EarthBound, originally released in Japan as Mother 2: Gīgu no Gyakushū, 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. It is the second game in the Mother series and follows a young boy named Ness and his friends, Paula, Jeff, and Poo, as they travel the world to collect melodies from eight Sanctuaries to defeat the cosmic destroyer Giygas.
The game took five years to develop. Staff members who worked on the earlier game EarthBound Beginnings (1989), including writer/director Shigesato Itoi, lead programmer Satoru Iwata, and composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka, returned for this project. They included many different music styles, such as salsa, reggae, and dub, in the soundtrack. Most of the other team members had not worked on the original EarthBound Beginnings, and the game faced many challenges that nearly led to its cancellation until Iwata joined the team. Originally planned for release in January 1993, the game was completed in May 1994 and first released in Japan in August 1994 and in North America in June 1995. A version for the Game Boy Advance, developed by Pax Softnica and bundled with Mother as Mother 1+2, was released only in Japan in 2003.
Like its predecessor, EarthBound features a unique portrayal of American and Western culture. It changes common role-playing game traditions by using a modern setting and making fun of many typical elements of the genre. Itoi wanted the game to appeal to people who did not usually play video games, so he included silly elements, such as using a Pencil Eraser to remove statues (octopus statues in the Japanese version) and battling piles of vomit, taxi cabs, and walking nooses. For its American release, the game was promoted with a $2 million campaign that humorously said, "This game stinks." The game's jokes and wordplay were adjusted by localizer Marcus Lindblom. Since the original Mother had not been released outside Japan on the Nintendo Entertainment System before 2015, Mother 2 was renamed EarthBound to avoid confusion about which game it followed.
Although EarthBound was well received in Japan, it sold poorly in the United States. Journalists believed this was due to its simple graphics, humorous marketing, and lack of interest in the genre at the time. Over the years, a group of fans worked to gain recognition for the series, especially after Ness became a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series. By the 2000s, many polls and critics had named EarthBound one of the greatest video games of all time, and it became highly respected by gaming experts. It was followed by a Japan-only sequel, Mother 3, for the Game Boy Advance in 2006. EarthBound later became available worldwide on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2013, 3DS Virtual Console in 2016, SNES Classic in 2017, and the Nintendo Classics service in February 2022.
Gameplay
EarthBound includes many features found in traditional role-playing games. The player controls a group of characters who explore a two-dimensional world made up of villages, cities, caves, and dungeons. As the characters travel, they fight enemies and earn experience points for winning battles. When a character gains enough experience points, their level increases. This randomly improves their abilities, such as attack power, defense, and the maximum hit points (HP) and psychic points (PP) for each character. Unlike most console RPGs of its time, EarthBound does not use a separate map screen to show the world. Instead, the game world is fully connected, with no clear difference between towns and open areas. Another unique feature is the game's use of oblique projection, which shows the world from a slanted angle, unlike most 2D RPGs that use a top-down view or an isometric perspective.
EarthBound differs from its earlier version, EarthBound Beginnings, by not using random enemy encounters. In EarthBound, enemies appear in the game world like other characters. Players can see enemy groups on-screen, but the members of these groups are randomly chosen. If the player approaches an enemy from behind (shown by a translucent green swirl on the screen), they get to attack first when the battle starts. If the player approaches an enemy from the front, the swirl turns red, and the enemy attacks first. However, the player can try to avoid the attack. Battles against weak enemies are automatically won, skipping the battle sequence, and weak enemies may run away instead of chasing the player.
During battles, when a character or enemy’s HP reaches zero, they become unconscious. After a battle, there is a chance the player might receive an item. Battle options include attacking, spying (to learn an enemy’s weakness), mirroring (to copy an enemy’s actions), and running away. Characters can also use PSI actions that require psychic points (PP). After choosing commands for all characters, actions happen in an order based on speed and a random number generator. When a character takes damage, their HP box slowly moves down like a counter. This gives players a chance to heal or win the battle before the counter reaches zero, saving the character from unconsciousness. If a character takes fatal damage, there is a small chance they might survive with 1 HP left, even without help. This does not happen to enemies, who become unconscious instantly and can only be revived with healing PSI. If all characters become unconscious, the game shows an endgame screen asking if the player wants to continue. If the player chooses to continue, Ness is revived at the last save point with half the money he had when defeated, and the other party members remain unconscious.
