I'm sure all, or at least most, of you have heard this news elsewhere already, but just in case you're among the handful who haven't: last night, Nintendo decided to shock everyone and drop an official English localization of the original Mother game on the Wii U's European and North American eShops.
This is the 8-bit precursor to the SNES game, EarthBound (known as Mother 2 in Japan), that has garnered quite the cult following in the two decades since it first hit North American store shelves in 1995, for those of you who are lacking a bit of knowledge about this series of wonderfully and endearingly odd RPGs.
Another morsel of info some of you may or may not know about Mother (aka EarthBound Beginnings): Nintendo translated the game into English shortly after it hit the streets of Japan (in 1989, for the Famicom), but its North American release was scrapped at the last minute in favor of its 16-bit sequel.
If you'd like to learn a bit more about this heretofore-unreleased NES title before handing over nearly seven of your hard-earned dollars for a digital copy of it, you may want to check out the trailer above or the message from series creator, Shigesato Itoi, that can be seen below (and here).
You also may want to check out a couple of previous posts I've published about this game--one of which features a few photos of Mother's fabulous box and cartridge, and one of which offers a glimpse at its similarly stellar instruction manual.
The only other thing I've got to say about this whole she-bang is that I sincerely hope the powers that be at Nintendo eventually decide to put EarthBound Beginnings on 3DS eShops around the world, too, as it would be a real shame if only Wii U owners got to experience it.
I think there is a strong chance we'll also see Mother3 on Tuesday at E3. This could have been a way to (a) start the show off with a bang, and (b) get it out in preparation for Mother3 so all three are available at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI don't hold out hope for Beginnings to come to the 3DS though. It would be the only Earthbound game on it as the SNES version (since they aren't putting those games on 3DS) and Mother3 will probably never appear on the handheld. It would be nice, but it would also be a complete standalone title, and I think Nintendo would want all three on the same platform.
Oh man. I went into the eShop for Smash DLC and hadn't heard about this, and I was like, "Wait...what is this? Is this? OHMYGOD IT IS!!!!!!!!!" It was the best kind of surprise. If Mother 3 hits, I'll die before I get a chance to play it. That would be the greatest move of all time for Nintendo.
ReplyDeleteYou probably have a point IF Mother 3 earns a Wii U release—and I also consider possible/likely at this point, by the way. If it isn’t, though, there’s really no excuse for EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound not to be added to the 3DS eShop, too, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteAnother tactic Nintendo could take would be to make all three Mother/EarthBound games available digitally for the Wii U and via a cartridge compilation for the 3DS. I doubt the company would go that route, but I certainly wouldn’t complain if it did.
BTW, speaking of Mother 3, should Nintendo decide to localize it for non-Japanese markets, I wonder what they’ll call it? EarthBound 2 would be weird, so I have a feeling they’ll attach some sort of subtitle to the EarthBound name.
Finally, all of this Mother talk has me wanting to complete my trilogy of the original Japanese releases of these games. I bought the first Mother for Famicom ages ago and just picked up a CIB copy of Mother 3, but I’ve yet to add Mother 2 into the mix. Maybe I’ll have to get on that soon…
Yes, it'll definitely be interesting if Mother 3 is announced tomorrow, Justin! Fingers crossed...
ReplyDeleteThe only way I think they would put any Earthbound game out on 3DS is on a cartridge as a collection. They won't put the SNES Earthbound on the 3DS Virtual Console because they have stated they have no plans on bringing SNES games (or even GBA games for that matter) to 3DS VC... and the 3DS is so long in the tooth currently that I doubt that they would start now. It's an odd choice because I think the 3DS can easily handle an SNES game, and people would buy a lot of SNES titles on 3DS - but they are against it for some reason. Hence, why I am certain the SNES Earthbound (and the other two by default) won't be on it, despite a clear demand for it.
ReplyDeleteCount me in as another one who has his hopes up for Mother 3 to be apart of tomorrow's E3 event. If not tomorrow, then there's a chance we might get it in the near future thanks to Earthbound Beginnings being released.
ReplyDeleteLike yourself Bryan, i do hope Earthbound beginnings sees a release on the 3DS. I find myself playing more RPG's handheld these days.
Yeah, I find Nintendo’s reluctance to put even SNES games on
ReplyDeletethe 3DS eShop *really* annoying. Hell, their reluctance to put GBA games on the
3DS eShop annoys me, too, as the Ambassador program proves they could do so if
they wanted to. Blech.
Anyway, yes, I agree that the only way 3DS lovers are going
to get to play the Mother trilogy on our systems of choice will be if Nintendo
releases some kind of physical/retail compilation. Sadly, I have a feeling that’s
pretty unlikely. I guess I’ll just have to either play my original versions of
these games or get a Wii U—or, you know, play them via emulation…
It’s certainly going to be interesting if Nintendo drops that particular bomb tomorrow, Adam. And I really don’t think it’s out of the question, what with Lucas being added to Smash and EarthBound Beginnings being added to the Wii U eShop in the last few days. Regardless, tomorrow’s event should be exciting!
ReplyDeleteThe one thing the ambassador program did do was show Nintendo that they could do GBA emulation, but it's been quoted that it wasn't emulation that they were satisfied with... something about they couldn't get the games to suspend correctly or something, but whatever it was, it was discovered during the ambassador program and that's why we haven't gotten any GBA titles since. I'm sure they could have figured it out in time, but, for whatever reason, they chose not to.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! This is the first I've heard of that, Eric. Still, that doesn't explain the lack of SNES games on the 3DS eShop :|
ReplyDeleteYeah that's a real mystery. They could just assume that SNES wouldn't have worked like they assumed 3DS couldn't handle NES Remix.
ReplyDeleteIt's been so long now since the 3DS first released that I doubt they even would want to spend the time to try. :/
Well, considering the 3DS surely makes them more money than the Wii U at this point, they may want to re-think their position ;)
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