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Mother (video game)
Encyclopedia
, planned to be released in English as Earth Bound (though it is often referred to as "EarthBound Zero", the name fan-translation team Demiforce gave it when dumping the English prototype ROM in order to distinguish it from EarthBound
, which had been released in the US in 1995), is a role-playing video game
developed by Nintendo Tokyo Research and Development Products
in cooperation with Ape. The game was published for the Family Computer
(Famicom) video game console
. It was designed and directed by Shigesato Itoi
and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto
, with music by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka
. It is the first game in the Mother video game series (otherwise known as the EarthBound
series), and was never released outside of Japan. In 2003, the game was re-released in a compilation with its sequel as Mother 1+2 only it was based on the English prototype. The game's taglines are "No crying until the ending" and "Guaranteed Masterpiece".
Mother tells the story of a psychic boy from Mother's Day (Podunk in the English Prototype), a fictional town. The boy, whose default name is Ninten, sets out on a journey to discover the cause of the mysterious phenomenon that occurred in his home one day. As the story develops, he meets friends along the way, and they fight their way to the source of all their troubles. At the time, most role-playing games took place in similar overall settings; worlds modeled after the Middle Ages and focusing on swords and magic, with very few exceptions (among them Square's Tom Sawyer
). Mother takes place during a more modern time (1980s) in the United States and has equipment like baseball bats instead of swords and psychic powers
(PSI) instead of magic.
Mother was scheduled to be released in North America as Earth Bound in the fall of 1991, but marketing delayed and eventually removed the game from the release schedule, putting it on indefinite hold. The game was again considered for release in 1994, shortly before the release of its sequel, Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushū. However, it was decided to pass on the release of Earth Bound and to localize
Mother 2 under the title EarthBound
. An official localization prototype of this "Earth Bound" made its way to the internet via a fan-translation group, Demiforce. The ROM
data from the prototype was extracted and circulated under the original title and as "EarthBound Zero" on January 15th, 1998.
' s gameplay is divided into two main parts: field maps and the game's battle system. Mother does not use a small-scale overworld map
and instead connects towns, dungeons, and other places together by large outdoor areas. When in towns on the field map, players can talk with other non-playable characters, go to stores to buy equipment or items, rest in hotels, or enter other various buildings. By using any telephone in the game, the protagonist Ninten can talk to his father, who deposits money into Ninten's bank account and offers to record his progress.
When outside of towns on the field map or inside dungeons, the party will be attacked
by enemies, at which point the game shifts into battle mode. When in battle, the game switches to a first-person view, only showing the enemies and a menu system used to issue commands. Actions are chosen for each character by the player, and then characters and enemies take turns doing them in an order determined by their speed statistics
. Winning battles awards experience points, which characters require to level up. Leveling up increases a character's stats and lets them learn more abilities. If a character loses all of their hit points, they will die and the player must go to a hospital and pay to revive them. If every character dies, no progress is lost, but the party is transported back to the last area they saved at, only Ninten is left alive, and the amount of money they had on hand is halved.
The story then forwards to a year in the 1980's (1988 in the Japanese version), focusing on a 12 year old American boy, referred to as Ninten, whose home is attacked in a paranormal event. He possesses a striking resemblance to EarthBound's Protagonist, Ness. Instead of Ness, who has a blue and yellow striped shirt, red shoes and white socks, Ninten has a blue and yellow shirt with slightly thinner yellow stripes, and blue shoes and red socks. He is a huge fan of baseball and is a fan of penguins. His father calls him and explains how Ninten's great-grandfather studied PSI, and asks him to investigate a crisis occurring across the world. After rescuing and befriending a 7 year old girl named Pippi from the local cemetery in his hometown of Podunk, Ninten discovers the worldwide phenomenon is the work of an invading alien race. Ninten is then warped to the world of Magicant, where the land's ruler, Queen Mary, asks Ninten to find her song, the Eight Melodies, and play them to her. After returning to the real world, Ninten visits an elementary school in Merrysville and meets an 11 year old boy who is constantly teased for being a weakling, referred to as Lloyd (Loid in the English prototype). Ninten befriends Lloyd, and Lloyd joins Ninten on his adventure to find the Eight Melodies. The two then travel to the town of Snowman to deliver a lost hat to a girl with PSI power, referred to as 12 year old Ana, who tells Ninten she saw him in a dream, and joins the party in hopes of finding her missing mother.