Money is earned indirectly through battles. Each time the player wins a battle, Ness’s father, who can also save the game, adds money to an account that players can access at ATMs. In towns, players can buy weapons, armor, and items from shops. Weapons and armor improve attack power and defense, respectively. Items can be used for healing or other purposes. Towns also have facilities like hospitals where players can pay to be healed.
Plot
In the 1990s, a meteorite crashes in Eagleland. Near the crash site, Ness and Pokey examine the meteorite and meet a small creature named Buzz-Buzz, who comes from the future. Buzz-Buzz tells them that in ten years, the world will be filled with hatred by an alien named Giygas, who will turn people, animals, and objects into bad creatures. Buzz-Buzz asks Ness to save the world by collecting eight melodies using a "Sound Stone" found in special places around the world. However, Buzz-Buzz is killed accidentally, leaving Ness to continue alone.
Ness travels through Eagleland to collect the melodies and meets many people and events. In Happy Happy Village, Ness saves a girl named Paula from a group of people who misuse her psychic powers after being affected by a statue made by Giygas. After getting trapped in Threed, Paula calls for a young scientist named Jeff, who comes from Winters in a flying saucer made by his father. At the seaside resort Summers, Ness sees Poo, the prince of Dalaam, who joins the group after finishing his "Mu Training." With his three friends, Ness fills the Sound Stone completely.
Ness goes to Magicant, where he battles his own dark side. Back in Eagleland, the group uses a device called the Phase Distorter to travel back in time to fight Giygas. To protect their bodies during time travel, they move their souls into robots. During the fight with Giygas, Pokey shows he is working with Giygas by using alien technology. After being beaten, Pokey lets Giygas out, now made into the symbol of evil because of his endless power. Paula uses her psychic powers to get help from people around the world through prayers, which helps the group defeat Giygas by using his weaknesses: human emotions and love. Ness goes back home to live normally, but gets a letter from Pokey that teases him.
Development
EarthBound Beginnings was released for the Famicom in Japan in 1989. Its sequel, EarthBound, was created by Ape and HAL over five years and published by Nintendo. The game was written and designed by Shigesato Itoi, a Japanese author, musician, and advertiser, and produced by Satoru Iwata, who later became Nintendo's president and CEO. Mother 2 was developed by a team different from the original game, and most members were unmarried and willing to work long hours. Development of Mother 2 took longer than planned and faced repeated threats of cancellation. Itoi said the project improved when Iwata joined the team. Ape’s programming team had more members than HAL’s team. The HAL team, led by Iwata, worked on game programming, while the Ape team, led by Kouji Malta, worked on specific details like text and maps. The teams met regularly at the HAL office near Mount Fuji.
Mother 2 continues the story of EarthBound Beginnings, where Giygas returns as the main villain and does not die at the end of the first game. Players can choose to continue the protagonist’s story by naming their character the same as in the original. Itoi considered including space travel in the new game but later decided against it, calling the idea cliché. He aimed to create a game that would appeal to people who played fewer games, such as girls.
The Mother series was built on Itoi’s idea of “reckless wildness,” where he encouraged his team to think creatively about how to present scenes in games. He saw the games as games, not just stories. Itoi wanted players to feel strong emotions, like sadness, while playing. The game’s writing was intentionally funny and playful, using Japanese kana script to make dialogue sound natural. Itoi chose the default character names himself after disliking his team’s suggestions. Many characters were based on real people, such as the desert miners modeled after executives from a Japanese construction company. The final battle with Giygas was inspired by a scene from a movie Itoi saw as a child. Itoi called the battle’s background animations a “video drug,” and one artist created nearly 200 of these animations over two years.
