EarthBound, originally released in Japan as is a 1994 role-playing video game developed by Ape Inc. (now Creatures Inc.) and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second entry in the Mother series, it follows a young boy named Ness and his 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 EarthBound Beginnings (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 EarthBound Beginnings, and the game came under repeated threats of cancellation until Iwata joined the team. Originally scheduled for release in January 1993, the game was completed around May 1994 and first released in Japan in August 1994, and in North America in June 1995. A port for the Game 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 game traditions by featuring a modern setting while parodying numerous staples of the genre. Itoi wanted the game to reach non-gamers with its intentionally goofy tone; for example, the player uses items such as the Pencil Eraser to remove pencil statues (octopus statues in the Japanese version), experiences in-game hallucinations, and battles piles of vomit, taxi cabs, and walking nooses. For its American release, the game was marketed with a $2 million promotional campaign that sardonically proclaimed "This game stinks". The game's puns and humor were reworked by localizer Marcus Lindblom. Since the original Mother had not yet been released outside Japan in the Nintendo Entertainment System before 2015, 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 quite poorly in the United States. Journalists attributed the game's poor sales in the West 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 games of all time, and it became regarded as a "sacred cow among gaming's cognoscenti". It was followed by the Japan-only sequel Mother 3 for the Game 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.

Gameplay

thumb|256px|Poo, Jeff, Paula, and Ness (left to right) walking the Summers beachfront

EarthBound features many traditional role-playing game elements: the player controls a party of characters who travel through the game'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. The game uses oblique projection, while most 2D RPGs use a "top-down" view on a grid or an isometric perspective.

Plot

In an unknown year of the 1990s, a meteorite crashes in Eagleland. Tanaka recalls Randy Newman being the first quintessentially American composer he could think of, and that his albums Little Criminals (1977) and Land of Dreams (1988) were influential. the Beatles ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"), the Who ("Won't Get Fooled Again"), Antonín Dvořák (Symphony No. 9), Ric Ocasek ("This Side of Paradise"), the Doors ("The Changeling"), Bimbo Jet ("El Bimbo"), The Dallas String Band ("Dallas Rag"), "The Liberty Bell", "The Star-Spangled Banner", the Our Gang theme, "Tequila", and Chuck Berry ("Johnny B. Goode"). Tanaka also mentioned that he listened to the various artists compilation Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988) heavily during EarthBounds development. EarthBound was released on June 5, 1995, in North America. for a total of approximately 658,000 units sold worldwide.

Though Nintendo spent about $2 million on marketing, GamePro reported that they received more reader complaints about the game's scratch and sniff ad than about any other 1995 advertisement.

The campaign was also expensive. It emphasized magazine advertisements and had the extra cost of the strategy guide included with each game.

| GameFan=267/300

| SGP = 3.5/5

EarthBound originally received little critical praise from the American press,

Lindblom and his team were devastated by the release's poor critical response and sales. He recalled that the game was hurt by the reception of its graphics as "simplistic" at a time when critics placed high importance on graphics quality.

Reviewing the game years after its release, writers described the game as "original" or "unique",

Jeremy Parish of USgamer called EarthBound "the all-time champion" of self-aware games 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 the game. GamesTM said the game felt fresh because of its reliance on "personal experiences" made it "exactly the sort of title that would thrive today as an indie hit". He 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 game standoffs of all time" and noted its emotional impact. Kotaku wrote that the game 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 game medium to explore ideas impossible to explore in media.

The few role-playing games set in real-world settings, PC Gamer has written, are often and accurately described as having been influenced by EarthBound. It was cited as an influence on video games including Costume Quest; South Park: The Stick of Truth (via South Park creator Trey Parker); Undertale; Contact; Omori; Lisa; Citizens of Earth; YIIK: A Postmodern RPG; the webcomic Homestuck; and Kyoto Wild. Japanese writer Hiromi Kawakami told Itoi that she had played EarthBound "about 80 times".

Fandom

A cult following for EarthBound developed after the game's release. 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 he was done with the series. After following the fan community from afar, Lindblom came out to fans in mid-2012 and the press became interested in his work. He had planned a book about the game's development, release, and fandom before a reply from Nintendo discouraged him from pursuing the idea. He plans to continue to communicate directly with the community about the game's history. Books that have been written about EarthBound include Ken Baumann's Earthbound, by Boss Fight Books, and Legends of Localization Book 2: Earthbound, by Clyde Mandelin.

Ness

A variety of merchandise depicting Ness have been produced by Nintendo; this merchandise includes a figurine and an Amiibo. Ness became widely known for his appearance as a playable character throughout the Super Smash Bros. fighting game 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 fans' faith in new content from Nintendo. Ness was one of the game's most powerful characters, according to IGN, if players could perfect his odd controls and psychic powers. In Europe, which did not see an EarthBound release, Ness was better known for his role in the fighting game than for his original role in the role-playing game.

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 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).<!--|IGN: Retro Remix--> 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 Game Boy Advance. Mother 3 abandoned the Nintendo 64 version's 3D, but kept most of 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 EarthBound Beginnings, Mother 1+2 and Mother 3 were not released outside Japan.

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 the game 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 fans believed that music licensing or legal concerns impeded the rerelease. English localizer Marcus Lindblom doubted that the game's music samples were an issue, since they were not a concern during development, and instead hypothesized that Nintendo did not realize the magnitude of the game'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 the game's original Player's Guide, optimized for viewing on the Wii U GamePad. The game 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 the game. 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 GameSpot editor's game of the year, and Nintendo Life Virtual Console game 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 games.

Notes

References

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