After finding most of the Melodies, the party travels to the city of Valentine (Ellay in the English prototype), and the trio do karaoke at the Live House. Ninten is then harassed by the boss of the local Black Blood (Bla-Bla) Gang, referred to as Teddy, for attacking his gang members, and challenges him to a duel. After realizing Ninten is a formidable opponent, Teddy surrenders and joins Ninten's party in hopes of avenging his parents, who were killed at Holy Loly Mountain. Teddy replaces Lloyd in the party, who rests at the Live House. The party reaches a cottage at the base of Holy Loly Mountain (Mt. Itoi), where Teddy goes to make phone calls. Ana pulls Ninten into another room and asks him to be with her always. The two dance and confess their love to each other. Teddy enters the room, and the party begins to leave, when they're attacked by a powerful robot called R7038 a robot similar of what they encountered before in Advent Desert. The robot knocks out the entire party, but Lloyd arrives with a tank from a man they have met in Advent Desert during their travels and destroys the robot, but accidentally attacks the party as well. Teddy is critically wounded (possibly dead in the original Famicom version), and stays at the cottage to heal, while Lloyd rejoins the party.
The newly reformed trio takes a motor boat out on Holy Loly Lake, where they are pulled into a whirlpool into an underwater laboratory. There, they find a robot named Eve, who tells Ninten that she was built by George, who was taken to the ends of the universe and later returned. He built Eve with the purpose of protecting Ninten. The laboratory becomes flooded and the party is whisked back to the base of Holy Loly Mountain, where, with the aid of Eve, they climb the mountain. As the party approaches the mountain summit, another robot, R7038XX, attacks the party. Eve destroys the robot, but Eve is destroyed in the battle as well. Eve's scrapped remains sing Ninten the seventh of the Eight Melodies.
With seven of the melodies learned, Ninten and the others are warped to Magicant where Ninten sings the Eight Melodies to Queen Mary. Upon hearing the Eight Melodies, Queen Mary remembers the rest of the song. Queen Mary reminisces on how she loved an alien named Gyiyg
(Giegue in the unreleased translation, and Giygas in EarthBound}}, as if he were her own child. She tells Ninten that he was always wagging his tail, except when she sang lullabies to him. Queen Mary then reveals she is George's wife, Maria, and, with her purpose complete, vanishes to return to George's side. Magicant, being only a mirage created by her conscience, vanishes with her.
The party is warped back to the top of Holy Loly Mountain, where the party discovers a strange grave. George's spirit visits the tomb and tells Ninten that his great-grandmother Maria spread her love in the form of melodies. Large rocks block the entrance to a cave inside Holy Loly Mountain, but Maria's conscious uses the last of her power to clear the entrance. Inside they discover human prisoners sealed within cylindrical tanks. One of the prisoners identifies Ana's hat and informs the party that her mother is among them, but that they must destroy the Mother Ship before attempting to rescue them.On the other side of the cave is where they encounter the Mother Ship and Gyiyg contained within a fluid-filled tank. Gyiyg expresses his gratefulness to Ninten's family, as Ninten's great-grandmother, Maria, raised him, but explained that George stole vital information from his people that could have been used to betray them, then stated that one of George's descendants, Ninten, was interfering with their plans and must be stopped. Gyiyg tells Ninten that he cannot be defeated by Ninten's "meager" powers, but offers to save Ninten alone if he boards the Mother Ship. Ninten declines, so Gyiyg tells Ninten to fall into a long sleep with the rest of the "ugly Earth People". The party begins to sing the Eight Melodies, but Gyiyg attacks the party to quiet them. After several attempts, the party finishes the lullaby, and Gyiyg, calmed by Maria's motherly love, admits defeat, swearing he and Ninten will meet again. The Mother Ship flies off, leaving the heroes behind. In the original Famicom release, the game ended at this uncertain point, but it is extended in the English prototype and Mother 1+2 versions, and instead the party returns to the base of the mountain where the imprisoned humans are all revealed to have been freed. In the process, Ana is finally reunited with her mother. The heroes all return to their normal lives, and Teddy is revealed to have reformed. In addition, a post-credits scene is added in which Ninten's father is seen trying to reach his son on a telephone, apparently with some urgent news.