The idea for the rolling HP meter came from pachinko balls that dropped when hit, but this did not work well for characters with high health. Instead, the team used a counter that looked like a car’s odometer. The bicycle was difficult to program at first, using controls similar to a tank before adjustments were made. Iwata noted that Ape’s programmers were especially willing to solve challenges. The team also struggled to make the in-game delivery service work, where the delivery person had to avoid obstacles. They added humor by making the delivery person run quickly off-screen. Maps with diagonal streets required extra work from artists. Itoi avoided using an overworld map and instead made each town unique. His favorite town was Threed, though it was called Summers earlier.
Mother 2 was designed to fit within an 8-megabit limit but was expanded twice: first to 12 megabits and then to 24 megabits. The game was originally planned for release in January 1993 on a 12-megabit cartridge. It was finished in May 1994 and released in Japan on August 27. With extra time, the team added small personal touches. Itoi told Weekly Famitsu that Shigeru Miyamoto liked the game and called it the first role-playing game Miyamoto had completed. Mother 2 was released in North America about a year later.
The game included anti-piracy measures that increased enemy numbers to make the game harder if pirated. Before the end of a pirated copy, the game would reset and delete saved files, a method IGN called “arguably the most devious and notorious example of ‘creative’ copy protection.”
Composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka returned for EarthBound’s soundtrack, along with newcomers Hiroshi Kanazu and Toshiyuki Ueno. Itoi said EarthBound had more “jazzy” music than Mother. Suzuki noted that the Super NES’s SPC700 chip allowed more creative freedom than the older Nintendo Entertainment System. The soundtrack was released by Sony Records on November 2, 1994.
Suzuki composed music on a synthesizer before working with programmers to include it in the game. His favorite piece plays when the player rides a bicycle, a track he had written earlier but found fitting. He composed over 100 pieces, though many were not used. The team created enough music to fill 8 megabits of the 24-megabit cartridge, equal to about two compact discs.
Tanaka said the Beach Boys were a frequent influence for him and Suzuki. He listened to Brian Wilson’s 1988 album while traveling to Suzuki’s home. Suzuki said the game’s percussion was inspired by the Beach Boys’ unreleased Smile and Smiley Smile albums, which included American themes similar to Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle. He felt Smile captured both bright and dark aspects of America, while Song Cycle mixed American humor with hints of Ray Bradbury. Tanaka mentioned Randy Newman as an influential American composer, citing his albums Little Criminals and Land of Dreams. Suzuki also admired Harry Nilsson and John Lennon, noting their shared themes of love.
The soundtrack includes direct quotes from classical and folk music, as well as samples from other genres like salsa, reggae, and dub. Tanaka said Frank Zappa would have been ideal for a live performance of Mother’s music but could not explain Zappa’s specific influence. He also noted that the mixtape Wired Magazine Presents: Music Futurists included artists that reflected EarthBound’s style, ranging from space-age composer Esquivel to avant-garde musicians.
Reception
In Japan, Mother 2 sold 518,000 units, becoming the tenth best-selling game of 1994 in the country. EarthBound was released on June 5, 1995, in North America. The game sold about 140,000 units in the United States, for a total of approximately 658,000 units sold worldwide.
Nintendo spent about $2 million on marketing for the American release, but the game was considered a failure by the company. The marketing campaign was unusual because it focused on the game's humor. As part of Nintendo's "Play It Loud!" campaign, EarthBound used a "this game stinks" strategy that included scratch-and-sniff advertisements with unpleasant smells. GamePro reported that more complaints were received about these ads than any other 1995 advertisement.
The campaign was also expensive. It focused on magazine ads and included a strategy guide with each game. Poor sales and the decline of the Super NES led to no European release. Aaron Linde of Shacknews believed the game's high price limited sales.
EarthBound received little praise from American critics and sold poorly in the U.S., with about 140,000 copies sold, compared to twice as many in Japan. Kotaku described the 1995 American release as a failure and blamed low sales on a strange marketing campaign and graphics that were too cartoonish for most players. The game was released when role-playing games (RPGs) were not popular in the U.S., and visual styles of RPGs at the time were more like those of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. The game relied on Itoi's fame in Japan.
