E3 2015: The First Mother is Finally Coming to North America

Just like your mother, you never want to stop.

Yay

Wow

That's awesome. But that first image of Ness is terrifying.

Fucking YES.

Here's the unfortunate news --- Mother 1 is pretty dang rough compared to Earthbound. But maybe Nintendo is paying attention to fans.

I am beyond excited. I hope this sets the standard for the rest of the week.

If this eventually leads to Mother 3, cool.

Better late than never I guess.

Fine, where's mother 3?

Not 3DS

This is awesome!

Mother 1 isn't very good..

I don't want to complain but seriously, why not Mother 3?

Mother 1 is a bad video game, also hopefully it's not the same shity translation that leaked rom had

Wouldn't be surprised if Mother 3 turns up at the Nintendo "conference".

That's not Mother 3!

"Hey, we really want Mother 3."

"Here's Mother 1."

Dayum, I guess Mother 3 just might come over.

And Nintendo comes out swinging!

Only on the Wii U virtual console? I guess it means I can get on those fan translations then. Wish they would've put it out on the 3DS too...

@joe423: Because mother 1 is already translated

People wonder why Europe was never all that big on Nintendo like the US was, because lots of their massive hits never came out here. I remember Final Fantasy 7 coming out and wondering why they started the series at 7, no idea there were 6 games previous on Nintendo consoles. Frigging didn't get a lot of them here until they came to IOS, FF6 came out on the PS here in 2002, like long after it was dead, so unless you emulated your first chance was IOS lol.

They're better now but the PC is big here for a reason, I barely know any one here who had a Nintendo as a kid, all Megadrives, Playstations or PCs. I think Goldeneye was the only reason people looked at an N64, after that no one cared again until the Wii and that fad only lasted a couple years.

All I'm wondering now is if the Hippie's music is in-tact in this version.

I have no clue what the licencing is like for Johnny B. Goode at this point.

Huh. I heard people saying Nintendo is trying to fix their image. This... is a start, I guess. Mother 1 is not a good game, but they finally brought it out, so I'll buy it because I've been yelling for years.

Welp, Nintendo NA is acknowledging Earthbound/Mother. World's ending.

It's cool that Nintendo's putting this out, but I think Earthbound is the only good game in the Mother series. This one's too heavy on level grinding.

MEGATOOOOOOOOOOOON!

I know Earthbound's almost certainly the better game (cause, I mean...it's perfect) but I'd be willing to buy this just to vote with my dollar.

@bigmess: Don't know if joking or not, but the kid's name is Ninten, not Ness. The only person that shows up in Earthbound(Mother 2) is Lloyd. He becomes Dr. Andonuts.

Never heard any good things about this one. No bad things neither. I guess I just never heard people talking about this one in even a slightly close regard as the other two. I wonder, did it never get popular? Or was it never that great? Seems a bit too bland for what I want out of a Mother game after player the previous two.

This is definitely a smart move for Nintendo. They need to do everything they can to serve the fans they have left (which is a lot, but still...).

WHAT.

Wow, this is a good sign that Nintendo may actually listen to some of its fans

WHY NOT 3DS

I've always loved the Earthbound logo. It's so good. But not as good as Mother.

Get a job, Hippie!

Mother 1 is not a good game, but the soundtrack gets to me every time I hear it.

Can't believe they are releasing this before Mother 3. I'm sure the game was amazing when it first came out, but in retrospect (which is the only viewpoint any American will have on the game) it is basically just a crappier version of Earthbound. Whereas Mother 3 is an amazingly unique experience featuring a character we already know.

On the plus side this announcement means that they will almost certainly be releasing Mother 3 eventually, but it's just a shame we will have to wait for it.

Mother 1 is cool and all, but without the fan patches that rebalance the game, it isn't so fun to play. That being said I will buy this to support it.

Nice!

Great news, unfortunately Mother 1 isn't a great game, even with the fan patches.

@subliminalkitteh: Whateva. Word to your mother.

Get it? Because the game's named- ah forget it!

No 3DS? Okay then :(

But, really, I hope this leads up to Mother 3 getting an official English release.

Accepted. Thank you.

Next stop Mother 3!

Just a bit of a primer for those who never played EarthBound Zero and are wondering what to expect from EarthBound Beginnings. For starters, it has been confirmed that EBB is indeed similar to the prototype localized ROM that served as the basis for EBZ (and the Japan-only Mother 1+2 for GBA), with no known differences between the two so far.

Earthbound Beginnings/Zero/NES has excellent music (some of the best on the system), a pleasant art style, an original setting that isn't explored too much in RPGs, and a unique sense of humor.

However, the gameplay is, to put it gently like an early-era Famicom RPG (i.e. DQI&II, FF1), even though it was a late-era Famicom release. It has some pretty archaic elements like an inconsistent (though pretty front-loaded) difficulty curve, a slightly non-intuitive menu system, and a reliance on frequent grinding to pad out the length.

So, should you pick this up? If you're an EarthBound super-fan who wants to show your support, then you've likely already picked this up. If you played EarthBound, enjoyed it, and are curious of its origins, it might be worth checking out, as it's only $6.99. If you want to jump into the EarthBound, then it's better to just save up a few more bucks and get the SNES sequel instead, as it is better than the original in every way and is also readily available on the Wii U VC.

Okay, so it's not an amazing game, but it's pretty average for an NES JRPG. Probably not for people who didn"t play RPGs during that era or aren't hardcore Earthbound / Mother fans. For the most part, it's just grindy.

Still, biggest surprise for me so far. Here's to hoping that Mother 3 gets announced soon.