Difference between revisions of "EarthBound (series)"

The series was created by an influential Japanese copywriter, actor, and minor television celebrity named [[Shigesato Itoi]], who took part in Nintendo's video game industry in the late 1980s. After forming his own subsidiary [[Ape Inc.]] with then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, he began working on the franchise starting with ''{{vg|Mother}}'', later released internationally as ''[[EarthBound Beginnings]]''. Released in July of 1989, the game took on a different theme opposed to the medieval sword-and-sorcery theme found in most RPG games at the time. Instead, the game was set in modern-day [[America]] with the cast consisting of average children with [[PSI|psychic powers]], using average everyday items such as [[baseball bat]]s and [[frying pan]]s as weapons. ''Mother'' was a commercial success in Japan, and so the game was then planned to be translated and released internationally with the title '''Earth Bound'''. It was scheduled to release in 1991, however it was cancelled because the upcoming [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]] was thought to overshadow the English release of the game, thus the game was decided too costly to market and produce, and was shelved with no plans for a release in the future.

On June 15th, 2015, the game was released for the first time internationally to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series in North America, the game was given the official title ''EarthBound Beginnings''. Similar to Japan, the game received positive reception, with critics praising its originality story, and its music. However, the game did receive criticism for its difficulty and balance issues.