EarthBound: Difference between revisions
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(Cleanup, infobox shouldn't take up half of the screen, initial failure is already mentioned in "reception", I'm iffy on a section reguarding the fan community here though a minor mention shouldn't be a problem, I am in favor of adding a development section but don't have the time to write one up) |
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After a difficult and long development period of five years, ''EarthBound'' was published in Japan and the United States. English localization was led by [[Marcus Lindblom]], who helped translate ''EarthBound''’s goofy tone. While successful in Japan, ''EarthBound'' was a commercial disappointment in the United States, where a $2 million advertising campaign was held to promote the game. Additionally, ''EarthBound'' received lukewarm reception. ''Mother 2'' was packaged in the Japan-only rerelease ''[[Mother 1+2]]'', then it recieved Japan-exclusive sequel, ''[[Mother 3]]'', which was published in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance. ''EarthBound''’s protagonist, Ness, would also be featured in the [[Super Smash Bros. (series)|''Super Smash Bros.'' series]] as a playable character. | After a difficult and long development period of five years, ''EarthBound'' was published in Japan and the United States. English localization was led by [[Marcus Lindblom]], who helped translate ''EarthBound''’s goofy tone. While successful in Japan, ''EarthBound'' was a commercial disappointment in the United States, where a $2 million advertising campaign was held to promote the game. Additionally, ''EarthBound'' received lukewarm reception. ''Mother 2'' was packaged in the Japan-only rerelease ''[[Mother 1+2]]'', then it recieved Japan-exclusive sequel, ''[[Mother 3]]'', which was published in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance. ''EarthBound''’s protagonist, Ness, would also be featured in the [[Super Smash Bros. (series)|''Super Smash Bros.'' series]] as a playable character. | ||
''EarthBound'', and the ''Mother'' series as a whole, amassed a cult following of fans, mostly through Internet forums such as Starmen.net. Retrospectively, it has received acclaim, with critics highlighting its varied soundtrack, script, and tone. On March 20, 2013 ''EarthBound'' was rereleased on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan, and then internationally on July 18, 2013, which notably marked the debut of the game and the overall series in PAL regions. | ''EarthBound'', and the ''Mother'' series as a whole, amassed a cult following of fans, mostly through Internet forums such as Starmen.net. Retrospectively, it has received acclaim, with critics highlighting its varied soundtrack, script, and tone. On March 20, 2013 ''EarthBound'' was rereleased on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan, and then internationally on July 18, 2013, which notably marked the debut of the game and the overall series in PAL regions. ''EarthBound'' was constantly a best seller during the Virtual Console lifespan prior to service's shutdown. | ||
== Plot == | == Plot == | ||
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==Development== | ==Development== | ||
{{incomplete}} | |||
== | ==Virtual Console re-release== | ||
On March 20, 2013, ''EarthBound'' was re-released in Japan for the Wii U Virtual Console, and on July 18 of the same year in North America and Europe. During the Nintendo Direct announcing ''EarthBound'''s approval for the Wii U Virtual Console, Satoru Iwata mentioned the fan outcry being one of the reasons. The re-release was highly publicized, with [[Shigesato Itoi]] himself doing a live stream of playing the game. The game received some minor edits from the original SNES release: a line of text in [[Burglin Park]] was slightly tweaked, and the [[PSI]] animations were softened to reduce the risk of seizures. | |||
Furthermore, in March of 2016, ''Earthbound'' was re-released again in all three regions for the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console service. | |||
''EarthBound'' was included as one of the games on the Super NES Classic Edition (known as the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and Oceania and Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom in Japan), released on June 26, 2017. The game appeared in the North American and European variants. | |||
Along with its [[EarthBound Beginnings|prequel]], ''EarthBound'' was added to the [[Nintendo Switch]] Online service on February 9th, 2022. | |||
'' | ==Music sampling controversy rumors== | ||
