EarthBound

EarthBound features many traditional role-playing game elements: the player controls a party of characters who travel through the game's two-dimensional world composed of villages, cities, caves, and dungeons. Along the way, the player fights battles against enemies and the party receives experience points for victories. If enough experience points are acquired, a character's level will increase. This pseudo-randomly increases the character's attributes, such as offense, defense, and the maximum hit points (HP) and psychic points (PP) of each character. Rather than using an overworld map screen like most console RPGs of its era, the world is entirely seamless, with no differentiation between towns and the outside world. Another non-traditional element is the perspective used for the world. The game uses oblique projection, while most 2D RPGs use a "top-down" view on a grid or an isometric perspective. ==Plot==

In an unknown year of the 1990s, a meteorite crashes in Eagleland. In the nearby neighborhood of the crash, Ness and Pokey investigate the meteorite, where they encounter a small creature called Buzz-Buzz who came from the future, which he reveals that the world in ten years will be engulfed in hatred by an alien force named Giygas, transforming humans, animals, and objects into malicious creatures. Buzz-Buzz enlists Ness to save the world by collecting eight melodies with a "Sound Stone" kept in sanctuaries scattered around the world. However, Buzz-Buzz is accidentally killed, forcing Ness to begin alone. Travelling through Eagleland to collect the melodies, Ness comes across many events and characters. In the Happy Happy Village, Ness rescues a young girl named Paula from cultists who abuse her psychic abilities after being influenced by a Mani Mani statue created by Giygas. After falling in a trap in Threed, Paula summons child scientist Jeff, who travels from Winters with his father's flying saucer. Reaching the seaside resort Summers, Ness gains a vision of Poo, the prince of Dalaam, who joins the party after completing his "Mu Training". With his three companions, Ness successfully fills the Sound Stone. Ness then visits Magicant, where Ness fights his personal dark side. Returning to Eagleland, the party uses the Phase Distorter to travel back in time to fight Giygas; to avoid destroying their bodies through time travel, the party transfers their souls into robots. In the ensuing confrontation with Giygas, Pokey reveals himself as his ally by using alien technology. Upon being defeated, Pokey releases Giygas, now transformed into the embodiment of evil due to his infinite power. Paula uses her psychic powers to get aid from the world through prayers, which allows the party to defeat Giygas with his fatal weaknesses: human emotions and love. Ness returns home to resume his normal life where he receives a letter from a taunting Pokey. ==Development==

EarthBound Beginnings was released for the Famicom in 1989 in Japan. In comparison with Mother, Itoi said that EarthBound had more "jazzy" pieces. Suzuki told Weekly Famitsu that the Super NES afforded the team more creative freedom with its eight-channel ADPCM based SPC700, as opposed to the old Nintendo Entertainment System's restriction of five channels of basic waveforms. This entailed higher sound quality and music that sounds closer to his regular compositions. The soundtrack was released by Sony Records on November 2, 1994. In Suzuki's songwriting process, he would first compose on a synthesizer before working with programmers to get it in the game. His personal pieces play when the player is walking about the map, out of battle. Suzuki's favorite piece is the music that plays while the player is on a bicycle, which he composed in advance of this job but found appropriate to include. He wrote over 100 pieces, but much of it was not included in the game. The team wrote enough music as to fill eight megabits of the 24 megabit cartridge—equivalent to about two compact discs. were one of many Western artists Suzuki and Tanaka drew inspiration from while developing the game's soundtrack. According to Tanaka, the Beach Boys were repeatedly referenced between him and Suzuki, and that he would often listen to co-founder Brian Wilson's 1988 eponymous album while on the way to Suzuki's home. Suzuki has stated that the percussive arranging in the game's soundtrack was based on the Beach Boys' albums Smile (unreleased) and Smiley Smile (1967), which both contained American themes shared with Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle (1968). To Suzuki, Smile evoked the bright and dark aspects of America, while Song Cycle displayed a hazy sound mixed with American humor and hints of Ray Bradbury, a style that he considered essential to the soundtrack of Mother. Tanaka recalls Randy Newman being the first quintessentially American composer he could think of, and that his albums Little Criminals (1977) and Land of Dreams (1988) were influential. While Suzuki corroborated with his own affinity for Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Sings Newman (1970), he also cited John Lennon as a strong influence due to the common theme of love in his music, which was also a prominent theme in the game, and that his album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970) helped him to avoid excessive instrumentation over the SNES's technical constraints. The soundtrack contains direct musical quotations of some classical and folk music; the composers also derived a few samples culled from other sources including commercial pop and rock music. The texture of the work was partially influenced by some salsa, reggae, and dub music. Speaking about Frank Zappa's Make a Jazz Noise Here (1991), Tanaka felt that Zappa would have been the best at creating a live performance of Mother music, but could not detail Zappa's specific influence on EarthBound. Additionally, he felt that the mix tape Wired Magazine Presents: Music Futurists (1999) presented a particular selection of artists that embody the ethos of EarthBound, running the gamut from space age composer Esquivel to avant-garde trumpeter Ben Neill, along with innovators Sun Ra, Steve Reich, Todd Rundgren, Brian Eno, and Can. Tanaka also mentioned that he listened to the various artists compilation Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988) heavily during EarthBounds development. Miscellaneous influences on Suzuki and Tanaka for EarthBound include the music of Michael Nyman, Miklós Rózsa's film score for The Lost Weekend (1945), and albums by various other pop/rock musicians. English localization As was traditional for Nintendo, Mother 2 was developed in Japan and localized in the United States, a process in which the game is translated into English for Western audiences. As it was the only game in the Mother series to be released in North America at the time, its title "Mother 2" was changed to "EarthBound" to avoid confusion about what it was a sequel to. Nintendo of America's Dan Owsen began the English localization project and converted about ten percent of the script before moving to another project. Marcus Lindblom filled Owsen's position around January 1995. Lindblom credits Owsen with coining some of the game's "most iconic phrases", such as "say fuzzy pickles". Lindblom himself was given liberties to make the script "as weird as [he] wanted", as Nintendo wanted the script to be more American than a direct translation would be. He worked alone and with great latitude due to no divisional hierarchies. Lindblom was aided by Japanese writer Masayuki Miura, who translated the Japanese script and contextualized its tone, which Lindblom positively described as "a glass half full". Lindblom was challenged by the task of culturally translating "an outsider's view of the U.S." for an American audience. He also sought to stay true to the original text, though he never met or spoke with Itoi. In addition to reworking the original puns and humor, Lindblom added private jokes and American cultural allusions to Bugs Bunny, comedian Benny Hill, and This Is Spinal Tap. Apart from the dialogue, he wrote the rest of the game's text, including combat, prompts and item names. As one of several Easter eggs, he named a non-player character for his daughter, Nico, who was born during development. While Lindblom took the day off for her birth, he proceeded to work 14-hour days without weekends for the next month. Under directives from Nintendo, Lindblom worked with the Japanese artists and programmers to remove references to intellectual property, religion, and alcohol from the American release, such as a truck's Coca-Cola logo, the red crosses on hospitals, and crosses on tombstones. Alcohol became coffee or cappuccinos, Ness was no longer nude in the Magicant area as seen in the image, and the Happy Happyist blue cultists were made to look less like Ku Klux Klansmen. The team was not concerned with music licensing issues and considered itself somewhat protected under the guise of parody. Lindblom recalled that the music did not need many changes. The graphical fixes were not finished until March 1995, and the game was not fully playable until May. ==Reception==

