The initial flop…
The wacky characters, eerie music, strange visuals, and out of touch “This Game Stinks” marketing definitely all led to EarthBound’s downfall in 1995. I mean, I can really understand why this game flopped back in the day, at least in North America. Especially when you had games like Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI that followed more traditional RPG values and themes that gamers were used to and were more comfortable with. They pushed the hardware they were released on and surpassed EarthBound’s graphics by a MILE. People would rather have spent their money on familiarities rather than a game that had a very smelly advertisement in the latest issue of Nintendo Power. That’s no joke either! Nintendo Power #74 featured a page all about EarthBound… and wouldn’t you know, it’s got multiple Scratch-N-Sniffs on it, and boy did they absolutely reek! Some smelled like “Pizza” and some smelled like “Burgers” (notice how I put the quotations around both food items?) But there was one that really seemed to have a powerful impression on anybody who dared to sniff it, Master Belch, which, from what I could find, smelled like vomit and toxic waste… great way to promote a game, Nintendo!
So… what is EarthBound?
“EarthBound” (Mother 2 in Japan) is a JRPG about a boy named “Ness” who’s hometown of Onett gets hit by a meteorite. After going to investigate with his friend “Pokey,” he meets a time traveling rhinoceros beetle named “Buzz Buzz.” Buzz Buzz explains to Ness that an all powerful cosmic being named “Giygas” is coming to destroy the planet Earth. Buzz Buzz is set to join Ness on an adventure to defeat Giygas, until [SPOILER ALERT] he get’s squashed by Pokey’s mom. In Buzz Buzz’s final words, he tells Ness: “To defeat Giygas, your own power must unite with the Earth’s… the Earth will then channel your power and multiply it…”
Ness is then sent off by Buzz Buzz with an awesome item called the “Sound Stone” to record eight melodies in the eight “Your Sanctuary” locations, and enhance your psychic powers to become strong enough to take on Giygas.
The game involves a journey of making friends, traveling across different countries (Eagleland, Foggyland, and Chommo), and using magic to defeat your foes. You meet 3 other friends named Paula, Jeff, and Poo, who all have different abilities and help you on your quest.
Cultural impact and eventual popularity
As mentioned earlier, EarthBound (Mother 2 in Japan) was very unpopular at it’s release, which led to the 3rd installment of the Mother series being a Japanese exclusive for the GameBoy Advance. Ness’ inclusion in Super Smash Brothers 64 had introduced EarthBound to a wide number of people.
The game’s rise in popularity over the course of the early 2000s caused it to grow a massive fanbase. Forums were created dedicating themselves to being full blown guides to the Mother series, such as Starmen.net. ROM hacks were created for emulators.
It led Nintendo to finally re-release the game for the Wii U’s Virtual Console in 2013.
In November of 2008, a passionate programmer named Toby Fox, released a ROM-hack of EarthBound, titled “Earthbound Halloween Hack” (also sometimes known as “Press the B Button, Stupid!) under the screen name Radiation. The hack grew incredibly popular within the community, and is what inspired Toby to go on to make a game called “Undertale.” He even took some assets and music from his hack and put them in Undertale, such as a song called Megalovania.
EarthBound is a gem of a game that has an incredible amount of passion and love from it’s community. So get out your SNES and prepare to spend 400 dollars (or just emulate it), and get to playin!
– Luke Zotos, The Cartridge Addict
Leave a Reply