Note that the game is mostly nonlinear and the final party does not have to consist of Ninten, Ana and Lloyd.
. One of the inspirations for the name was John Lennon
's song "Mother
." He also wanted the name to be something that wasn't game-like.
Shigesato Itoi, the game's designer, said that the last parts of Mother were not tested for bugs and balance issues. When talking about this at a Mother 1 + 2 promotional event, Itoi humorously stated, "When we got to fine-tuning the difficulty there, I was like, 'Whatever!'".
was completed in 1990, but marketing pushed the release into Fall of 1991, and it was eventually put on indefinite hold. The localization producer and English script writer for Earth Bound, Phil Sandhop, explained, "Once the Super NES squatted in the pipeline and shoved the game aside from its appointed time, I believe that the marketing execs just decided that the game would be too expensive to produce and unsuccessful without marketing, and that's why it fell into oblivion." During localization some changes were made to the game, such as removing blood from enemy sprites (in accordance to Nintendo of America's censorship guidelines of the time) or changing town names. One of the bigger changes was greatly extending the game's ending.
On January 15, 1998, the fan translation group Demiforce found a beta cartridge of the game on the Internet, and organized an effort to collect enough money to buy the game. The project was a success, and soon after, the game was dumped into a ROM and circulated around the Internet. As the unmodified game did not work properly on emulators at that time, Demiforce released modified versions of Earth Bound with the copy protection disabled, and appended "Zero" onto the title to retroactively discern it from its sequel, EarthBound. Since Demiforce had built its reputation on releasing its English translations out of the blue, some fans debated whether the cartridge had been translated by Nintendo or by Demiforce itself. However the release was confirmed as legitimate by Phil Sandhop, producer of the canceled English localization, as well as the compilation release Mother 1 + 2 which contains all of the changes found in the beta cartridge.
. The music was released on compact disc
and cassette tape by Sony Records on August 21, 1989. It consists of eleven tracks, seven of which are vocal remakes. Some of the game's notable pieces include "Eight Melodies", which plays a heavy role in the story, and "Pollyanna", which has gone on to represent not only this game, but the entire Mother video game series. On February 18, 2004 the soundtrack was re-released with digitally remastered tracks. Songs from Mother appear in EarthBound
, Mother 3
, Super Smash Bros. Melee
and Super Smash Bros. Brawl
.
The soundtrack features vocal performances from Catherine Warwick, Jeremy Holland-Smith, Jeb Million, Louis Philippe
, Jeremy Budd, and the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir. Both Budd and the Choir's names are misspelled on the soundtracks.
, it was rated as the 9th best game on the Famicom and the 38th best game of all time. The game was listed as the fourth most-wanted Virtual Console
release in a poll in the June 2008 issue of Nintendo Power
, and in the following issue it moved up to second most-wanted. In a Mother 1 + 2 review, Netjak praised Mothers modern setting and broad themes, calling the game, "quite dark and mature." However, the game did get its fair share of criticism. Jeremy Parish from 1UP.com
states, "the game balance is completely ridiculous, relying far too heavily on picking up better weapons and grinding
for far too long."
EarthBound
EarthBound, also known as EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! and released as in Japan, is a role-playing video game co-developed by Ape and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console...