Most journalists said the game's poor sales in the U.S. were due to simple graphics, an unusual marketing strategy, and lack of interest in the genre. Nicholas Dean Des Barres of DieHard GameFan wrote that EarthBound was not as impressive as Final Fantasy III but was still fun. He praised the game's humor and said it surprised him. He noted that the game's 8-bit graphics were intentionally nostalgic and that the game was not for beginners but was "highly intelligent" and "captivating." The Brazilian Super GamePower said players expecting a Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG would be disappointed by the childish visuals, which were different from other 16-bit games. They wrote that the American humor was too mature and the gameplay was too simple for older players. GamePro criticized the game's story and graphics but praised the music and humor. They said the game was not suitable for children because of its adult humor but would not appeal to more mature players because of its simple gameplay and poor graphics.
Lindblom and his team were upset by the game's poor reception and sales. He said the game was hurt by critics calling its graphics "simplistic" at a time when graphics quality was highly valued. Lindblom believed the game's changes to RPG rules, such as the rolling HP meter and enemies that could flee, were not widely recognized until the game was re-released in 2013 on the Virtual Console.
Years after its release, critics described the game as "original" or "unique" and praised its story's emotional range. IGN's Scott Thompson said the game balanced serious and bold moments in its dialogue and gameplay and noted its differences from typical RPGs, such as the choice of attacks in battle. He called the game both "bizarre and memorable." Official Nintendo Magazine's Simon Parkin said the game's story was its strongest feature, describing it as one of the medium's most unique and emotional storylines. GameZone's David Sanchez said the story was "clever" and "sharp," with a wide range of emotions that made him want to interact with all non-player characters. GamesTM wrote that the game's designers communicated with players through non-playable characters and noted how Itoi's interests influenced the story, its references to popular culture, and its "strangely existential narrative framework." Nintendo Life praised the game's touching story, charm, and modern setting, with minor criticism of its slow pacing.
Critics praised the game's "real world" setting, which was uncommon for RPGs. Thompson noted the game's 1990s themes as a tribute to 20th-century Americana, with features like payphones as save points, ATMs for money transfers, yo-yos as weapons, skateboarders and hippies as enemies, and references to classic rock bands. Official Nintendo Magazine's Parkin said the game's theme was different from the "knights and dragons" common in Japanese RPGs. Thompson noted the game's difficulty, writing that the beginning was the hardest and that limited inventory, experience grinds, and monetary penalties upon death made it hard for new players. He also said enemies respawned quickly, and players had to fight bosses despite their difficulty.
Reviewers described the game's atmosphere as cheerful and charming. David Sanchez of GameZone said the game's self-aware humor added to its charm, and the music was an "absolute delight," with a wide range of styles from space sounds to battle tracks that changed based on the enemy type. GamesTM wrote that the game's reputation comes from its consistent visual style, inspired by Charles M. Schulz's character and world design. Kotaku's Jason Schreier found the ending unsatisfying but praised the ending credits, which included a character curtain call and a photo album of "fuzzy pickles" moments.
Thompson wrote that EarthBound balances "dark Lovecraftian apocalypse and silly lightheartedness" and was still interesting nearly a decade after its release. He noted the game's innovations, such as the rolling HP meter and lack of random battles, but said technical issues like animation slowdown with multiple enemies went unfixed in the re-release. Parkin said the game offered a strong experience despite limited resources and called its battle sequences "sleek." Nintendo World Report's Justin Baker was surprised by the "excellent" battle system and controls, which he said were underreported in other reviews. He noted some menu interactions were clunky. GamesTM said the game was not as groundbreaking as Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger and that its battle scenes were unexciting. The magazine compared the game's "chosen one" story to a "throwaway Link's Awakening / Goonies hybrid narrative." Thompson praised Nintendo for digitizing the Player's Guide but said it was easier to view on a tablet than on the Wii U. Reviewers concluded that the game has aged well.
