EarthBound

aka: Mother 2: Gīgu no Gyakushū
Moby ID: 6676
SNES Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/28 6:10 AM )

Description official descriptions

In the year 199X, in the village of Onett, on the continent of Eagleland...

Young Ness was asleep one night when a loud crashing noise awoke him suddenly. As he rushes out of bed and up to a nearby hill, he encounters a strange meteor, carrying a single passenger: a mysterious insect-like being named Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzz tells him that in the future, an evil alien being known as Giygas has conquered the world, and the only ones who can stop him are four young kids: three boys and a girl. Ness, of course, is one of the chosen ones, and he must find the other three children: Paula, a young girl with remarkable psychic powers, Jeff, a mechanical genius, and Poo, the young Prince of Dahlaam. Together, these four friends have the power to defeat Giygas and save the world from his chaotic reign!

EarthBound is a sequel to Mother. It is a top-down role-playing game in which the heroes travel around Eagleland and various other, exotic countries, trying to end Giygas' evil influence.

On the way, Ness and his friends will encounter a lot of enemies and battle them in turn-based combat. Unlike in the previous game, enemies are visibly walking on the screen. Each turn, each of the characters in the party can attack with their weapons, use a special ability (some characters have powerful psychic powers that can hurt enemies, heal comrades, and more; some also have some other, unique special powers), use an item or try and escape.

The game features "rolling HP meters" - when a character is dealt damage, it's not all taken away from his HP right away, but instead his HP decreases slowly; if the combat is ended quickly, even a massively damaging attack can leave a character with only minor injuries. By winning battles, characters receive experience and thus become stronger. If the player-controlled characters are strong enough, weak enemies will escape from them instead of trying to attack; when chased down, they will be defeated instantly.

Saving the game is done by finding a telephone and calling Ness' father. When the heroes defeat enemies, Ness' bank account receives money, which can be then retrieved from ATM machines throughout the game and spent in shops to buy better equipment or useful items.

Spellings

  • MOTHER 2 ギーグの逆襲 - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (SNES version)

127 People (109 developers, 18 thanks) · View all

Producer / Director
Written By
Music
Game Designer
Art Director
Sound Director
Program Director
U.S. Conversion Director
Translation Directors
Programmers
Sound Programmer
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 86% (based on 36 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.3 out of 5 (based on 135 ratings with 10 reviews)

This game is pretty fun; try it out!

The Good
I liked almost everything about this game. Ill start with the music. The music of this game is very unique, and is very peaceful at times, very rockin' and hyper-active at other times. The battle music for each enemy is very good, and the over-world music for each land and place is very good too. Next thing is the story. The story of this game is very good, and it all ties together to make it very good in the end. It all flows together, and adds together nicely. The gameplay is next. The gameplay of this game is very much similar to early Dragon Quest games, but it is still very fun none-the-less. The attacks are very original and very fun to play with. How could you not like sending stars from the sky shooting at your opponents? The characters of this game are very fun to control, and they each have their own wacky sense of humor. When you play this game, it makes you feel like you are actually the main hero, who is formally called Ness.

The Bad
Okay, now, the graphics of this game aren't all nifty and aren't 100% going to make you go 'Wowza!'. The graphics aren't very good, but that shouldn't make you stay away from the game forever. Also, there are a couple of typos in the game, one of which is in a very important speech that says 'unverse' instead of 'universe'.

The Bottom Line
If you are ever offered this game, or want to buy this game, I would say get it. The amount of humor, creativity and greatness put into this game is sensational. I can't see why Nintendo won't give this game another chance. It's very well worth it Nintendo. Heck; it even has 2 sites devoted to it, and 50 Million Fan games that are being made, because fans can't wait any more! Shigesato Itoi, I give you kudos my good sir, for creating the awesome game that is, EarthBound.

SNES · by Quincy Phaeoile (2) · 2009

A classic....

The Good
The story is hilarious. The gameplay is as well, and the characters are quirky.

The Bad
The graphics are kinda wonky.

The Bottom Line
Earthbound is fondly remembered by it's fans for being a loving parody of RPGs. You play as Ness, a young boy whose duty it is to save the world with the help of a few friends and his various baseball bats. You are given this mission by a talking bee who was one of the most powerful warriors in the universe, and who dies by getting skooshed. And you can talk to dogs. It's a wierd game, but it's great fun.

SNES · by Andrew Douglas (7) · 2006

Awesome Game

The Good
The story, the humour, the music, the characters, everything about this game is great. There are things in the game that are completely pointless except to make the player laugh at them. In every town there is at least one nonsensical person who asks a question just to be silly.

Playing through it more than once is an amazing experience. The first time you are too busy worrying about where to go and what to do. If you forgot something or if you need something.

The only other RPG that I can remember feeling that good about beating was Chrono Trigger, and I've played a LOT of games.

The Bad
Later on in the game the worlds seemed rushed. You spend a good hour or two in each of the first cities but once you get to the end you can basically walk through the last 3 or 4 areas in a half hour.