Sales and promotion . EarthBound was released on June 5, 1995, in North America. for a total of approximately 658,000 units sold worldwide. Though Nintendo spent about $2 million on marketing, GamePro reported that they received more reader complaints about the game's scratch and sniff ad than about any other 1995 advertisement. The campaign was also expensive. It emphasized magazine advertisements and had the extra cost of the strategy guide included with each game. Lindblom and his team were devastated by the release's poor critical response and sales. He recalled that the game was hurt by the reception of its graphics as "simplistic" at a time when critics placed high importance on graphics quality. Lindblom felt that the game's changes to the RPG formula (e.g., the rolling HP meter and fleeing enemies) were ignored in the following years, though he thought the game had aged well at the time of its Virtual Console rerelease in 2013. Retrospective Reviewing the game years after its release, writers described the game as "original" or "unique", and praised its script's range of emotions. IGNs Scott Thompson said the game teetered between solemn and audacious in its dialogue and gameplay, and noted its deviance from RPG tropes in aspects such as choice of attacks in battle. He found the game both "bizarre and memorable". Official Nintendo Magazine Simon Parkin thought the game's script was its best asset, as "one of the medium's strongest and idiosyncratic storylines" that fluctuated "between humorous and poignant". GameZone David Sanchez thought its script was "clever" and "sharp", as it displayed a wide range of emotions that made him want to talk to all non-player characters. GamesTM wrote that the game designers spoke with their players through the non-playable characters, and noted how Itoi's interests shaped the script, its allusions to popular culture, and its "strangely existential narrative framework". Nintendo Life praised the game's touching story, charm and modern-day setting, with minor criticism of the slow pacing. Critics praised its "real world" setting, which was seen as an uncommon choice. Thompson noted its 1990s homage as "a love letter to 20th-century Americana", with a payphone as a save point, ATMs to transfer money, yo-yos as weapons, skateboarders and hippies as enemies, and references to classic rock bands. Official Nintendo Magazine Parkin noted the theme's distance from the "knights and dragons" common to the Japanese role-playing game genre. Thompson noted the game's steep difficulty. He wrote that the beginning was the hardest and that aspects such as limited inventory, experience grinds, and monetary penalties upon death were unfriendly for players new to Japanese RPGs. He also cited the quick respawn time for foes and ultimate need not to avoid battles given the difficulty of bosses. Reviewers described the game's ambiance as cheery and full of charm. David Sanchez of GameZone thought the game's self-awareness added to its charm, where the player learned through the game's poking lighthearted fun. He added that the music was an "absolute delight" and complimented its range from space sounds to themes to "bizarre" battle tracks that varied with the enemy type. GamesTM wrote that the game's reputation comes from the "consistent ... visual language" in its Charles M. Schulz-esque character and world design. Kotaku Jason Schreier found the ending unsatisfying and unrelieving, despite finding the ending credits with its character curtain call and photo album of "fuzzy pickles" moments all "wonderful". Thompson wrote that EarthBound balances "dark Lovecraftian apocalypse and silly lightheartedness", and was just as interesting nearly a decade after its original release. While he lamented a lack of "visual feedback" in battle animations, he felt the game had innovations that still feel "smart and unique": the rolling HP meter and lack of random battles. Thompson also noted that technical issues like animation slowdown with multiple enemies on-screen went unfixed in the rerelease. Parkin found the game to provide a more potent experience than developers with more resources and thought its battle sequences were "sleek". Nintendo World Reports Justin Baker was surprised by the "excellent" battle system and controls, which he found to be underreported in other reviews despite their streamlined, grind-reducing convenience. He wrote that some of the menu interactions were clunky. GamesTM felt that the game was "far from revolutionary", compared to Final Fantasy VI and 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, though noted that it was technically easier to view it on another tablet rather than switching the Wii U's view mode. Reviewers concluded that the game had aged well. ==Legacy==

Acclaim and influence EarthBound was listed in 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, where Christian Donlan wrote that the game is "name-checked by the video gaming cognoscenti more often than it's actually been played". He called the game "utterly brilliant" and praised its overworld and battle system. Similarly, Eurogamer Simon Parkin described it as a "sacred cow amongst gaming's cognoscenti". Game journalists have ranked EarthBound among the best Super NES games and most essential Japanese role-playing games, and 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 setting among the best, indelible between its unconventional environments, 1960s music, and portrayal of Americanism. Kotaku described the game "as one of the weirdest, most surreal role-playing games in RPG history". Examples include using items such as 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 in the present day, 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 that 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" made 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 since the 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 media. The 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". Fandom A cult following for EarthBound developed after the game's release. 