''EarthBound'' has been noted to feature a number of samples/homages to other songs. For example, the Onett trumpet player plays Symphony No.9 Movement 2, the music that plays while fighting [[Frank]] or a [[New Age Retro Hippie]] bears some resemblance to the beginning of ''[[wikipedia:Johnny B. Goode|Johnny B. Goode]]'', and the Megaton Walk sounds remarkably like a segment from [[wikipedia:The Beatles|The Beatles]]' ''[[wikipedia:Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]''. Hirokazu Tanaka stated in an interview, "The sampling issue is a little sensitive because, well, I don't know for sure, but it sounds like that is one of the reasons ''EarthBound'' is not able to come out in America." As a result, many fans have believed these samples of music caused controversy for Nintendo of America when the company tried to approve the game for digital distribution on the Wii's Virtual Console. | |||
When ''EarthBound'' was released on the Wii U's Virtual Console service in 2013, the music was not changed despite the alleged copyright issues surrounding it. Marcus Lindblom clarified in an interview that the sampled music was not an issue during development, and likely was not the reason why ''EarthBound'' was excluded from the Wii's Virtual Console. Instead, he believed Nintendo of America simply didn't realize the popularity of the series and a re-release was not considered a priority at the time.<ref>[https://kotaku.com/the-man-who-wrote-earthbound-1188669175]</ref> | |||
''EarthBound'' | |||
==Reception== | ==Reception== | ||
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''Mother 2'' sold 518,000 units in Japan, being their tenth best-selling game of 1994. In contrast to Japan, the game had very poor initial sales in North America, being roughly 140,000 copies, deeming it a commercial failure. The cause was the combination of the game's poor marketing campaign, unimpressive visuals and the general unpopularity of the role-playing game genre in western countries. | ''Mother 2'' sold 518,000 units in Japan, being their tenth best-selling game of 1994. In contrast to Japan, the game had very poor initial sales in North America, being roughly 140,000 copies, deeming it a commercial failure. The cause was the combination of the game's poor marketing campaign, unimpressive visuals and the general unpopularity of the role-playing game genre in western countries. | ||
Despite Nintendo of America spending roughly $2,000,000 on marketing, ''EarthBound''{{'}}s advertizing was seen as one of the major detractors. Advertizing of the game mainly appeared in select gaming magazines (such as Nintendo Power), it's only other appearance was in an in-store only commercial. | Despite Nintendo of America spending roughly $2,000,000 on marketing, ''EarthBound''{{'}}s advertizing was seen as one of the major detractors. Advertizing of the game mainly appeared in select gaming magazines (such as Nintendo Power), it's only other appearance was in an in-store only commercial. The game was released as part of Nintendo of America's [[wikipedia:Nintendo marketing#Play It Loud!|Play It Loud!]] campaign, a marketing attempt at trying to appeal to teenage boys. As such the marketing heavily focused on humor revolving around rude smells, most infamously with its tagline "This game stinks" and foul-smelling scratch and sniff cards, which was deemed by critics as bizzare and did bare minimum to describe the actual game. The graphics were heavily criticized, as during the time of when the game was released, a major selling point was impressive graphics akin to ''{{wp|Final Fantasy III}}'' and ''{{wp|Chrono Trigger}}''; by contrast, ''EarthBound''{{'}}s simplistic graphics was viewed as being dated and "too cartoonish" by many critics. The overall price of the packaged game is also precieved to have hindered its sales. The poor sales and reception resulted in the game being excluded in the European market. | ||
Despite its failure, ''EarthBound'' aquired a large following through the following years, further fueled by its representation in the ''Super Smash Bros'' series, which greatly changed the perception of the game by the time of the game's re-release. | Despite its failure, ''EarthBound'' aquired a large following through the following years, further fueled by its representation in the ''Super Smash Bros'' series, which greatly changed the perception of the game by the time of the game's re-release. | ||
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Upon reaching the Virtual Console, the game received strong acclaim with its Wii U Virtual Console re-release. The game received a ''GameZone'' score of 10/10 and the ''Nintendo World Report'' gave it 9.5/10, while receiving a ''GameRanking'' score of 88%. Critics praised the wacky humor, characters, and unique modern-day real-world setting, considering it as not only one of the greatest RPG games of all time, but the most original. They also enjoyed how the game can shift from being "dark and serious" to "lighthearted and silly". The visuals, which were originally seen as detrimental, are now considered one of the many charms of the game. Many have praised the soundtrack as one of the big selling points. ''EarthBound'' has been viewed as the biggest