Legacy
EarthBound was listed in 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, where Christian Donlan wrote that the game is "mentioned more often by gaming experts than actually played." He called the game "utterly brilliant" and praised its overworld and battle system. Similarly, Eurogamer’s Simon Parkin described it as a "sacred cow among gaming experts." Game journalists have ranked EarthBound among the best Super NES games and most essential Japanese role-playing games. At least three reader polls ranked the game among the best of all time. For a piece about the "top worlds" in video games, IGN rated EarthBound’s setting among the best, noting its unconventional environments, 1960s music, and portrayal of American culture.
Kotaku described the game as "one of the weirdest, most surreal role-playing games in RPG history." Examples include using items like the Pencil Eraser to remove pencil statues, experiencing in-game hallucinations, meeting "a man who turned himself into a dungeon," and battling piles of vomit, taxi cabs, and walking nooses. David Sanchez of GameZone wrote that EarthBound "went places no other game would" in the 1990s or even today, including "trolling" the player "before trolling was cool." Localization reviewer Clyde Mandelin described the Japanese-to-English conversion as "top-notch for its time." 1UP.com said it was "unusually excellent" for the time. IGN wrote that Nintendo was "dead wrong" for believing Americans would not be interested in "such a chaotic and satirical world." Complex included EarthBound as one of the "Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time," saying the game is "definitely the craziest and one of the most fun RPGs the SNES had to offer."
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," making 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 after its 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 other media.
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."
A cult following for EarthBound developed after the game’s release. Colin Campbell of Polygon wrote that "few gaming communities are as passionate and active" as EarthBound’s, and 1UP.com’s Bob Mackey wrote that no game was as poised to have a cult following. IGN’s Lucas M. Thomas wrote in 2006 that EarthBound’s "persistent," "ambitious," and "religiously dedicated collective of hardcore fans" would be among the first groups to influence Nintendo’s decision-making through their purchasing power on Virtual Console. Digital Trends’s Anthony John Agnello wrote that "no video game fans have suffered as much as EarthBound fans," citing Nintendo’s reluctance to release Mother series games in North America. IGN described the series as neglected by Nintendo in North America for similar reasons. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata later credited the community response on their online Miiverse social platform as leading to EarthBound’s eventual rerelease on their Virtual Console platform. Physical copies of EarthBound were hard to find before the rerelease, and in 2013, were worth twice its initial retail price.
Wired described the amount of EarthBound "fan art, videos, and tributes on fan sites like EarthBound Central or Starmen.net as mountainous. Reid Young of Starmen.net and Fangamer credits EarthBound’s popularity to its "labor of love" nature, with a "double-coat of thoughtfulness and care" across all aspects of the game by a development team that appeared to love their work. Young started the fansite that would become Starmen.net in 1997 while in middle school. It became "the definitive fan community for EarthBound on the web" and had "almost inexplicable" growth. Shacknews described the site’s collection of fan-made media as "absolutely massive." It also provided a place to aggregate information on the Mother series and to coordinate fan actions.
The EarthBound fan community at Starmen.net coalesced with the intent to have Nintendo of America acknowledge the Mother series. The community drafted several thousand-person petitions for specific English-language Mother series releases, but in time, their request shifted to no demand at all, wanting only their interest to be recognized by Nintendo. A 2007 campaign for a Mother 3 English localization led to the creation of a full-color, 270-page art book—The EarthBound Anthology—sent to Nintendo and press outlets as demonstration of consumer interest. Shacknews called it more of a proposal than a collection of fan art and "the greatest gaming love letter ever created." Upon "little" response from Nintendo, they decided to localize the game themselves. Starmen.net co-founder and professional game translator Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin led the project from its November 2006 announcement to October 2008 finish. They then printed a "professional quality strategy guide" through Fangamer, a video game merchandising site that spun off from Starmen.net. Unlicensed EarthBound-themed merchandise produced by Fangamer contributors included T-shirts, a pin set, and a mug; 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 Earthbound by Ken Baumann, published by Boss Fight Books, and Legends of Localization Book 2: Earthbound, by Clyde Mandelin.
A variety of merchandise depicting Ness have