Ever since, Nintendo of America has distanced itself from EarthBound.ĭespite the marketing failure, many players who tried the game fell in love with it. Because of this and several other factors, the game only sold 75,000 copies in its first year.

It's like living inside your gym shoes.' Traditional advertising like TV spots were replaced with odorous scratch-n-sniff ads that were Was that EarthBound was marketed with phrases like, 'This game stinks' and 'EarthBound. The marketing team was using a new 'gross-out' theme with its advertising at the time, probably as a way to compete with Sega's ads. On the game's marketing, in the hope that millions of copies of EarthBound would be sold. Millions of dollars were supposedly spent The game was translated and titled 'EarthBound'. The success of the game there led Nintendo to believe the game would do extremely well in America. But, because the Super NES was being released atĪbout the same time, the game was canceled despite being fully translated and reprogrammed. The game's name was to be changed from 'MOTHER' to 'Earth Bound'. Originally, the first game in the series was supposed to be released on the original NES in 1991. Now let us celebrate the 15th annivesary of this great game! Itoi's own personal experiences, which is possibly why Western gamers can connect with the game so well. Were based on American pop culture and Mr. Many of the situations and scenarios in the game Until then, modern-day RPGs were virtually unheard of, and this uniqueness was met with great support from video gaming fans. He did this by placing his MOTHER games in a modern setting and making it a regular kid's After discovering Dragon Quest for the Famicom, he instantly fell in love with the game.īeing a creative fellow, though, he felt he could do better and take it in a completely new direction. The MOTHER series was created a famous Japanese copywriter. Sadly, none of the EarthBound prequels, sequels, or ports released in Japan ever made it across the ocean, Even so, the game is still celebrated by fans fifteen years later.ĮarthBound was known in Japan as MOTHER 2. It was overlooked at the time, but the popularity of the Internet and fan sites ensured the game would live on.

On June 5, 1995, EarthBound was released in North America for the Super NES.

Download ebay earthbound