example of a cult classic. | Upon reaching the Virtual Console, the game received strong acclaim with its Wii U Virtual Console re-release. The game received a ''GameZone'' score of 10/10 and the ''Nintendo World Report'' gave it 9.5/10, while receiving a ''GameRanking'' score of 88%. Critics praised the wacky humor, characters, and unique modern-day real-world setting, considering it as not only one of the greatest RPG games of all time, but the most original. They also enjoyed how the game can shift from being "dark and serious" to "lighthearted and silly". The visuals, which were originally seen as detrimental, are now considered one of the many charms of the game. Many have praised the soundtrack as one of the big selling points. ''EarthBound'' has been viewed as the biggest example of a cult classic. | ||
''EarthBound'' became one of Nintendo's best selling downloadable games in the Virtual Console lifespan, constantly topping the charts of the Wii U's most bought downloadable games. Prior to the closure of the eShop on the Wii U, the game was the fourth best selling Virtual Console game on the Wii U, surpassed only by ''{{mw|Super Mario Bros. 3}}'', ''{{mw|Super Mario World}}'' and ''{{mw|Super Mario 64}}'', and was the sixth best selling downloadable game on the Wii U overall. | ''EarthBound'' became one of Nintendo's best selling downloadable games in the Virtual Console lifespan, constantly topping the charts of the Wii U's most bought downloadable games. Prior to the closure of the eShop on the Wii U, the game was the fourth best selling Virtual Console game on the Wii U, surpassed only by ''{{mw|Super Mario Bros. 3}}'', ''{{mw|Super Mario World}}'' and ''{{mw|Super Mario 64}}'', and was the sixth best selling downloadable game on the Wii U overall. Throughout the years, multiple reader polls and critics had named ''EarthBound'' one of the [[wikipedia:List of video games considered the best|greatest video games ever made]]. | ||
==Gallery== | ==Gallery== | ||
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{{gallery/cell|EarthBound box.png|255px|North American box art}} | {{gallery/cell|EarthBound box.png|255px|North American box art}} | ||
{{gallery/cell|EARLY EB BOX BOI.png|285px|Early American box art}} | {{gallery/cell|EARLY EB BOX BOI.png|285px|Early American box art}} | ||
|- | |||
{{gallery/cell|Early EarthBound Boxart.png|250px|Another early version of the American box art}} | {{gallery/cell|Early EarthBound Boxart.png|250px|Another early version of the American box art}} | ||
{{gallery/cell|EarthBound Poster.jpg|235px|The promotional poster that was sent to retailers}} | |||
{{gallery/cell|EB Player's Guide Cover.jpg|230px|The [[EarthBound Player's Guide|Player's Guide/Manual]] that came with ''EarthBound''}} | |||
|- | |- | ||
{{gallery/cell|EB banner1.jpg|200px|First banner from the official website}} | {{gallery/cell|EB banner1.jpg|200px|First banner from the official website}} | ||
{{gallery/cell|EB banner2.jpg|300px|Second banner from the official website}} | {{gallery/cell|EB banner2.jpg|300px|Second banner from the official website}} | ||
|} | |} | ||
{{gallery|galleryname=Logos|color=EB}} | {{gallery|galleryname=Logos|color=EB}} | ||
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{{gallery/cell|Mother2 title.png|200px|Japanese title screen}} | {{gallery/cell|Mother2 title.png|200px|Japanese title screen}} | ||
|} | |} | ||
==Trivia== | |||
*The ESRB, the American rating system for video games, rated ''EarthBound'' for the Wii Virtual Console. This rating, however, was a mistake.<ref>[http://www.infendo.com/no-earthbound-for-vc-esrb-rating-a-mistake/ Article of the Wii's VC's Earthbound ESRB rating]</ref> The game was later confirmed for a Wii U Virtual Console release, scheduled for late 2013.<ref>[http://earthboundcentral.com/2013/04/earthbound-on-virtual-console-coming/ EarthBound Central's Article on the Wii U's VC's EarthBound release]</ref> | |||
*All of the game's areas are connected to each other. Using a [[walk through walls glitch|glitch to walk through otherwise impassable objects]] and off the map, players can walk to Giygas' lair in the [[Cave of the Past]]. | |||
*The game has several checksum to avoid abusing the previously mentioned map glitching to complete the game. The player must fall down the hole in [[Lumine Hall]], and must have defeated [[Ness's Nightmare]]. | |||
*''EarthBound'' takes place in a fictional land called [[Eagleland]]. Many fans think this is a parody of the United States of America, but Shigesato Itoi stated that the game is not necessarily set there. This is why party members like [[Poo]] appear to come from different cultures. | |||
*''Mother 2'' was available as a downloadable game for the [[wikipedia:Nintendo Power (cartridge)|Nintendo Power]], a Japan-only flash-memory cartridge that allowed owners to purchase Super Famicom games at a lowered price. | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
