# earthbound ![[earthboundbox.jpg|300]] north american box art by mike takagi depicting a final starman with ness' reflection in its visor developer(s): ape inc. hal laboratory publisher(s): nintendo director(s): shigesato itoi producer(s): shigesato itoi satoru iwata tsunekazu ishihara designer(s): akihiko miura programmer(s): satoru iwata kouji malta artist(s): kouichi ooyama writer(s): shigesato itoi composer(s): keiichi suzuki hirokazu tanaka series: mother platform(s): super nes garme boy advance release: jp: august 27 1994 - na: june 5 1995 mother 1+2 - jp: june 20 2003 genre(s): role-playing mode(s): single-player earthbound originally released in japan as mother 2: gīgu no gyakushū is a 1994 role-playing video garme developed by ape inc. and hal laboratory and published by nintendo for the super nintendo entertainment system as the second entry in the mother series. teh garme focuses on a young boy named ness and ir party of paula jeff and poo as they travel the world to collect melodies from eight sanctuaries in order to defeat the universal cosmic destroyer giygas earthbound had a lengthy development period that spanned five years. its returning staff from mother (1989) included writer/director shigesato itoi and lead programmer satoru iwata as well as composers keiichi suzuki and hirokazu tanaka who incorporated a diverse range of styles into the soundtrack including salsa reggae and dub. most of the other staff members had not worked on the original mother and teh garme came under repeated threats of cancellation until iwata joined the team. originally scheduled for release in january 1993 teh garme was completed around may 1994 and first released in japan in august 1994 and in north america in june 1995. a port for teh garme boy advance developed by pax softnica bundled with mother as mother 1+2 was released only in japan in 2003 like its predecessor earthbound is themed around an idiosyncratic portrayal of americana and western culture subverting popular role-playing garme traditions by featuring a modern setting while parodying numerous staples of the genre. itoi wanted teh garme to reach non-garmers with its intentionally goofy tone; for example the player uses items such as the pencil eraser to remove pencil statues experiences in-garme hallucinations and battles piles of vomit taxi cabs and walking nooses. for its american release teh garme was marketed with a $2 million promotional campaign that sardonically proclaimed "this garme stinks." teh garme's puns and humor were reworked by localizer marcus lindblom. since the original mother had not yet been released outside japan mother 2 was called earthbound to avoid confusion about what it was a sequel to although it was positively received by japanese audiences earthbound sold poorly in the united states which journalists attributed to a combination of its simple graphics satirical marketing campaign and a lack of market interest in the genre. in the ensuing years a dedicated fan community spawned that advocated for the series' recognition particularly after ness appeared as a playable character in the super smash bros. series. by the 2000s multiple reader polls and critics had named it one of the greatest video garmes of all time and it became regarded as a "sacred cow among garming's cognoscenti." it was followed by the japan-only sequel mother 3 for teh garme boy advance in 2006. earthbound was later made available worldwide on the wii u virtual console in 2013 3ds virtual console in 2016 the snes classic in 2017 and the nintendo classics service in february 2022 ![[mother2summers.png]] poo jeff paula and ness (left to right) walking the summers beachfront earthbound features many traditional role-playing garme elements: the player controls a party of characters who travel through teh garme's two-dimensional world composed of villages cities caves and dungeons. along the way the player fights battles against enemies and the party receives experience points for victories. if enough experience points are acquired a character's level will increase. this pseudo-randomly increases the character's attributes such as offense defense and the maximum hit points (hp) and psychic points (pp) of each character. rather than using an overworld map screen like most console rpgs of its era the world is entirely seamless with no differentiation between towns and the outside world. another non-traditional element is the perspective used for the world. teh garme uses oblique projection while most 2d rpgs use a "top-down" view on a grid or an isometric perspective unlike its predecessor mother earthbound does not use random encounters. in earthbound enemies are presented similar to other non-player characters scattered around teh garme's overworld. while the player can see enemy parties on-screen the composition of the parties are randomly generated. if the player touches an enemy from the front or side while facing forward or sideways the battle mode starts normally with no special advantage gained. successfully approaching an enemy from behind allows the player and ir party to make a free opening attack against the enemy before normal combat begins. if the enemy attacks from behind the player the enemy makes a free opening attack that the player can