatically creates an "after image" effect whenever it detects rapid bright flashes. | |||
Along with its [[EarthBound Beginnings|prequel]], ''EarthBound'' was added to the [[Nintendo Switch]] Online service on February 9th, 2022. | Along with its [[EarthBound Beginnings|prequel]], ''EarthBound'' was added to the [[Nintendo Switch]] Online service on February 9th, 2022. | ||
== | ==Copyright issues rumors== | ||
''EarthBound'' has been noted to feature a number of samples/homages to | ''EarthBound'' has been noted to feature a number of samples/homages to copyrighted elements. For example, the Onett trumpet player plays Symphony No.9 Movement 2, the music that plays while fighting [[Frank]] or a [[New Age Retro Hippie]] bears some resemblance to the beginning of ''[[wikipedia:Johnny B. Goode|Johnny B. Goode]]'', and the Megaton Walk sounds remarkably like a segment from [[wikipedia:The Beatles|The Beatles]]' ''[[wikipedia:Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]''. Music composer Hirokazu Tanaka stated in an interview, "The sampling issue is a little sensitive because, well, I don't know for sure, but it sounds like that is one of the reasons ''EarthBound'' is not able to come out in America."{{fact}}. As a result, it was widely believed these samples of music caused copyright issues for Nintendo of America when the company tried to approve the game for digital distribution on the Wii's Virtual Console. A similar rumor spread during this time reguarding the [[Dali's Clock]], an enemy based off of the famous painting {{wp|The Persistence of Memory}} by {{wp|Salvador Dali}}, with many believing the enemy would need to be redesigned or removed entirely for the game to be approved for a re-release. | ||
Contrary to these claims, the music was not changed in the game's various re-releases. Marcus Lindblom clarified in an interview that the sampled music was likely not the reason why ''EarthBound'' was excluded from the Wii's Virtual Console as it wasn't an issue during development, instead believing Nintendo of America simply didn't realize the popularity of the series and a re-release was not considered a priority at the time.<ref>[https://kotaku.com/the-man-who-wrote-earthbound-1188669175 Schreier, Jason (August 23, 2013). "The Man Who Wrote Earthbound". Kotaku.]</ref> Similarly, the Dali's Clock remained intact in all further releases. | |||
==Reception== | ==Reception== | ||
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''Mother 2'' sold 518,000 units in Japan, being their tenth best-selling game of 1994. In contrast to Japan, the game had very poor initial sales in North America, being roughly 140,000 copies, deeming it a commercial failure. The cause was the combination of the game's poor marketing campaign, unimpressive visuals and the general unpopularity of the role-playing game genre in western countries. | ''Mother 2'' sold 518,000 units in Japan, being their tenth best-selling game of 1994. In contrast to Japan, the game had very poor initial sales in North America, being roughly 140,000 copies, deeming it a commercial failure. The cause was the combination of the game's poor marketing campaign, unimpressive visuals and the general unpopularity of the role-playing game genre in western countries. | ||
Despite Nintendo of America spending roughly $2,000,000 on marketing, ''EarthBound''{{'}}s advertizing was seen as one of the major detractors. Advertizing of the game mainly appeared in select gaming magazines (such as Nintendo Power), it's only other appearance was in an in-store only commercial. The game was released as part of Nintendo of America's [[wikipedia:Nintendo marketing#Play It Loud!|Play It Loud!]] campaign, a marketing attempt at trying to appeal to teenage boys. As such the marketing heavily focused on humor revolving around rude smells, most infamously with its tagline "This game stinks" and foul-smelling scratch and sniff cards, which was deemed by critics as bizzare and did bare minimum to describe the actual game. The graphics were heavily criticized, as during the time of when the game was released, a major selling point was impressive graphics akin to ''{{wp|Final Fantasy | Despite Nintendo of America spending roughly $2,000,000 on marketing, ''EarthBound''{{'}}s advertizing was seen as one of the major detractors. Advertizing of the game mainly appeared in select gaming magazines (such as Nintendo Power), it's only other appearance was in an in-store only commercial. The game was released as part of Nintendo of America's [[wikipedia:Nintendo marketing#Play It Loud!|Play It Loud!]] campaign, a marketing attempt at trying to appeal to teenage boys. As such the marketing heavily focused on humor revolving around rude smells, most infamously with its tagline "This game stinks" and foul-smelling scratch and sniff cards, which was deemed by critics as bizzare and did bare minimum to describe the actual game. The graphics were heavily criticized, as during the time of when the game was released, a major selling point was impressive graphics akin to ''{{wp|Final Fantasy VI}}'' and ''{{wp|Chrono Trigger}}''; by contrast, ''EarthBound''{{'}}s simplistic graphics was viewed as being dated and "too cartoonish" by many critics. The overall price of the packaged game is also precieved to have hindered its sales. The poor sales and reception resulted in the game being excluded in the European market. | ||
