EarthBound / Mother

About

Mother is a videogame series created by Shigesato Itoi consisting of three games released between 1989 and 2006 published by Nintendo. The first game of the series, Mother (マザー Mazā), was released for the Family Computer console exclusively in Japan.^[1] In 1995, Mother 2 was released on North America as Earthbound.^[2] Despite having poor commercial response, it became a game with a big cult following on the Internet. Eleven years later, after a cancelled Nintentendo 64 title, Mother 3 was published for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance system in Japan only. A compilation title, Mother 1+2 was released in 2003 for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance system in Japan only.^[4]

Setting

The series have a distinctive surrealistic setting where the stories take place in fictional places occurring in present times. The protagonists, who mainly consist of children, develop a series of abilities such as PSI powers (aka Extrasensory Perception) or create gadgets which aids them in their quest against alien domination.^[5]

Gameplay

The Mother/Earthbound titles are role-playing games with mechanics similar to the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series. Unlike the latter, in Mother 2/Earthbound and Mother 3, enemy encounters are not random, as enemies can be seen on the map and thus can be avoided. The protagonist’s party acquires abilities and strength as experience points gathered from enemy battles are won. Battles are turn-based and end when either your party defeats all enemies or all party members are KO’d.

Super Smash Brothers

The Nintendo Super Smash Brothers series feature Ness, the protagonist of Mother 2 (Earthbound), as a playable character, retaining his PSI abilities and his trademark weapon: a bat.^[6] Lucas, the protagonist of Mother 3, is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.^[7] Thanks to the Super Smash Bros. series many people were introduced to Earthbound and the game’s popularity rised on Western audiences.

Starmen.net

On February of 1999, Tomato and reidman launched Earthbound.net as a central website for North-American EarthBound fans; on 2000, they changed their domain to Starmen.net. Since its origin, Starmen.net managed to be noticed by the gaming media and eventually Nintendo of America as well. This was only possible thanks to the devoted fanbase that organized different projects, contests, petitions and original content as well.

Petitions

On three different occasions, Starmen.net organized fan petitions with different goals. On 1999, the Mother on Game Boy Color Petition that collected 1,850 signatures. On 2000, the EarthBound 64 Petition that collected 10,013 signatures.^[8] Afterwards, in 2003, the Mother 3 Petition collected 31,338 signatures.^[9] Despite the high number of fans involved, these petitions didn’t receive a response of Nintendo of America; although they proved that EarthBound fans were extremely devoted.

Funfests

Besides promoting fanart, the site would start making holiday themed contests called Funfests since 1999. One would be celebrated around Halloween, and the other around December holidays. The prizes included limited edition fan-made figures and DVDs. These contests were held from 1999 until 2009. On later years, the Funfests would be succeeded by the Fanfests, which consisted on LiveStreams of different events and contests held by Fangamer.^[10]

Fan Translations

When Mother 3 was released, many fans still hoped that Nintendo of America would localize the title. When it became aparent that Nintendo wasn’t interested in releasing the title, Tomato and a group of fans started working on a translation for the game by the end of 2006, making their progress publin in August of 2007. Finally, on October 17th of 2008, the translation patch was released with fan praise.

After finishing the Mother 3 translation Tomato took another task, retranslate from scratch Mother 1 for the Game Boy Advance. The project started by the end of 2008 and it was released on April 30th of 2011. Unlike the NES translation of the game known as EarthBound Zero, this version was more faithful to the original script and graphics (without censoring).

Mother 4 Fan Game

Despite Shigesato Itoi insisted that there wouldn’t be a Mother 4, that didn’t discourage a group of fans that have been designing and programming their own sequel since 2008. This project isn’t part of Starmen.net, but most of the members of the team are members of the Starmen.net forums.

Unreleased/Beta games

Earthbound 64 (in America)/Mother 3 (in Japan)

(NOTE: Please do not confuse this with Mother 3 for the Gameboy Advance.)
There were 2 instances that hinted that a possible sequel would be released.
First, was the “famous” sign in Fourside in front of a building that said:

Second, was the escape of the main antagonist, Porky. During the final scene of the game, the screen fades to black and greeted with the words “The End…?”.

Memetic Spread

Due to the nature of the series, it was able to spread different memes and parodies based on the characters, music and events of the games.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead

Giygas

Main entry: You Cannot Grasp The True Form of X.

One of the most notorious characters of the series is Giygas.

Giygas is the source of the alien invasion and final boss of the second Mother title, or Earthbound. In the game’s storyline, the protagonists Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo travel back in time to fight an undefinable version of Giygas.

This battle has created a separate meme: You Cannot Grasp The True Form of X.

The Wess Dance

Main entry: The Wess Dance.

During the Second Chapter of the third Mother game, one of the protagonists, Duster goes into the Osohe Castle with his father Wess in order to steal a mysterious treasure. In the middle of his search, they find a locked door and Wess must do an odd dance in order to open it. This strange and embarassing dance was accompanied by catchy music.

Due to being one of the funnier parts of the game, the dance became memorable and some parodies started appearing online. Starmen.net decided to do a contest where users could submit videos of then doing the dance called The Funky Monkey Dance Contest:

Colin’s Bear Animation

Main entry: Colins Bear Animation.

On 2007, UOIT student Colin Sanders made a demo reel consisting of a bear walking, dancing and floating in space as his final assignment. Some time later, one friend of his wanted to upload the video on YouTube and it became popular with many people making homages and remixes of his original animation.

The background music used is in fact the Funky Monkey Dance theme from the Mother 3 soundtrack. Colin also used an EarthBound picture as a background, making the video even more catchy and bizarre at the same time.

External References