, which had been released in the US in 1995), is a role-playing video game
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
developed by Nintendo Tokyo Research and Development Products
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
in cooperation with Ape. The game was published for the Family Computer
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
(Famicom) video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
. It was designed and directed by Shigesato Itoi
Shigesato Itoi
is one of the most influential cultural figures in Japan, known for his copywriting, essays, lyrics, Nintendo game creation, and as editor-in-chief of his popular website “Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun.” He is best known outside of Japan as a game designer for his work on Nintendo's EarthBound...
and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
, with music by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka
Hirokazu Tanaka
is a Japanese composer and musician, best known for his scores for various video games produced by Nintendo. He is also the current President of Creatures, Inc.-Video game soundtracks:*Radar Scope *Space Firebird...
. It is the first game in the Mother video game series (otherwise known as the EarthBound
EarthBound (series)
EarthBound, known in Japan as Mother, is a role-playing game series created by Shigesato Itoi for Nintendo. The series started in 1989 with the Japan-only release of Mother for the Famicom, and was then followed up by a sequel, released in North America as EarthBound for the Super NES in 1995, and...
series), and was never released outside of Japan. In 2003, the game was re-released in a compilation with its sequel as Mother 1+2 only it was based on the English prototype. The game's taglines are "No crying until the ending" and "Guaranteed Masterpiece".
Mother tells the story of a psychic boy from Mother's Day (Podunk in the English Prototype), a fictional town. The boy, whose default name is Ninten, sets out on a journey to discover the cause of the mysterious phenomenon that occurred in his home one day. As the story develops, he meets friends along the way, and they fight their way to the source of all their troubles. At the time, most role-playing games took place in similar overall settings; worlds modeled after the Middle Ages and focusing on swords and magic, with very few exceptions (among them Square's Tom Sawyer
Square's Tom Sawyer
is a console role-playing game for the Nintendo Family Computer game console. The game is directly based on Mark Twain's renowned novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and was developed in the role-playing game niche that made Square famous with its acclaimed Final Fantasy series of video games...
). Mother takes place during a more modern time (1980s) in the United States and has equipment like baseball bats instead of swords and psychic powers
Psionics
Psionics refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche.-History and terminology:...
(PSI) instead of magic.
Mother was scheduled to be released in North America as Earth Bound in the fall of 1991, but marketing delayed and eventually removed the game from the release schedule, putting it on indefinite hold. The game was again considered for release in 1994, shortly before the release of its sequel, Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushū. However, it was decided to pass on the release of Earth Bound and to localize
Internationalization and localization
In computing, internationalization and localization are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional differences and technical requirements of a target market...
Mother 2 under the title EarthBound
EarthBound
EarthBound, also known as EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! and released as in Japan, is a role-playing video game co-developed by Ape and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console...
. An official localization prototype of this "Earth Bound" made its way to the internet via a fan-translation group, Demiforce. The ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
data from the prototype was extracted and circulated under the original title and as "EarthBound Zero" on January 15th, 1998.
Gameplay
MotherOverworld
An overworld is, in a broad sense, an area within a video game that interconnects all its levels or locations. They are mostly common in role-playing games, though this does not exclude other video game genres....
and instead connects towns, dungeons, and other places together by large outdoor areas. When in towns on the field map, players can talk with other non-playable characters, go to stores to buy equipment or items, rest in hotels, or enter other various buildings. By using any telephone in the game, the protagonist Ninten can talk to his father, who deposits money into Ninten's bank account and offers to record his progress.
When outside of towns on the field map or inside dungeons, the party will be attacked
Random encounter
A random encounter is a feature commonly used in various role-playing games whereby encounters with non-player character enemies or other dangers occur sporadically and at random...
by enemies, at which point the game shifts into battle mode. When in battle, the game switches to a first-person view, only showing the enemies and a menu system used to issue commands. Actions are chosen for each character by the player, and then characters and enemies take turns doing them in an order determined by their speed statistics
Statistic (role-playing games)
A statistic in role-playing games is a piece of data which represents a particular aspect of a fictional character. That piece of data is usually a integer or, in some cases, a set of dice....