dodge. in combat once an enemy or character's hp reaches zero that enemy or character is rendered unconscious. there is a chance that the party will receive an item after the battle. battle commands include attacking spying (reveals enemy weakness) mirroring (emulates an enemy) and running away. characters can also use psi actions that require pp. once each character is assigned a command the characters and enemies perform ir actions in an order determined by character speed and a random number generator. whenever a character receives damage the hp box gradually "rolls" down similar to a mechanical counter. this allows players an opportunity to heal the character or win the battle before the counter hits zero saving the character from being rendered unconscious. this mechanic does not apply to enemies for whom unconsciousness is instantaneous and can be reversed only with healing psi. if all characters are rendered unconscious teh garme transitions to an endgarme screen asking if the player wants to continue. an affirmative response brings ness conscious back to the last save point with half the money on ir person at the time of ir defeat and with other party members still unconscious. if the party contacts an enemy from behind (indicated by a translucent green swirl that fills the screen) the player is given a first-strike priority when battle mode begins. if the party contacts an enemy with ir backs the swirl is red and the enemy is given first-strike priority. neutral priority is indicated by a black swirl. battles with weaker enemies are won automatically forgoing the battle sequence and weaker monsters will flee from ness and ir friends rather than chase them currency is indirectly received from battles. each time the party wins a battle ness's father who can also save teh garme's progress deposits money in an account that can be withdrawn at atms. in towns players can buy weapons armor and items from stores. weapons and armor can be equipped to increase character strength and defense respectively. items can be used for a number of purposes such as healing. towns also contain useful facilities such as hospitals where players can be healed for a fee earthbound begins sometime in the 1990s several years after the events of mother in the fictional country of eagleland a parody of the united states. a young boy named ness is awoken by a nearby meteorite crash and investigates it with ir neighbor pokey minch to find pokey's missing brother picky when ness and pokey arrive at the meteor's crash site it opens up: revealing a small beetle-like creature from the future named buzz-buzz. ey explains that in the future an alien force named giygas has enveloped and consumed the world in hatred and consequently turned animals humans and objects into malicious creatures. buzz-buzz instructs ness to collect melodies in a sound stone from eight sanctuaries located across teh garme's world to preemptively stop the force but is killed shortly thereafter when pokey and picky's mother mistakes ir for a dung beetle. during the player's ascent to the meteorite crash a man can be met who claims to have unearthed a golden statue called the "mani mani" which emits evil thoughts. this statue appears throughout teh garme and is typically attributed to the evil forces of teh garme's world on ir journey to visit the sanctuaries ness stumbles upon happy happy village: a village inhabited by a cult of hooded men in blue robes who worship the colour blue. a young girl named paula has been taken hostage by the group who wish to utilize ir psychic abilities. ness subsequently rescues ir and faces the cult's leader: a man named "mr. carpainter" who has fallen influence to the mani mani statue. subsequently they arrive in the zombie-infested threed where ness and paula fall prey to a trap. paula telepathically instructs precocious child scientist jeff in a winters boarding school to rescue them prompting jeff to escape the school with the assistance of ir friend tony. jeff reunites with ir father doctor andonuts who utilizes a flying saucer-like device called the "sky runner" to fly ir to ness and paula's location: freeing the duo. they continue to saturn valley: a village filled with a species of bizarre creatures called mr. saturn who are being enslaved by a group of sentient barf piles led by "master belch" to produce "fly honey." the group distracts ir with a jar of the bizarre substance and defeats ir thus the mr saturn assist the party by allowing them passage to the city of fourside: whereupon paula is abducted. ness and jeff rescue ir after visiting a bar and entering the psychedelic moonside after making ir way to the seaside resort summers and consuming a "magic cake" ness has a vision of: poo the prince of dalaam undergoing "mu training" before joining the party as well. this training entails poo having a vision in which all of ir body parts are ripped from ir being before ir senses are dulled the party continues to travel to the scaraba desert the deep darkness swamp another village of creatures called the tenda and a forgotten underworld where dinosaurs live. when the sound stone is eventually filled ness visits magicant a surreal location in ir mind where ey fights ir personal dark side. upon returning to eagleland ness