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'''. Though the English localization was fully completed in September of 1990 <ref>http://www.lostlevels.org/200407/200407-earthbound2.shtml</ref> [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca-Carlson-9/publication/336936912/figure/fig2/AS:820321233944576@1572591231564/A-page-from-the-1990-November-December-issue-19-of-Nintendo-Power.ppm and was scheduled to release in the Fall of 1991], it was cancelled for a multitude of reasons, the largest one being the upcoming [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]], which was thought to overshadow the English release of the game. Thus, the game was decided too costly to market and produce (despite all of the packaging materials for the game being finalized and ready for production <ref>https://vimeo.com/ondemand/mothertoearth</ref>) and was indefinitely shelved with no plans for a future release, with a {{wp|Canada}}-only release being briefly considered in 1994. <ref>http://www.lostlevels.org/200407/200407-earthbound2.shtml</ref> On June 15th, 2015, the game was released for the first time internationally to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series in North America, with the game being given the official title ''EarthBound Beginnings''. Similar to Japan, the game received positive reception, with critics praising ''EarthBound Beginning''{{'}}s originality, story, and music. However, the game did receive criticism for its difficulty and balance issues, especially the difficulty at [[Mt. Itoi]] and the game’s high random enemy-encounter rate.

Despite this, the game began to receive recognition because of Ness, the protagonist of ''EarthBound'', receiving representation in the 1999 [[Nintendo 64]] title ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' and its successors. Because of this, the game began to receive a large following on internet fan sites such as Starmen.Net (originally EarthBound.Net) and EarthBound Central. In addition, a copy of the English version of ''Mother'' was found on {{wp|eBay}} and was eventually dumped online by the hacker group Neo Demiforce in 1998 under the name "EarthBound Zero" (17 years before the game would be officially released by Nintendo as ''EarthBound Beginnings''), bolstering the [[EarthBound fan community|''EarthBound'' fan community]] even further and simultaneously popularizing the concept of preserving unreleased video games with one of the first unreleased first-party "prototype" titles. Retrospectively, ''EarthBound'' became a massive success, with critics calling it not only one of the best RPGs of all time, but also the most original. The game received praise for its quirky humor and its many parodies of American culture. After Nintendo received massive outcries from the ''EarthBound'' fanbase to get the game released for the Wii U's Virtual Console service on sites like Nintendo's own {{wp|Miiverse}}, the game was released on the service in Japan on March 20th, 2013, with an international release releasing on July 18th, 2013. The Wii U Virtual Console release of the game was the first time the game was released in PAL regions, and it was one of Nintendo's most popular downloadable games of all time.

However, after the success of the [[Super Smash Bros. (series)|''Super Smash Bros.'' series]], encouragement from fans eventually led to Shigesato Itoi returning to development on ''[[Mother 3]]'' for the [[Game Boy Advance]], which was co-developed with [[HAL Laboratory]] and [[Brownie Brown]]. During this time in the Summer of 2003, the director of {{wp|Namco}}'s ''{{wp|Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean}}'', Yasuyuki Honne, met up with then-NCL president [[Satoru Iwata]] and Itoi to propose a joint venture with Namco to produce [[Untitled EarthBound game (Nintendo GameCube)|a new ''Mother'' title]], which would use a felt-like art style and feature [[Ness]]/[[Ninten]] as the main protagonist. Itoi was uninterested (and was initially "flabbergasted"), though he eventually grew to like the felt recreation of 1980s America. <ref>https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-and-namco-discussed-a-potential-earthbound-game-for-the-gamecube-concepts-shown/</ref> To promote the revival of ''Mother 3'', ''Mother'' and ''Mother 2'' were ported to the Game Boy Advance in June 2003, being the compilation cartridge ''[[Mother 1+2]]'', released only in Japan. The Mother portion featured [[Regional differences in EarthBound Beginnings|all of the changes]] that were made in the then-unreleased English prototype of EarthBound Beginnings, while most of Mother 2 remained the same aside from the drop in audio quality due to hardware limitations. A commercial for the game featuring Mr. Saturn ended with the caption "''We're making '''Mother 3''' for the [[Game Boy Advance]] too. Dakota!''". On April 20th, 2006, Mother 3 was finally released in Japan on the Game Boy Advance, featuring the same story, characters, and settings as its Nintendo 64 counterpart. The Game Boy Advance version returned to the 2D pixelated art style that was used in the previous games. ''Mother 3'' received strong critical acclaim in Japan with praise to the rhythm-based RPG combat, but more so on the storyline and tragic events that were rarely seen in its predecessors.

''Mother 3'' remained exclusive to Japan without an official localization, making it the only installment in the series without an official English release to this day. Despite this, the fan website Starmen.Net created a [[Mother 3 fan translation|fan translation]] led by Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, which released on October 17th, 2008 along with a full-color, lavishly illustrated 272-page Handbook to accompany the translation in the vein of the [[EarthBound Player's Guide|''EarthBound'' Player’s Guide]]. The fan translation received strong positive reception from fans, receiving 100,000 downloads within the first week of its release.

The recognition began when Ness was included in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' on the Nintendo 64 and became a staple in the series. Ness's inclusion in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'' was widely applauded and fans were excited to see him return. Throughout the years between the initial release of EarthBound and its virtual console rerelease, the series had a massive following that continued grow larger thanks to the representation of the series in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. During the Wii era ''EarthBound'' was one of the most requested titles for the Wii Virtual Console. However due to legal issues regarding the music sampling, the game was never released despite its high demand. When Mother 2 was released on Japan's Wii U Virtual Console, the demand for ''EarthBound'' to be released in other countries grew all the more. Eventually when it was released, it was revealed that one of the main reasons for releasing it was because of the massive fan outcry on places like Miiverse.

Despite ''Mother 3'' not receiving an official English release (yet), the ''EarthBound'' series is now seen as a mainstream franchise in gaming culture rather than staying as a minor Nintendo classic. ''EarthBound'' in particular is widely viewed as the best example of a {{wp|cult classic}}. Many ''EarthBound'' references and cameos began to appear in many other Nintendo games, ranging from Ness and Lucas appearing as {{mw|mystery mushroom}} power-ups in ''{{mw|Super Mario Maker}}'', to an entire ''EarthBound''-themed level<!--Please put the name of the level--> in ''{{wk|Kirby Planet Robobot}}'', and continues to be an important franchise represented in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. The series has grown to the point where it has spawned fan games such as [[EarthBound hacks and fangames#Mother: Cognitive Dissonance|''Mother: Cognitive Dissonance'']], as well as numerous indie games that took inspiration from the series, a prime example being the critically acclaimed ''{{wp|Undertale}}''.