As time continues to march on relentlessly, it’s time for another significant video game anniversary – and today’s is a particularly nostalgic one. It’s 25 years to the day since Shigesato Itoi’s lovely EarthBound first arrived on US shores and gamers in the West got to take on Giygas with Ness and his band of young heroes on the SNES.
Yes, the English language version of Mother 2 now has a quarter-century under its belt, and we don’t know about you, but it’s making us feel rather… seasoned. The anniversary comes amid various Mother-related announcements coming from Japan, although sadly nothing related to a new entry in the beloved RPG series.
The game’s enduring mix of traditional RPG mechanics in a modern setting blends with brilliant writing, eclectic music and an off-the-wall daftness to give the 16-bit classic a thoroughly unique flavour that really sticks with you. EarthBound didn’t initially set the world alight–at least not in sales terms–but it gained a cult following over the years. The fervent desire to see the Japan-only Game Boy Advance sequel localised and released in the West has become a gaming in-joke these days, to the point where it’s groan-worthy to even mention it. One of the perks of ex-Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé’s retirement was apparently to have escaped the perennial Mother 3 questions!
Of course, we Europeans had to wait until Nintendo officially released EarthBound on Wii U’s Virtual Console in 2013 (unless you were an intrepid importer of NTSC goodies), with the NES original localised and released for the first time in the West two years later as EarthBound Beginnings. So, round these parts SNES EarthBound is only about seven years old.
Ah, that makes us feel better!
Share your memories of this great game in the comments below.
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