. Winning battles awards experience points, which characters require to level up. Leveling up increases a character's stats and lets them learn more abilities. If a character loses all of their hit points, they will die and the player must go to a hospital and pay to revive them. If every character dies, no progress is lost, but the party is transported back to the last area they saved at, only Ninten is left alive, and the amount of money they had on hand is halved.
Plot
Mother begins by telling the story of a young married couple from rural America who mysteriously vanished after a dark shadow covered their small country town. Two years later, the husband, George, returned as mysteriously as he vanished, and began a strange study in complete seclusion. His wife, Maria, was never heard from again.The story then forwards to a year in the 1980's (1988 in the Japanese version), focusing on a 12 year old American boy, referred to as Ninten, whose home is attacked in a paranormal event. He possesses a striking resemblance to EarthBound's Protagonist, Ness. Instead of Ness, who has a blue and yellow striped shirt, red shoes and white socks, Ninten has a blue and yellow shirt with slightly thinner yellow stripes, and blue shoes and red socks. He is a huge fan of baseball and is a fan of penguins. His father calls him and explains how Ninten's great-grandfather studied PSI, and asks him to investigate a crisis occurring across the world. After rescuing and befriending a 7 year old girl named Pippi from the local cemetery in his hometown of Podunk, Ninten discovers the worldwide phenomenon is the work of an invading alien race. Ninten is then warped to the world of Magicant, where the land's ruler, Queen Mary, asks Ninten to find her song, the Eight Melodies, and play them to her. After returning to the real world, Ninten visits an elementary school in Merrysville and meets an 11 year old boy who is constantly teased for being a weakling, referred to as Lloyd (Loid in the English prototype). Ninten befriends Lloyd, and Lloyd joins Ninten on his adventure to find the Eight Melodies. The two then travel to the town of Snowman to deliver a lost hat to a girl with PSI power, referred to as 12 year old Ana, who tells Ninten she saw him in a dream, and joins the party in hopes of finding her missing mother.
After finding most of the Melodies, the party travels to the city of Valentine (Ellay in the English prototype), and the trio do karaoke at the Live House. Ninten is then harassed by the boss of the local Black Blood (Bla-Bla) Gang, referred to as Teddy, for attacking his gang members, and challenges him to a duel. After realizing Ninten is a formidable opponent, Teddy surrenders and joins Ninten's party in hopes of avenging his parents, who were killed at Holy Loly Mountain. Teddy replaces Lloyd in the party, who rests at the Live House. The party reaches a cottage at the base of Holy Loly Mountain (Mt. Itoi), where Teddy goes to make phone calls. Ana pulls Ninten into another room and asks him to be with her always. The two dance and confess their love to each other. Teddy enters the room, and the party begins to leave, when they're attacked by a powerful robot called R7038 a robot similar of what they encountered before in Advent Desert. The robot knocks out the entire party, but Lloyd arrives with a tank from a man they have met in Advent Desert during their travels and destroys the robot, but accidentally attacks the party as well. Teddy is critically wounded (possibly dead in the original Famicom version), and stays at the cottage to heal, while Lloyd rejoins the party.
The newly reformed trio takes a motor boat out on Holy Loly Lake, where they are pulled into a whirlpool into an underwater laboratory. There, they find a robot named Eve, who tells Ninten that she was built by George, who was taken to the ends of the universe and later returned. He built Eve with the purpose of protecting Ninten. The laboratory becomes flooded and the party is whisked back to the base of Holy Loly Mountain, where, with the aid of Eve, they climb the mountain. As the party approaches the mountain summit, another robot, R7038XX, attacks the party. Eve destroys the robot, but Eve is destroyed in the battle as well. Eve's scrapped remains sing Ninten the seventh of the Eight Melodies.