The Bottom Line
If you play it, take your time and talk/check everything you come upon, you never know what little treats you may find (The bus stops actually work? Took me 2 times through the game to find that out.) Play it and enjoy it for what is there, not what you think should be or what is missing.

Soon, though I'm not sure how soon, Earthbound and Mother (the original), are due out for the GBA some time in the next year or so. With the possibility of Earthbound 2 as well. It is definitely worth the time to play it.

SNES · by KFactor (76) · 2003

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Do sealed copies of the American Release exist? WiseNaydra Mar 30, 2023
Free Player's Guide? GNJMSTR (106) Jun 15, 2011

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The SNES version of EarthBound appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Advertisement

The game's advertising campaign in the U.S. was quite a disaster. Apparently, the higher-ups at Nintendo of America decided that "kids like farts!" and thus, the ads ran in the magazines all exaggerated the (few and far between) "toilet humor" elements of the game, making the game look like an endless string of burping, puking and farting. (The ads also included scratch-n-sniff stickers.)

The advertising slogan even said: "This game stinks." Who knows how much this contributed to EarthBound's low sales.

A webpage with more info and scans of magazine ads can be found in the related links section.

Copy protection

The cartridge has a built-in copy protection with nasty effects for pirates. If a hacked game (which bypasses the first layer of protection which would simply prevent the game from starting) is played, there are a lot more random encounters in the game world. If a player endures this, it will freeze during the final battle and delete all save games. More information can be found on the fansite EarthBound Central.

Development

Shigesato Itoi, the creator of EarthBound, added a few personal details to the game.

Firstly, Ness's father never appears in person. According to an article from an issue of Edge magazine (either a classic feature on EarthBound or a review of Mother 3), this was inspired by the fact that Itoi's own father was absent for a great part of his childhood.

Secondly, the dialogue of Giygas was inspired by a traumatic childhood experience where Itoi mistakenly walked into an adult movie theatre and caught a glimpse of a sex/rape scene in the 1957 movie Kenpei and the Dismembered Beauty.

Version differences

  • At one point in the Japanese version of EarthBound, Pokey and Picky are punished by their dad for coming home late. He takes them off-screen, and a noise is heard resembling hitting/slapping. If you talk to Pokey afterwards, he complains that his "butt hurts." When Mother 2 was translated for the US, the "hitting" sound effect was changed to a shorter, more comical effect, resembling "yelling". When you talk to Pokey afterwards, instead of complaining about his butt, he whines that his dad took away his dessert privileges.
  • In the Japanese version of the game, at a certain point, the main character Ness is nude. This was changed to having Ness appear in his pajamas for the North American release. However, on close inspection of the strategy guide (page 111), there is an image of Ness in the nude on the bottom left of the page. This was an obvious oversight on the part of Nintendo of America.
  • In Peaceful Rest Valley, you'll encounter a large statue of a pencil blocking your path. At that point, you'll receive the Pencil Eraser and Apple Kid will jokingly warn you about using the machine nearby a place that sells pencils. In the Japanese version, the statues aren't pencils but instead octopus statues. So in the Japanese version, Apple kid will joke about using the machine nearby a "Takoyaki" (grilled octopus) restaurant which wouldn't make sense to some United States players.

Extras

The game included a card of scratch-'n-sniff spots, featuring monsters from the game.

Manual

EarthBound was packaged with an Official Nintendo Player's Guide, which also doubled as its manual. Because of this the box was far larger than any other SNES game box.

References to the game

  • Jeff appears as an assist trophy in the Wii game Super Smash Bros.: Brawl.
  • Ness appears as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. fighting games. However, he uses moves he didn't learn in EarthBound, such as PK fire and PK thunder.

Song

At the end of the last song, Ending 3 - Smiles and Tears (5:05), during the credits the words "I Miss You" are digitally spoken, presumably by Ness.

Information also contributed by Calpis, CaptainCanuck, Chris Chidester, colm52, JudgeDeadd, KFactor, Mark Ennis, MegaMegaMan, Sciere and Warren McHenry

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Twister: Mother of Charlotte
Released 1986 on ZX Spectrum
12 Labours of Hercules IV: Mother Nature
Released 2015 on Windows, Linux, Macintosh...
Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut
Released 2014 on Windows, 2015 on PlayStation 4, Wii U...
Dungeon Master: Chaos Strikes Back - Expansion Set #1
Released 1989 on Atari ST, Amiga, 1990 on PC-98...
UniWar S
Released 1980 on Arcade
Scorched Earth
Released 1991 on DOS
3-D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night
Released 1996 on Windows, Windows 3.x, Macintosh
EarthBound Beginnings
Released 1989 on NES, 2015 on Wii U, 2022 on Nintendo Switch
Giant Monster Counter Attack
Released 1986 on Arcade

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 6676
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Satoshi Kunsai.

New Nintendo 3DS added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch added by Rik Hideto. Wii U added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Iris-chan, chirinea, Hitman23, Freeman, CaptainCanuck, Havoc Crow, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, Victor Vance, FatherJack, click here to win an iPhone9SSSS.

Game added June 10, 2002. Last modified February 21, 2024.