EarthBound Central

Oh Buta Mask Orchestrated

Mato — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:26:48 +0000

A few years ago I posted about a school orchestra performing “Oh Buta Mask” from MOTHER 3 (see here). Well, a good while ago xfis sent me an actual video of the performance, which you can see here:

This was like four years ago – I wonder if any other school orchestras have done any EarthBound/MOTHER stuff like this. If you know, let me know!

Natural Killer Giygas

Mato — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:15:43 +0000

JRokujuushi recently sent this in:

I recently started uploading my music and arrangements to YouTube, and one of the arrangements was a mix of the first part of the Giygas fight and the Natural Killer Cyborg fight. I thought the site visitors might enjoy it.

Check it out here:

I wasn’t sure how well they’d mesh, but it worked out surprisingly well

Brownie Brown’s “Project B”

Mato — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:30:40 +0000

Many years ago, well before MOTHER 3′s release, Brownie Brown (the game’s developer) posted a mysterious Flash animation on its website. With the help of a fellow forumgoer, I translated the text into English. If you’ve never seen the animation, check it out here:

View Brownie Brown’s “Project B”

There had been no news about MOTHER 3 in years, so the fan response to this animation was insane. It even got into a magazine very shortly after!

I think the funniest thing is that at the time, I thought the second character was a girl, possibly partly because that’s usually Paula’s spot in EarthBound. Only later did I find out it’s actually a guy. Oops!

An EB0 Remake Coming in 2013?

Mato — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:08:20 +0000

Over the years there have been many attempts at recreating MOTHER 1/EarthBound Zero in a more modern format. As far as I know, none have the projects have reached completion yet, but I was recently shown this project that looks promising:

There’s not much information, but it looks like it’s being made for Macs. See for more info and some screenshots.

Now if someone would just make this a reality too

EarthBound-like Kickstarter Games

Mato — Sun, 13 May 2012 12:58:44 +0000

Over the past couple weeks there’s been a lot of talk about games being financed through Kickstarter – it seems like everyone and their dog has a Kickstarter game in the works Anyway, here are two EarthBound-y-ish ones that people have been discussing!

Boot Hill Heroes

First up is Boot Hill Heroes, which has already gotten a good amount of press. It’s described thusly:

Take one part Final Fantasy, one part Earthbound, and one part Chrono Trigger – then dip the whole thing in spicy Wild West sauce! Boot Hill Heroes is a true retro RPG set in the American Wild West. You’ll find all the trappings of a spaghetti western – gunslingers, saloons, Indians, ranches, spittoons, Mexican standoffs, heroism, villainy, and everything in between. Boot Hill Heroes has adventure, drama, and a fair helping of humor. It’s just like the classic RPGs you remember from yesteryear but with an inventive new spin!

Do You Remember ~An RPG from your childhood~

Next, here’s a project by Yui, meant to be “an EarthBound-inspired game with some modern twists to it”:

So there you go! It’s neat to see EarthBound fans growing up and working on games of their own

Responses from Nintendo

Mato — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:01:43 +0000

I often get e-mails from people who’ve e-mailed Nintendo asking about EarthBound/MOTHER stuff, so I figure it’s about time to post something about it

Alexander e-mailed me the other day with this:

Hi EarthBound Central! I just recently asked the Nintendo Support team if Mother or Earthbound was going to be released at VC, and I pointed out that no other company has been sued for using pop music in video games. This was their response witch may explain why they have not yet been touching on WHY it has not been released:

Hello Alexander,

I can see why you want to see the Mother/Earthbound series released in the Americas, but at this time we have no plans to release them in this market, either on disc or via download. Additionally, we do not have any details regarding why the games have not been made available here, so I’m unable to confirm or deny any rumors you may have heard.

I realize this is disappointing, but your comments have been documented and made available for other departments here to use as they see fit.

Sincerely,
Karen Johnson

From my experience, that’s pretty much the kind of response everyone gets when asking about EarthBound or MOTHER stuff – I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some sort of template they use. I wonder if they really do “document” and “make available” this stuff though, or if that’s just corporate speak for something else.

EarthBound Game Over Glitch

Mato — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:44:34 +0000

For some reason, dying in EarthBound is sometimes glitchy, as we’ve seen in past posts. Here’s another glitch that can apparently happen somehow:

Off the top of my head, here’s another dying glitch: Simultaneous defeat glitch

If you’ve run into any weird stuff like this before, let me know! I love hearing about how people make games screw up without trying

White-Labeled MOTHER Cartridge

Mato — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:12:45 +0000

MOTHER Famicom cartridges are entirely red, but every so often you’ll come across one with a white label.

When I first saw one myself, I was like, “Whoa, awesome, they must’ve released a special version of MOTHER back in the day!” But nope, the white labels are just really faded normal labels – there’s no difference between them and all-red cartridges. Still, they do look kind of cool in a way

EarthBound Scans from Sweden

Mato — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:14:43 +0000

A Swedish EarthBound fan by the name of Anders recently sent me a big ol’ PDF file containing scans of magazines that covered EarthBound and EarthBound-related stuff. Here’s what Anders says:

The first two pages contain a (US import) review of Earthbound from the magazine Super POWER, #11 1995. [...] A two-reviewer system was used and, as can be seen in the two boxes left of the final verdict, the two reviewers were not in agreement.

The first reviewer complains that the game is too childish and that its ‘hamburger-and-coca-cola theme prevents the right feeling of commitment for the mission at hand’ (score 67). The second reviewer mainly commends the game for its bold step away from the classic RPG themes with dragons and ‘malevolent gnomes’, and its humor (score 90).

I noted that this review is, both regarding layout and text content, near-identical to the finnish Super POWER review you have posted before (link), but the reviewers’ scores are different – which is strange, because it’s the same reviewers!?!

The third page contains a clipping from Super PLAY (the successor to Super POWER) #13, March 1997. It says that Mother 3 has officially been assigned the subtitle ‘Forest of Chimera’, and that the game will arrive ‘a few months’ after the release of the 64DD.

The fourth page is a page from Super PLAY #23, January 1998. It’s part of the coverage of Space World trade show, and there is a comment about how ‘Mother 3 and Super Mario RPG 2 [Paper Mario] will hopefully silence all those who say that there aren’t any proper RPGs for the N64′. A picture can also be seen in the lower left, with a caption saying that the game will probably be named Earthbound 64 in Europe.

You can check out the file here!

Swedish EarthBound scans

I find it funny how the reviewers’ scores changed between the two versions. I’m not sure why that would’ve happened – anyone got any ideas?

Anyway, I always love seeing old magazine scans featuring EarthBound stuff, so if you know of any that haven’t posted yet, let me know!

WarioWare MOTHER Medley

Mato — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:29:23 +0000

Tim sent in this video showcasing EarthBound/MOTHER series music made in WarioWare DIY:

The composer, Aviarmew, has a lot of other songs too, check them all out here!