Difference between revisions of "EarthBound Beginnings"

'''''Earth Bound''''', also known by its Japanese name '''''Mother''''' (Japanese: '''{{tt| マザー| Mazā}}''', stylized as '''ＭＯＴＨＥＲ'''), is a 1989 roleplaying video game originally released on the [[Nintendo Entertainment System| Famicom]]. To distinguish it from [[EarthBound|its sequel]], it was eventually officially retitled '''''EarthBound Beginnings''''' in 2015, and is sometimes retroactively referred to as '''''Mother 1''''' when using the Japanese titles. It was developed by [[Ape Inc.]] and was published by [[Nintendo]], and is the first game in the [[EarthBound (series)|Mother series]]. Created by Japanese copywriter [[Shigesato Itoi]], ''EarthBound Beginnings'' follows the travels of four children — [[Ninten]], [[Lloyd]], [[Ana]], and [[Teddy]] — and their attempts to stop an intergalactic alien's invasion of Earth. Gameplay takes place within an overworld consisting of Americana themes and tropes, where random encounters trigger turn-based battles with menu interfaces. ''Mother'' was released to positive reception and commercial success in Japan, although some noted its difficulty.

In 1990, Nintendo of America localized the game under the name ''Earth Bound''. However, the release of the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super Famicom]] and other difficulties resulted in the localization not being released for the NES. Despite this, in 1998, prototype cartridges of the localized version were discovered, and their ROMs were subsequently uploaded to the internet for fans to play. While these prototype cartridges did contain the complete localization of the game, they also contained notoriously easy to trigger copyright protection screens that could cause the game to become unplayable. Because of this, a patch was released by fans to remove these triggers. For confirmation that the patch worked, the patch also changed the title to '''''Earth Bound Zero''''', which became a common name used by fans to distinguish the game from its sequel, with some still using it even after it was officially released as ''EarthBound Beginnings''.

''Mother'' would be succeeded by ''[[Mother 2]]'' (released internationally as ''[[EarthBound]]'') in 1994, which itself was followed by its own sequel [[Mother 3]] in 2006. In 2003, ''Mother'' was also released as part of the Game Boy Advance compilation ''[[Mother 1+2]]''. On June 15, 2015, in celebration of the game's 20th anniversary, ''Mother'' was officially released in English on the Wii U Virtual Console as ''EarthBound Beginnings'', making it the second installment of the series to be released outside of Japan. In February of 2022, ''EarthBound Beginnings'' was rereleased for the second time internationally, this time being made free for owners of Nintendo Switch Online.