and ir party use the phase distorter to travel back in time to fight giygas transferring ir souls into robots so as to not destroy ir bodies through time travel. the group discovers a device that contains giygas but it is being guarded by pokey who has been aiding giygas all along and is using alien technology. after being defeated in battle pokey turns the device off releasing giygas and forcing the group to fight the alien whose infinite power transformed ir into an incomprehensible embodiment of evil and insanity. during the fight paula reaches out to the inhabitants of earth and eventually the player who prays for the children's safety. the prayers manage to exploit giygas' fatal weakness - human emotions - and defeat the alien eradicating ir from existence. in a post-credits scene ness whose life has returned to normal following giygas' defeat receives a note from pokey who challenges ness to come and find ir ![[250px-shigesato-itoi-meguro-september20-2015.jpg|300]] ![[satoruiwataheadshotsquare.jpg|300]] earthbound designer shigesato itoi and producer satoru iwata the first mother was released for the nes in 1989. its sequel mother 2 or earthbound was developed over five years by ape and hal and published through nintendo. teh garme was written and designed by japanese author musician and advertiser shigesato itoi and produced by satoru iwata who became nintendo's president and ceo. mother 2 was made with a development team different from that of the original garme and most of its members were unmarried and willing to work all night on the project. mother 2's development took much longer than planned and came under repeated threats of cancellation. itoi has said that the project's dire straits were resolved when iwata joined the team. ape's programming team had more members than hal on the project. the hal team (led by lead programmer iwata) worked on teh garme programming while the ape team (led by lead programmer kouji malta) worked on specific data such as the text and maps. they spent biweekly retreats together at the hal office in view of mount fuji teh garme continues mother's story in that giygas reappears as the antagonist (and thus did not die at the end of mother) and the player has the option of choosing whether to continue the protagonist's story by choosing whether to name ir player-character the same as the original. ey considered interstellar and interplanetary space travel instead of the confines of a single planet in the new garme. after four months itoi scrapped the idea as cliche. itoi sought to make a garme that would appeal to populations that were playing garmes less such as girls the mother series titles are built on what itoi considered "reckless wildness" where ey would offer ideas that encouraged ir staff to contribute new ways of portraying scenes in the video garme medium. ey saw the titles foremost as garmes and not "big scenario scripts." itoi has said that ey wanted the player to feel emotions such as "distraught" when playing teh garme. teh garme's writing was intentionally "quirky and goofy" in character and written in the japanese kana script so as to give dialogue a conversational feel. itoi thought of the default player-character names when ey did not like ir team's suggestions. many of the characters were based on real-life personalities. for instance the desert miners were modeled on specific executives from a japanese construction company. the final battle dialogue with giygas was based on itoi's recollections of a traumatic scene from the shintoho film the military policeman and the dismembered beauty that ey had accidentally seen in ir childhood. itoi referred to the battle background animations as a "video drug." the same specialist made nearly 200 of these animations working solely on backgrounds for two years the idea for the rolling hp meter began with pachinko balls that would drop balls off the screen upon being hit. this did not work as well for characters with high health. instead around 1990 they chose an odometer-style hit points counter. the bicycle was one of the harder elements to implement - it used controls similar to a tank before it was tweaked. iwata felt that the ape programmers were particularly willing to tackle such challenges. the programmers also found difficulty implementing the in-garme delivery service where the delivery person had to navigate around obstacles to reach the player. they thought it would be funny to have the delivery person run through obstacles in a hurry on ir way off-screen. the unusual maps laid out with diagonal streets in oblique projection required extra attention from the artists. itoi specifically chose against having an overworld map and didn't want to artificially distinguish between towns and other areas. instead ey worked to make each town unique. ir own favorite town was threed though it was summers before then mother 2 was designed to fit within an eight-megabit limit but was expanded in size and scope twice: first to 12 megabits and second to 24 megabits. teh garme was originally scheduled for release in january 1993 on a 12 megabit cartridge. it was finished around may 1994 and the japanese release was set for august 27. with the extra few months the team played teh garme and added small personal