''EarthBound'', originally released in Japan as is a 1994
role-playing
Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
developed by
Ape Inc.
is a Japanese video game company affiliated with Game Freak and Nintendo, and is one of the owners of the ''Pokémon'' franchise. It was founded by Tsunekazu Ishihara in November 1995, with the assistance of then-president of HAL Laboratory, Sat ...
and
HAL Laboratory
formerly shortened as HALKEN, is a Japanese video game developer based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded on February 21, 1980 by Mitsuhiro Ikeda. The company started out developing games for home computers of the era, but has since establishe ...
and published by
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...
as the second entry in the ''Mother'' series. The game focuses on a young boy named
Ness
Ness or NESS may refer to:
Places Australia
* Ness, Wapengo, a heritage-listed natural coastal area in New South Wales
United Kingdom
* Ness, Cheshire, England, a village
* Ness, Lewis, the most northerly area on Lewis, Scotland, UK
* Cuspate ...
and his
party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...
of Paula, Jeff and Poo, as they travel the world to collect melodies from eight Sanctuaries in order to defeat the universal cosmic destroyer
Giygas
Giygas ( ), also known as Giegue, and in Japan, is a character in the ''Mother'' video game series by Nintendo, created by Shigesato Itoi. The character serves as the main antagonist and final boss of ''Mother'' and its sequel, '' Mother 2/Eart ...
.
''EarthBound'' had a lengthy development period that spanned five years. Its returning staff from ''
Mother
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...
'' (1989) included writer/director
Shigesato Itoi
is a Japanese copywriter, essayist, lyricist, game designer, and actor. Itoi is the editor-in-chief of his website and company '' Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun'' ("Almost Daily Itoi Newspaper"). He is best known outside Japan for his work on Nintendo ...
and lead programmer
Satoru Iwata
Satoru Iwata (; December6, 1959July11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer and producer. Beginning in 2002, he was the fourth president of Nintendo, as well as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo of America from ...
, as well as composers
Keiichi Suzuki
is a Japanese musician, singer, and record producer who co-founded the Moonriders, a group that became one of Japan's most innovative rock bands. He is known to audiences outside Japan for his musical contributions to the video games '' EarthB ...
and
Hirokazu Tanaka
, also known as Chip Tanaka, is a Japanese musician, composer, sound designer, and executive who pioneered chiptune music. He is best known as one of Nintendo's in-house composers during the 8- and 16-bit era of video games. Tanaka also had a role ...
, who incorporated a diverse range of styles into the
soundtrack
A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
, including
salsa
Salsa most often refers to:
* Salsa (food), a variety of sauces used as condiments
* Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music
* Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music
Salsa or SALSA may also refer to:
Arts and ent ...
,
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...
, and dub. Most of the other staff members had not worked on the original ''Mother'', and the game came under repeated threats of cancellation until Iwata joined the team. Originally scheduled for release in January 1993, the game was completed around May 1994 and first released in Japan in August 1994, and in North America in June 1995. A port for the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...
developed by Pax Softnica, bundled with ''Mother'', as ''Mother 1+2'', was released only in Japan in 2003.
Like its predecessor, ''EarthBound'' is themed around an idiosyncratic portrayal of
Americana
Americana may refer to:
*Americana music, a genre or style of American music
* Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States
Film, radio and television
* ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film
* ''Americana'' (20 ...
and
Western culture
Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...
, subverting popular role-playing game traditions by featuring a modern setting while parodying numerous staples of the genre. Itoi wanted the game to reach non-gamers with its intentionally goofy tone; for example, the player uses items such as the Pencil Eraser to remove pencil statues, experiences in-game hallucinations, and battles piles of vomit, taxi cabs, and walking nooses. For its American release, the game was marketed with a $2 million promotional campaign that sardonically proclaimed "This game stinks". The game's puns and humor were reworked by localizer
Marcus Lindblom
Marcus Lindblom is an American video game developer known for his English localization of the 1994 video game ''EarthBound''. Lindblom spent his youth in the United States, and dropped out of college to move to Japan with his wife. After four ...
. Since the original ''Mother'' had not yet been released outside Japan, ''Mother 2'' was called ''EarthBound'' to avoid confusion about what it was a sequel to.
Although it was positively received by Japanese audiences, ''EarthBound'' sold poorly in the United States. Journalists attributed the game's poor sales in the West to a combination of its simple graphics, satirical marketing campaign, and a lack of market interest in the genre. In the ensuing years, a dedicated fan community spawned that advocated for the series' recognition, particularly after Ness appeared as a playable character in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. By the 2000s, multiple reader polls and critics had named it one of the
greatest video games of all time
This is a list of video games that video game journalists or magazines have considered among the best of all time. The games are included on at least six separate best-of lists from different publications (inclusive of all time periods, platfor ...
, and it became regarded as a " sacred cow among gaming's