Difference between revisions of "EarthBound (series)"

The origin of the name "''EarthBound''" came from ''Mother'''s english localization team in 1990, when its head, [[Phil Sandhop]], thought of the name "''Earth Bound''" (stylized as ''EARTH BOUND'') while on a bullet train to Kyoto. Beforehand, the team considered using the ''Mother'' moniker for the English localization, even going so far as to trademark the name in America on November of 1989 <ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UOLj1-q67U&ab_channel=DidYouKnowGaming%3F EarthBound - Did You Know Gaming? Feat. Chuggaaconroy]. ''YouTube''. Retrieved June 12, 2020.</ref>, but Phil Sandhop thought that it wouldn't work well as a title for the game in America; after coming up with ''Earth Bound'', Phil Sandhop and the team ultimately decided upon the name after it stuck. <ref>https://vimeo.com/ondemand/mothertoearth</ref> Later on in 1995, the team behind the English translation of ''Mother 2'' decided to carry over the ''Earth Bound'' (now changed to a one-word "''EarthBound''") moniker in their English translation, as the english translation for ''Mother'' was never released in America by Nintendo until 2015, when they released it under the name "''[[EarthBound Beginnings]]''".

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.

With ''Mother 3'' finally complete, Shigesato Itoi decided that ''Mother 3'' was the official conclusion of the series, and has stated that he has no plans in creating a fourth ''Mother'' installment in the future.

|Also known as ''{{vg|Mother}}'', ''[[EarthBound Beginnings]]'' is the first game to be released in the ''EarthBound'' series. It follows the adventures of [[Ninten]], [[Lloyd]], [[Ana]], and [[Teddy]] trying to find the [[Eight Melodies]] scattered across [[America]] in order to subdue the evil alien [[Giygas]] and his intentions of destroying all human life on Earth. It was released in Japan on July 27th, 1989. After an official english localization (''Earth Bound'') was completed in 1990 but never saw its initial release in 1991, it was released via the Virtual Console service on the Wii U on June 14, 2015, under the official title "''EarthBound Beginnings''".

|''Mother 1+2'' is a port of the Japanese versions of ''EarthBound Beginnings'' and ''EarthBound'' on the Game Boy Advance, containing various tweaks to audio and graphics to suit the Game Boy Advance's style, screen size, and hardware limitations. While the ''Mother'' port is a near-exact Japanese translation of the english "''Earth Bound''" version, the ''Mother 2'' port has minimal graphic and audio changes. It was released in Japan on June 20th, 2003 to hype players for the release of ''Mother 3''. It was never released outside of Japan, likely due to the original ''Mother'' being unreleased outside of Japan at the time.