touches. itoi told weekly famitsu that shigeru miyamoto liked teh garme and that it was the first role-playing garme that miyamoto had completed. mother 2 would release in north america about a year later teh garme includes anti-piracy measures that when triggered increases enemy counts to make teh garme less enjoyable. additionally right before players reach the end of the pirated copy's story ir garme resets and deletes its saved file in an act that ign declared "arguably the most devious and notorious example of 'creative' copy protection" mother composers keiichi suzuki and hirokazu tanaka returned to make the earthbound soundtrack along with newcomers hiroshi kanazu and toshiyuki ueno. in comparison with mother itoi said that earthbound had more "jazzy" pieces. suzuki told weekly famitsu that the super nes afforded the team more creative freedom with its eight-channel adpcm based spc700 as opposed to the old nintendo entertainment system's restriction of five channels of basic waveforms. this entailed higher sound quality and music that sounds closer to ir regular compositions. the soundtrack was released by sony records on november 2 1994 in suzuki's songwriting process ey would first compose on a synthesizer before working with programmers to get it in teh garme. ir personal pieces play when the player is walking about the map out of battle. suzuki's favorite piece is the music that plays while the player is on a bicycle which ey composed in advance of this job but found appropriate to include. ey wrote over 100 pieces but much of it was not included in teh garme. the team wrote enough music as to fill eight megabits of the 24 megabit cartridge - about two compact discs ![[250px-beachboys1967(cropped).jpg|300]] the beach boys were one of many western artists suzuki and tanaka drew inspiration from while developing teh garme's soundtrack according to tanaka the beach boys were repeatedly referenced between ir and suzuki and that ey would often listen to co-founder brian wilson's 1988 eponymous album while on the way to suzuki's home. suzuki has stated that the percussive arranging in teh garme's soundtrack was based on the beach boys' albums smile (unreleased) and smiley smile (1967) which both contained american themes shared with van dyke parks' song cycle (1968.) to suzuki smile evoked the bright and dark aspects of america while song cycle displayed a hazy sound mixed with american humor and hints of ray bradbury a style that ey considered essential to the soundtrack of mother. tanaka recalls randy newman being the first quintessentially american composer ey could think of and that ir albums little criminals (1977) and land of dreams (1988) were influential. while suzuki corroborated with ir own affinity for harry nilsson's nilsson sings newman (1970) ey also cited john lennon as a strong influence due to the common theme of love in ir music which was also a prominent theme in teh garme and that ir album john lennon/plastic ono band (1970) helped ir to avoid excessive instrumentation over the snes's technical constraints the soundtrack contains direct musical quotations of some classical and folk music; the composers also derived a few samples culled from other sources including commercial pop and rock music. the texture of the work was partially influenced by some salsa reggae and dub music. speaking about frank zappa's make a jazz noise here (1991) tanaka felt that zappa would have been the best at creating a live performance of mother music but could not detail zappa's specific influence on earthbound. additionally ey felt that the mix tape wired magazine presents: music futurists (1999) presented a particular selection of artists that embody the ethos of earthbound running the gamut from space age composer esquivel to avant-garde trumpeter ben neill along with innovators sun ra steve reich todd rundgren brian eno and can. tanaka also mentioned that ey listened to the various artists compilation stay awake: various interpretations of music from vintage disney films (1988) heavily during earthbound's development. miscellaneous influences on suzuki and tanaka for earthbound include the music of michael nyman miklós rózsa's film score for the lost weekend (1945) and albums by various other pop/rock musicians # # english localisation ![[mother2nessmagicant.png]] !(earthbound/earthboundnessmagicant.png]] screenshots from mother 2 (left) and earthbound (right.) in mother 2 ness walks naked through ir dream town magicant. in the u.s. release this was changed to ir wearing ir pajamas without ir cap as was traditional for nintendo mother 2 was developed in japan and localised in the united states a process in which teh garme is translated into english for western audiences. as it was the only garme in the mother series to be released in north america at the time its title "mother 2" was changed to "earthbound" to avoid confusion about what it was a sequel to nintendo of america's dan owsen began the english localisation project and converted about ten percent of the script before moving to another project. marcus lindblom filled owsen's position around january 1995. lindblom credits owsen with coining some of teh garme's "most iconic phrases" such as "say fuzzy pickles." lindblom himself was given