With seven of the melodies learned, Ninten and the others are warped to Magicant where Ninten sings the Eight Melodies to Queen Mary. Upon hearing the Eight Melodies, Queen Mary remembers the rest of the song. Queen Mary reminisces on how she loved an alien named Gyiyg
Giygas
Giygas, known in Japan as or Giegue in the unreleased English translation of Mother, is the main antagonist of the video games Mother and EarthBound. He is an evil alien being bent on destroying the Earth, and is referred to by the titles "Universal Cosmic Destroyer" and "Embodiment of Evil"...
(Giegue in the unreleased translation, and Giygas in EarthBound}}, as if he were her own child. She tells Ninten that he was always wagging his tail, except when she sang lullabies to him. Queen Mary then reveals she is George's wife, Maria, and, with her purpose complete, vanishes to return to George's side. Magicant, being only a mirage created by her conscience, vanishes with her.
The party is warped back to the top of Holy Loly Mountain, where the party discovers a strange grave. George's spirit visits the tomb and tells Ninten that his great-grandmother Maria spread her love in the form of melodies. Large rocks block the entrance to a cave inside Holy Loly Mountain, but Maria's conscious uses the last of her power to clear the entrance. Inside they discover human prisoners sealed within cylindrical tanks. One of the prisoners identifies Ana's hat and informs the party that her mother is among them, but that they must destroy the Mother Ship before attempting to rescue them.On the other side of the cave is where they encounter the Mother Ship and Gyiyg contained within a fluid-filled tank. Gyiyg expresses his gratefulness to Ninten's family, as Ninten's great-grandmother, Maria, raised him, but explained that George stole vital information from his people that could have been used to betray them, then stated that one of George's descendants, Ninten, was interfering with their plans and must be stopped. Gyiyg tells Ninten that he cannot be defeated by Ninten's "meager" powers, but offers to save Ninten alone if he boards the Mother Ship. Ninten declines, so Gyiyg tells Ninten to fall into a long sleep with the rest of the "ugly Earth People". The party begins to sing the Eight Melodies, but Gyiyg attacks the party to quiet them. After several attempts, the party finishes the lullaby, and Gyiyg, calmed by Maria's motherly love, admits defeat, swearing he and Ninten will meet again. The Mother Ship flies off, leaving the heroes behind. In the original Famicom release, the game ended at this uncertain point, but it is extended in the English prototype and Mother 1+2 versions, and instead the party returns to the base of the mountain where the imprisoned humans are all revealed to have been freed. In the process, Ana is finally reunited with her mother. The heroes all return to their normal lives, and Teddy is revealed to have reformed. In addition, a post-credits scene is added in which Ninten's father is seen trying to reach his son on a telephone, apparently with some urgent news.
Note that the game is mostly nonlinear and the final party does not have to consist of Ninten, Ana and Lloyd.
Development
Mother was designed and directed by Japanese copywriter and television personality Shigesato ItoiShigesato Itoi
is one of the most influential cultural figures in Japan, known for his copywriting, essays, lyrics, Nintendo game creation, and as editor-in-chief of his popular website “Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun.” He is best known outside of Japan as a game designer for his work on Nintendo's EarthBound...
. One of the inspirations for the name was John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's song "Mother
Mother (John Lennon song)
Mother is a song by British musician John Lennon, first released on his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. An edited version of the song was issued as a single in the United States on Apple Records, catalogue 1827, about three weeks after the album. The single runs about fifteen seconds...
." He also wanted the name to be something that wasn't game-like.
Shigesato Itoi, the game's designer, said that the last parts of Mother were not tested for bugs and balance issues. When talking about this at a Mother 1 + 2 promotional event, Itoi humorously stated, "When we got to fine-tuning the difficulty there, I was like, 'Whatever!'".