Despite its failure, ''EarthBound'' aquired a large following through the following years, further fueled by its representation in the ''Super Smash Bros'' series, which greatly changed the perception of the game by the time of the game's re-release. | Despite its failure, ''EarthBound'' aquired a large following through the following years, further fueled by its representation in the ''Super Smash Bros'' series, which greatly changed the perception of the game by the time of the game's re-release. | ||
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''For the subject's image gallery see [[Gallery:EarthBound]]'' | ''For the subject's image gallery see [[Gallery:EarthBound]]'' | ||
{{gallery|galleryname=Boxart and promotional art|color=EB}} | {{gallery|galleryname=Boxart and promotional art|color=EB}} | ||
{{gallery/cell|Mother 2 Box. | {{gallery/cell|Mother 2 Box.png|115px|Japanese box art}} | ||
{{gallery/cell|EarthBound box.png|255px|North American box art}} | {{gallery/cell|EarthBound box.png|255px|North American box art}} | ||
{{gallery/cell|EARLY EB BOX BOI.png|285px|Early American box art}} | {{gallery/cell|EARLY EB BOX BOI.png|285px|Early American box art}} | ||
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|} | |} | ||
{{gallery|galleryname=Title screens|color=EB}} | {{gallery|galleryname=Title screens|color=EB}} | ||
{{gallery/cell|EarthBound Title Prototype.jpg|300px|Prototype English title screen}} | |||
{{gallery/cell|EarthBound title.png|200px|English title screen}} | {{gallery/cell|EarthBound title.png|200px|English title screen}} | ||
{{gallery/cell|Mother2 title.png|200px|Japanese title screen}} | {{gallery/cell|Mother2 title.png|200px|Japanese title screen}} | ||
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==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
*The ESRB, the American rating system for video games, rated ''EarthBound'' for the Wii Virtual Console. This rating, however, was a mistake.<ref>[http://www.infendo.com/no-earthbound-for-vc-esrb-rating-a-mistake/ Article of the Wii's VC's Earthbound ESRB rating]</ref> The game was later confirmed for a Wii U Virtual Console release | *The ESRB, the American rating system for video games, rated ''EarthBound'' for the Wii Virtual Console. This rating, however, was a mistake.<ref>[http://www.infendo.com/no-earthbound-for-vc-esrb-rating-a-mistake/ Article of the Wii's VC's Earthbound ESRB rating]</ref> The game was later confirmed for a Wii U Virtual Console release and released in mid 2013.<ref>[http://earthboundcentral.com/2013/04/earthbound-on-virtual-console-coming/ EarthBound Central's Article on the Wii U's VC's EarthBound release]</ref> | ||
*All of the game's areas are connected to each other. Using a [[walk through walls glitch|glitch to walk through otherwise impassable objects]] and off the map, players can walk to Giygas' lair in the [[Cave of the Past]]. | *All of the game's areas are connected to each other. Using a [[walk through walls glitch|glitch to walk through otherwise impassable objects]] and off the map, players can walk to Giygas' lair in the [[Cave of the Past]]. | ||
*The game has several checksum to avoid abusing the previously mentioned map glitching to complete the game. The player must fall down the hole in [[Lumine Hall]], and must have defeated [[Ness's Nightmare]]. | *The game has several checksum to avoid abusing the previously mentioned map glitching to complete the game. The player must fall down the hole in [[Lumine Hall]], and must have defeated [[Ness's Nightmare]]. | ||
*''EarthBound'' takes place in a fictional | *''EarthBound'' takes place in a fictional world based off of the real world: [[Eagleland]] is based off of America, [[FoggyLand]] ([[Winters]] and [[Summers]]) is based off of Europe, and [[Chommo]] ([[Dalaam]], [[Scaraba]] and [[Deep Darkness]]) is based off of Asia and northern Africa. Shigesato Itoi intended the setting to have an international feeling, this is why party members like [[Poo]] appear to come from different cultures. | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||