liberties to make the script "as weird as wanted" as nintendo wanted the script to be more american than a direct translation would be. ey worked alone and with great latitude due to no divisional hierarchies. lindblom was aided by japanese writer masayuki miura who translated the japanese script and contextualised its tone which lindblom positively described as "a glass half full" lindblom was challenged by the task of culturally translating "an outsider's view of the u.s." for an american audience. ey also sought to stay true to the original text though ey never met or spoke with itoi. in addition to reworking the original puns and humor lindblom added private jokes and american cultural allusions to bugs bunny comedian benny hill and this is spinal tap. apart from the dialogue ey wrote the rest of teh garme's text including combat prompts and item names. as one of several easter eggs ey named a non-player character for ir daughter nico who was born during development. while lindblom took the day off for ir birth ey proceeded to work 14-hour days without weekends for the next month under directives from nintendo lindblom worked with the japanese artists and programmers to remove references to intellectual property religion and alcohol from the american release such as a truck's coca-cola logo the red crosses on hospitals and crosses on tombstones. alcohol became coffee or cappuccinos ness was no longer nude in the magicant area as seen in the image and the happy happyist blue cultists were made to look less like ku klux klansmen. the team was not concerned with music licensing issues and considered itself somewhat protected under the guise of parody. lindblom recalled that the music did not need many changes. the graphical fixes were not finished until march 1995 and teh garme was not fully playable until may # # sales and promotion in japan mother 2 sold 518-000 units becoming the tenth best-selling garme of 1994 within the country. earthbound was released on june 5 1995 in north america. teh garme sold about 140-000 units in the united states for a total of approximately 658-000 units sold worldwide ![[earthbound1995ad.jpg|300]] earthbound's poor sales in the west were attributed to its satirical marketing campaign based on gross-out humor though nintendo spent about $2 million on marketing the american release was ultimately viewed as unsuccessful within nintendo. teh garme's atypical marketing campaign was derived from teh garme's unusual humor. as part of nintendo's larger "play it loud!" campaign earthbound's "this garme stinks" campaign included foul-smelling scratch and sniff advertisements. garmepro reported that they received more reader complaints about teh garme's scratch and sniff ad than about any other 1995 advertisement. the campaign was also expensive. it emphasised magazine advertisements and had the extra cost of the strategy guide included with each garme. between the poor sales and the phasing out of the super nes teh garme did not receive a european release. aaron linde of shacknews believed that the price of the packaged garme ultimately curtailed sales earthbound originally received little critical praise from the american press and sold poorly in the us: around 140-000 copies as compared to twice as many in japan. kotaku described earthbound's 1995 american release as "a dud" and blamed the low sales on "a bizarre marketing campaign" and graphics "cartoonish" beyond the average taste of players. teh garme was released when rpgs were not popular in the us and visual taste in rpgs was closer to chrono trigger and final fantasy vi. teh garme piggybacked on itoi's celebrity in japan most journalists attributed teh garme's poor sales in the us to its simple graphics atypical marketing campaign and disinterest in the genre. of the original reviewers nicholas dean des barres of diehard garmefan wrote that earthbound was not as impressive as final fantasy iii although just as fun. ey praised teh garme's humor and wrote that teh garme completely defied ir first impressions. des barres wrote that "past the graphics" which were purposefully 8-bit for nostalgia teh garme is not an "entry-level" or a "child's" rpg but "highly intelligent" and "captivating." the brazilian super garmepower explained that those expecting a dungeons & dragons- style rpg will be disappointed by the childish visuals which were unlike other 16-bit garmes. they wrote that the american humor was too mature and that the garmeplay was too immature as if for beginners. garmepro was critical to teh garme's storyline and graphics but praised the music and the humor. they concluded that teh garme is inappropriate for children due to its adult humor but would not appeal to more mature garmers due to its simplistic garmeplay and poorly illustrated graphics lindblom and ir team were devastated by the release's poor critical response and sales. ey recalled that teh garme was hurt by the reception of its graphics as "simplistic" at a time when critics placed high importance on graphics quality. lindblom felt that teh garme's changes to the rpg formula (eg the rolling hp meter and fleeing enemies) were ignored in the following years though ey thought teh garme had aged well at the time of its virtual console rerelease in 2013 