Planned North American release
Nintendo of America had translated and originally planned to release Mother in North America, under the title Earth Bound. The localizationInternationalization and localization
In computing, internationalization and localization are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional differences and technical requirements of a target market...
was completed in 1990, but marketing pushed the release into Fall of 1991, and it was eventually put on indefinite hold. The localization producer and English script writer for Earth Bound, Phil Sandhop, explained, "Once the Super NES squatted in the pipeline and shoved the game aside from its appointed time, I believe that the marketing execs just decided that the game would be too expensive to produce and unsuccessful without marketing, and that's why it fell into oblivion." During localization some changes were made to the game, such as removing blood from enemy sprites (in accordance to Nintendo of America's censorship guidelines of the time) or changing town names. One of the bigger changes was greatly extending the game's ending.
On January 15, 1998, the fan translation group Demiforce found a beta cartridge of the game on the Internet, and organized an effort to collect enough money to buy the game. The project was a success, and soon after, the game was dumped into a ROM and circulated around the Internet. As the unmodified game did not work properly on emulators at that time, Demiforce released modified versions of Earth Bound with the copy protection disabled, and appended "Zero" onto the title to retroactively discern it from its sequel, EarthBound. Since Demiforce had built its reputation on releasing its English translations out of the blue, some fans debated whether the cartridge had been translated by Nintendo or by Demiforce itself. However the release was confirmed as legitimate by Phil Sandhop, producer of the canceled English localization, as well as the compilation release Mother 1 + 2 which contains all of the changes found in the beta cartridge.
Music
Mothers soundtrack was composed by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu TanakaHirokazu Tanaka
is a Japanese composer and musician, best known for his scores for various video games produced by Nintendo. He is also the current President of Creatures, Inc.-Video game soundtracks:*Radar Scope *Space Firebird...
. The music was released on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and cassette tape by Sony Records on August 21, 1989. It consists of eleven tracks, seven of which are vocal remakes. Some of the game's notable pieces include "Eight Melodies", which plays a heavy role in the story, and "Pollyanna", which has gone on to represent not only this game, but the entire Mother video game series. On February 18, 2004 the soundtrack was re-released with digitally remastered tracks. Songs from Mother appear in EarthBound
EarthBound
EarthBound, also known as EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! and released as in Japan, is a role-playing video game co-developed by Ape and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console...
, Mother 3
Mother 3
Mother 3 is a role-playing video game developed by Nintendo, Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory, and published for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console. It has only been released in Japan, alongside a limited supply bundle. It is the third video game in the Mother series, following EarthBound...
, Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBM or simply as Melee, is a crossover fighting game released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after its launch in . It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 game Super Smash Bros., and the predecessor to the Wii game Super Smash...
and Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBB or simply as Brawl, is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by an ad hoc development team consisting of Sora, Game Arts and staff from other developers, and published by...
.
The soundtrack features vocal performances from Catherine Warwick, Jeremy Holland-Smith, Jeb Million, Louis Philippe
Louis Philippe (musician)
Louis Philippe is a London-based French singer, songwriter, arranger and producer who has been active from the mid-1980s onwards...
, Jeremy Budd, and the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir. Both Budd and the Choir's names are misspelled on the soundtracks.
Reception
Mother was successful in Japan, selling approximately 400,000 copies. In two polls conducted by FamitsuFamitsu
is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Enterbrain, Inc. and Tokuma. Currently, there are five Famitsū magazines: Shūkan Famitsū, Famitsū PS3 + PSP, Famitsū Xbox 360, Famitsū Wii+DS, and Famitsū Wave DVD...
, it was rated as the 9th best game on the Famicom and the 38th best game of all time. The game was listed as the fourth most-wanted Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
release in a poll in the June 2008 issue of Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
, and in the following issue it moved up to second most-wanted. In a Mother 1 + 2 review, Netjak praised Mothers modern setting and broad themes, calling the game, "quite dark and mature." However, the game did get its fair share of criticism. Jeremy Parish from 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
states, "the game balance is completely ridiculous, relying far too heavily on picking up better weapons and grinding
Grind (gaming)
Grinding is a term used in video gaming to describe the process of engaging in repetitive and/or boring tasks not pertaining to the story line of the game...
for far too long."