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 Ken Baumann's Earthbound, by Boss Fight Books, and Legends of Localization Book 2: Earthbound, by Clyde Mandelin. Ness A variety of merchandise depicting Ness have been produced by Nintendo; this merchandise includes a figurine and an Amiibo. Ness became widely known for his appearance as a playable character throughout the Super Smash Bros. fighting game series, debuting as a fighter in the first installment in 1999. Ness's inclusion in the original release was among its biggest surprises, and renewed Mother series fans' faith in new content from Nintendo. Ness was one of the game's most powerful characters, according to IGN, if players could perfect his odd controls and psychic powers. In Europe, which did not see an EarthBound release, Ness was better known for his role in the fighting game than for his original role in the role-playing game. Ness returned in the first sequel, Melee, alongside an EarthBound-themed item and battle arena. Lucas, the protagonist of Mother 3, joined Ness in Brawl. Several years after Brawl release, Official Nintendo Magazine wrote that Ness was an unpopular Smash character who should be removed from future installments. However, Ness returned in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Ultimate, and Lucas was later added to the former as downloadable content. Sequels and rereleases In 1996, Nintendo announced a sequel to EarthBound for the Nintendo 64: Mother 3 (EarthBound 64 in North America). It was scheduled for release on the 64DD, a Nintendo 64 expansion peripheral that used a magneto-optical drive, but struggled to find a firm release date as its protracted development entered development hell. It was later canceled altogether in 2000 when the 64DD flopped. In April 2003, a Japanese television advertisement revealed that both Mother 3 and a combined Mother 1+2 cartridge were in development for the handheld Game Boy Advance. Mother 3 abandoned the Nintendo 64 version's 3D, but kept most of its plot. It became a bestseller upon its Japanese release in 2006, yet did not receive a North American release on the basis that it would not sell. IGN described the series as neglected by Nintendo in North America, as EarthBound Beginnings, Mother 1+2 and Mother 3 were not released outside Japan. When Nintendo launched its digital distribution platform, Virtual Console, for the Wii in 2006, IGN expected EarthBound to be among Nintendo's highest priorities for rerelease, given the "religious" dedication of its fanbase. Though the game was ranked the most desired Virtual Console release by Nintendo Power readers, rated for release by the ESRB, and able to be published with little effort, the Wii version did not materialize. Many fans believed that music licensing or legal concerns impeded the rerelease. English localizer Marcus Lindblom doubted that the game's music samples were an issue, since they were not a concern during development, and instead hypothesized that Nintendo did not realize the magnitude of the game's popular support and did not consider it a priority project. By 2008, it was not apparent that Nintendo of America was considering a rerelease. At the end of 2012, Itoi revealed that the re-release was moving forward, which was confirmed in a January 2013 Nintendo Direct presentation. As part of the anniversary celebrations for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Mother 2 in March 2013, Nintendo rereleased EarthBound for Japan on the Wii's successor, the Wii U Virtual Console. EarthBound producer Satoru Iwata soon announced a wider rerelease, citing fan interest on Nintendo's Miiverse social platform. The July American and European launch included a free, online recreation of the game's original Player's Guide, optimized for viewing on the Wii U GamePad. The game was a top-seller on the Wii U Virtual Console, and both Kotaku users and first-time EarthBound players had an "overwhelmingly positive" response to the game. Simon Parkin wrote that its re-release was a "momentous occasion" as the return of "one of Nintendo's few remaining lost classics" after 20 years. The re-release was one GameSpot editor's game of the year, and Nintendo Life Virtual Console game of the year. The New Nintendo 3DS-specific Virtual Console received the re-release the next year, in March 2016. In September 2017, Nintendo released the Super NES Classic Edition, which included EarthBound among its games. == Notes ==