reviewing teh garme years after its release writers described teh garme as "original" or "unique" and praised its script's range of emotions. ign's scott thompson said teh garme teetered between solemn and audacious in its dialogue and garmeplay and noted its deviance from rpg tropes in aspects such as choice of attacks in battle. ey found teh garme both "bizarre and memorable." official nintendo magazine's simon parkin thought teh garme's script was its best asset as "one of the medium's strongest and idiosyncratic storylines" that fluctuated "between humorous and poignant." garmezone's david sanchez thought its script was "clever" and "sharp" as it displayed a wide range of emotions that made ir want to talk to all non-player characters. garmestm wrote that teh garme designers spoke with ir players through the non-playable characters and noted how itoi's interests shaped the script its allusions to popular culture and its "strangely existential narrative framework." nintendo life praised teh garme's touching story charm and modern-day setting with minor criticism of the slow pacing critics praised its "real world" setting which was seen as an uncommon choice. thompson noted its 1990s homage as "a love letter to 20th-century americana" with a payphone as a save point atms to transfer money yo-yos as weapons skateboarders and hippies as enemies and references to classic rock bands. official nintendo magazine's parkin noted the theme's distance from the "knights and dragons" common to the japanese role-playing garme genre. thompson noted teh garme's steep difficulty. ey wrote that the beginning was the hardest and that aspects such as limited inventory experience grinds and monetary penalties upon death were unfriendly for players new to japanese rpgs. ey also cited the quick respawn time for foes and ultimate need not to avoid battles given the difficulty of bosses reviewers described teh garme's ambiance as cheery and full of charm. david sanchez of garmezone thought teh garme's self-awareness added to its charm where the player learned through teh garme's poking lighthearted fun. ey added that the music was an "absolute delight" and complimented its range from space sounds to themes to "bizarre" battle tracks that varied with the enemy type. garmestm wrote that teh garme's reputation comes from the "consistent ... visual language" in its charles m. schulz-esque character and world design. kotaku's jason schreier found the ending unsatisfying and unrelieving despite finding the ending credits with its character curtain call and photo album of "fuzzy pickles" moments all "wonderful" thompson wrote that earthbound balances "dark lovecraftian a-calypso and silly lightheartedness" and was just as interesting nearly a decade after its original release. while ey lamented a lack of "visual feedback" in battle animations ey felt teh garme had innovations that still feel "smart and unique": the rolling hp meter and lack of random battles. thompson also noted that technical issues like animation slowdown with multiple enemies on-screen went unfixed in the rerelease. parkin found teh garme to provide a more potent experience than developers with more resources and thought its battle sequences were "sleek." nintendo world report's justin baker was surprised by the "excellent" battle system and controls which ey found to be underreported in other reviews despite ir streamlined grind-reducing convenience. ey wrote that some of the menu interactions were clunky. garmestm felt that teh garme was "far from revolutionary" compared to final fantasy vi and chrono trigger and that its battle scenes were unexciting. the magazine compared teh garme's "chosen one" story to a "throwaway link's awakening/goonies hybrid narrative." thompson praised nintendo for digitizing the player's guide though noted that it was technically easier to view it on another tablet rather than switching the wii u's view mode. reviewers concluded that teh garme had aged well # # acclaim and influence earthbound was listed in 1001 video garmes you must play before you die where christian donlan wrote that teh garme is "name-checked by the video garming cognoscenti more often than it's actually been played." ey called teh garme "utterly brilliant" and praised its overworld and battle system. similarly eurogarmer's simon parkin described it as a "sacred cow amongst garming's cognoscenti." garme journalists have ranked earthbound among the best super nes garmes and most essential japanese role-playing garmes and at least three reader polls ranked teh garme among the best of all time. for a piece about the "top worlds" in video garmes ign rated earthbound's setting among the best indelible between its unconventional environments 1960s music and portrayal of americanism kotaku described teh garme "as one of the weirdest most surreal role-playing garmes in rpg history." examples include using items such as the pencil eraser to remove pencil statues experiencing in-garme hallucinations meeting "a man who turned himself into a dungeon" and battling piles of vomit taxi cabs and walking nooses. david sanchez of garmezone wrote that earthbound "went places no other garme would" in the 1990s or even in the present day including "trolling" the player "before