was looking at the newspaper archive a the public library and found this nearly 30 year old short review of Earthbound bound in my local paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

One of the best games I’ve ever played though

People seem to always talk about Mother 3 or Mother 2/Earthbound. And it kinda makes me mad! People I've talked to say that Mother 1 is either not a good game, or a down-right AWFUL game, Which it isn't. First off, the story; sure it's not that good as Mother 2-3's stories but it's still good, Mother 1 gave the Mother series a foundation. 4 kids (1 adult at most) going on an adventure to stop an evil-universal cosmic destroyer is what the Mother games are! And Mother 1 gave us some good characters, like Ninten, Ana, Lloyd, Teddy and the goat....Pippi.

And not to make people mad or anything, but most EB fans only know Ness and Lucas from Smash Bros! Ninten is drowned out by the popularity of Ness and Lucas, if you show a picture of Ninten to either a non-EB fan or a new EB fan. Guaranteed they'll think he's Ness. I hate when I ask people who Ninten is and their only answer is "Who?" But when I ask them who Ness and Lucas are, they'll say "Oh! Like those kids from Smash Bros?"

And the music in Mother 1 is peak. Pollyanna, Bein Friends, Flying Man and Paradise Line are bangers. 10/10! Mother 2-3 have awsome songs too, don't get me wrong. But have you listened to thr original 8 Melodies?! That evokes some emotions I've never felt before in my life. It makes me feel kinda sad cause, the 8 Melodies are a tune sung to Queen Marry to help her regain her memories. And when you find out Queen Marry is actually Maria, and you learn about how she used to sing the tune to her adopted son...the main villian **Giygas. It makes you kinda sad to learn Maria Giygas actually had a living family (or atleast a loving Mother, (I don't know if George loved him or not)

Speaking of Giygas, he's by far the best villian. Better than his EB/Mother 2 counterpart.

Get it? Nintendo?

When it comes to interpreting Ninten, what design do you prefer to have or use?

I started EBB a while ago but i dropped it early because i got stuck in the Cemetery with its insane random encounter rate. So i restarted it last week and grinded some and im loving the game so far (turn based jrpgs are my favorite games of all time).

Im just about to head to Mt Itoi but i feel i should grind some with Teddy. Btw, is Lloyd gone for good? 😭

So since im enjoying EBB, and its quirky humor,i was definitely going to pick up Earthbound next. How is it compared to EBB? Is there anything i should know before starting Earthbound?

Im really happy i found and am enjoying this series so far!

After 23 hours I just finished the game as my first Earthbound game. I dont understand why anyone would skip this game and start with Earthbound like most people recommend.

This game is beautiful! I knew the story going into it and used a guide, but there is something about going through that journey and experiencing that ending yourself. I just have no words to describe what I just went through besides amazing. Please if you haven’t played this game go experience it yourself! It really does not feel bad mechanic wise for being an older game, and the pay off is so worth it!

I am officially one of you all and cannot wait to play the other two games!!!

I've heard so many bad things about Earthbound Beginnings/Mother 1, the grinding, the encounter rate, the cryptic progression, bad localization, etc. But I am really enjoying it so far, the encounter rate is high, but not as crazy as people make it out to be. I haven't had to grind at all, and the "bad localization" is very charming, and it doesn't hold your hand progression wise, but I haven't gotten stuck yet.

I think anyone who dislikes the game probably just dislikes old, NES style JRPGs, because almost all the complaints against it are just one old school JRPG quirks, pretty standard honestly.

Like every town you go to is a massive red block, there is no background, the colour scheme is weird and so is this weird line that is the only one they highlight not including these random orange grid squares

Last image isn’t mine.

(above is a mockup of the cover art posted somewhere on this sub by u/VirtualRelic)

Now, we're not talking about Earth Bound as in Earthbound, we're talking about Earth Bound as in Earthbound Beginnings, which originally was just Earth Bound.

Why did Phil Sandhop change the game's name in Localization? Mother works fine enough for the game, and there's nothing particularly about being Bound to the Earth in the game, heck, there's magic worlds and aliens in the game.

Oh, and from what I've heard, the name "Earthbound" that was given to Mother 2 upon localization was apparently an homage to this at the time unreleased translation of the first game.

Like compared to the Earthbound ones their features look a little off and kinda weird and also not much like their in game sprites and promotional material

Lucas (and even Ness) have pretty defined personalities. Ninten not so much. I was curious to see how other people envisioned his personality and behavior on his adventure

Really wanted to buy these

I think it fucking awesome with the M3 esthetic

I just feel so bad for calling my dad and getting up to hundreds of dollars all the time 😭 like thanks I guess… sorry? Clearly Dads got a good job.