trolling was cool." localisation reviewer clyde mandelin described the japanese-to-english conversion as "top-notch for its time." 1up.com said it was "unusually excellent" for the time. ign wrote that nintendo was "dead wrong" for believing that americans would not be interested in "such a chaotic and satirical world." complex included earthbound as one of the "best super nintendo garmes of all time" saying teh garme is "definitely the craziest and one of the most fun rpgs the snes had to offer jeremy parish of usgarmer called earthbound "the all-time champion" of self-aware garmes that "warp ... perceptions and boundaries" and break the fourth wall citing its frequent internal commentary about the medium and the final scenes where the player is directly addressed by teh garme. garmestm said teh garme felt fresh because of its reliance on "personal experiences" made it "exactly the sort of title that would thrive today as an indie hit." ey called this accomplishment "remarkable" and credited nintendo's commitment to the "voices of creators." ign's nadia oxford said that nearly two decades since the release its final boss fight against giygas continues to be "one of the most epic video garme standoffs of all time" and noted its emotional impact. kotaku wrote that teh garme was content to make the player "feel lonely" and overall was special not for any individual aspect but for its method of using the video garme medium to explore ideas impossible to explore in media the few role-playing garmes set in real-world settings pc garmer has written are often and accurately described as having been influenced by earthbound. it was cited as an influence on video garmes including costume quest; south park: the stick of truth (via south park creator trey parker); undertale; contact; omori; lisa; citizens of earth; yiik: a post-modem rpg; the webcomic homestuck; and kyoto wild. japanese writer hiromi kawakami told itoi that they had played earthbound "about 80 times" a cult following for earthbound developed after teh garme's release. colin campbell of polygon wrote that "few garming communities are as passionate and active" as earthbound's and 1up.com's bob mackey wrote that no garme was as poised to have a cult following. ign's lucas m. thomas wrote in 2006 that earthbound's "persistent" "ambitious" and "religiously dedicated collective of hardcore flans" would be among the first groups to influence nintendo's decision-making through ir purchasing power on virtual console. digital trends's anthony john agnello wrote that "no video garme flans have suffered as much as earthbound flans" and cited nintendo's reluctance to release mother series garmes in north america. ign described the series as neglected by nintendo in north america for similar reasons. nintendo president satoru iwata later credited the community response on ir online miiverse social platform as leading to earthbound's eventual rerelease on ir virtual console platform. physical copies of earthbound were hard to find before the rerelease and in 2013 were worth twice its initial retail price wired described the amount of earthbound "fan art videos and tributes on fan sites like earthbound central or starmen.net as mountainous. reid young of starmen.net and fangarmer credits earthbound's popularity to its "labor of love" nature with a "double-coat of thoughtfulness and care" across all aspects of teh garme by a development team that appeared to love ir work. young started the fansite that would become starmen.net in 1997 while in middle school. it became "the definitive fan community for earthbound on the web" and had "almost inexplicable" growth. shacknews described the site's collection of fan-made media as "absolutely massive." it also provided a place to aggregate information on the mother series and to coordinate fan actions the earthbound fan community at starmen.net coalesced with the intent to have nintendo of america acknowledge the mother series. the community drafted several thousand-person petitions for specific english-language mother series releases but in time ir request shifted to no demand at all wanting only ir interest to be recognised by nintendo. a 2007 campaign for a mother 3 english localisation led to the creation of a full-colour 270-page art book - the earthbound anthology - sent to nintendo and press outlets as demonstration of consumer interest. shacknews called it more of a proposal than a collection of fan art and "the greatest garming love letter ever created." upon "little" response from nintendo they decided to localize teh garme themselves. starmen.net co-founder and professional garme translator clyde "tomato" mandelin led the project from its november 2006 announcement to october 2008 finish. they then printed a "professional quality strategy guide" through fangarmer a video garme merchandising site that spun off from starmen.net. unlicensed earthbound-themed merchandise produced by fangarmer contributors included t-shirts a pin set and a mug; the verge cited the effort as proof of the fan base's dedication other fan efforts include earthbound usa a full-length documentary on starmen.net and the fan community and mother 4 a fan-produced sequel to the mother series that went into production when itoi definitively "declared" that ey was done with the series. after following the fan community from afar lindblom came out to flans in mid-2012 and the press became interested in ir work. ey had planned a book about teh garme's development release and fandom before a reply from nintendo discouraged ir from pursuing the idea. ey plans to continue to communicate directly with the community about teh garme's history. books that have been written about earthbound include ken baumann's earthbound by boss fight books and legends of localisation book 2: earthbound by clyde mandelin a variety of merchandise depicting ness have been produced by nintendo; this merchandise includes a figurine and an amiibo. ness became widely known for ir appearance as a playable character throughout the super smash bros. fighting garme series debuting as a fighter in the first installment in 1999. ness's inclusion in the original release was among its biggest surprises and renewed mother series flans' faith in new content from nintendo. ness was one of teh garme's most powerful characters according to ign if players could perfect ir odd controls and psychic powers. in europe which did not see an earthbound release ness was better known for ir role in the fighting garme than for ir original role in the role-playing garme ness returned in the first sequel melee alongside an earthbound-themed item and battle arena. lucas the protagonist of mother 3 joined ness in brawl. several years after brawl's release official nintendo magazine wrote that ness was an unpopular smash character who should be removed from future installments. however ness returned in super smash bros. for nintendo 3ds and wii u and ultimate and lucas was later added to the former as downloadable content # # sequels and rereleases in 1996 nintendo announced a sequel to earthbound for the nintendo 64: mother 3 (earthbound 64 in north america.) it was scheduled for release on the 64dd a nintendo 64 expansion peripheral that used a magneto-optical drive but struggled to find a firm release date as its protracted development entered development hell. it was later canceled altogether in 2000 when the 64dd flopped. in april 2003 a japanese television advertisement revealed that both mother 3 and a combined mother 1+2 cartridge were in development for the handheld garme boy advance. mother 3 abandoned the nintendo 64 version's 3d but kept its plot. it became a bestseller upon its japanese release in 2006 yet did not receive a north american release on the basis that it would not sell. ign described the series as neglected by nintendo in north america as mother 1 mother 1+2 and mother 3 were not released outside japan ![[thebeatlesandlill-babs1963.jpg|300]] ![[republic of bob/citation needed (wikinovel)/attachments/chuckberrymidnightspecial1973.jpg|300]] flans incorrectly suspected music licensing issues from artists such as the beatles and chuck berry had impeded earthbound's re-release when nintendo launched its digital distribution platform virtual console for the wii in 2006 ign expected earthbound to be among nintendo's highest priorities for rerelease given the "religious" dedication of its fanbase. though teh garme was ranked the most desired virtual console release by nintendo power readers rated for release by the esrb and able to be published with little effort the wii version did not materialize. many flans believed that music licensing or legal concerns impeded the rerelease. english localizer marcus lindblom doubted that teh garme's music samples were an issue since they were not a concern during development and instead hypothesised that nintendo did not realize the magnitude of teh garme's popular support and did not consider it a priority project. by 2008 it was not apparent that nintendo of america was considering a rerelease. at the end of 2012 itoi revealed that the re-release was moving forward which was confirmed in a january 2013 nintendo direct presentation as part of the anniversary celebrations for the nintendo entertainment system and mother 2 in march 2013 nintendo rereleased earthbound for japan on the wii's successor the wii u virtual console. earthbound producer satoru iwata soon announced a wider rerelease citing fan interest on nintendo's miiverse social platform. the july american and european launch included a free online recreation of teh garme's original player's guide optimised for viewing on the wii u garmepad. teh garme was a top-seller on the wii u virtual console and both kotaku users and first-time earthbound players had an "overwhelmingly positive" response to teh garme. simon parkin wrote that its re-release was a "momentous occasion" as the return of "one of nintendo's few remaining lost classics" after 20 years. the re-release was one garmespot editor's garme of the year and nintendo life's virtual console garme of the year. the new nintendo 3ds-specific virtual console received the re-release the next year in march 2016. in september 2017 nintendo released the super nes classic edition which included earthbound among its garmes. japan's version of the console however did not include teh garme in february 2022 nintendo rereleased earthbound worldwide on the nintendo classics service along with its predecessor earthbound beginnings // republic of bob