| Mother | |
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| Developer(s) | Ape, Inc., Nintendo |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Designer(s) | Shigesato Itoi (director, designer) Shigeru Miyamoto (producer) Hiroshi Yamauchi (executive producer) Keiichi Suzuki(composer) Hirokazu Tanaka (composer) Shinbo Minami (character designer) Tatsuya Ishii (character designer) |
| Series | Mother series |
| Released | JPN July 27, 1989 JPN June 20, 2003 (Mother 1 + 2) |
| Genre | Console role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Famicom Game Boy Advance (Mother 1 + 2) |
| Media | 3 megabit cartridge |
Mother (マザー Mazā?) is a console role-playing game developed and published by Nintendo, and is the first game in the Mother video game series. It was never released outside of Japan, and is often referred to as EarthBound Zero in other countries. It was later re-released with its sequel EarthBound on the Game Boy Advance as Mother 1 + 2. The game was named after John Lennon's song "Mother."[1]
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Gameplay
Mother's gameplay is very similar to that of early Dragon Quest games, with the player controlling the game's protagonist and friends as they adventure through the game's two-dimensional world. Mother shelves the traditional miniature-sized overworld map seen in many role-playing games at the time and instead uses a series of interconnected maps that are uniform in size and merge together seamlessly. Instead of an overhead view with four directions, Mother uses isometric graphics, and the party is capable of moving in eight directions. When outside of towns or certain other locations, the party will be randomly encountered by enemies, at which point the game shifts into its battle system. The player chooses an action for each character, and then characters and enemies take turns attacking in an order determined by their speed statistics. Winning battles awards experience points, which characters require to level up and become stronger or learn more abilities. If a character loses all of their hit points, they will die and the player must go to a hospital and pay to revive them. If every character dies no progress is lost, but the party is transported back to the last telephone that was saved at and the amount of money they had on hand is halved.
Plot
Mother tells the story of Ninten, a 12-year-old boy who journeys around the world using his psychic powers to collect eight melodies in order to save the planet from an evil race of mind-controlling aliens. Along the way he is joined by three friends; a young boy tormented at his school for being a genius, a girl whose mother mysteriously went missing, and a gang leader whose parents were murdered. They meet many unusual characters and visit strange settings before ultimately confronting the leader of the aliens, Giygas (known as "Giegue" in the unreleased prototype and transliterated as "Gyiyg" in Japan). Ninten's power, PSI, was utilized by an alien race that abducted George and Maria, his great-grandmother and great-grandfather. George stole the secrets to the power while living among the aliens, and upon his return to Earth attempted to research it further and spread the research. Of the four playable characters, Ninten was able to learn it due to being the great-grandson of George, while Ana had developed her PSI powers on her own, and became famous for having done so. Though George and Maria were not mistreated while in captivity of the aliens (due to taking care of one alien named Giygas), Giygas sought revenge on George for stealing the secrets of PSI, and subsequently launched an invasion of the planet Earth.
Development
Mother was designed and directed by famous Japanese copywriter Shigesato Itoi.
Planned United States release
Nintendo of America had originally planned to translate and release Mother in the United States under the title Earth Bound.[2] The localization was completed in 1990, but marketing pushed the release into fall of 1991, and it was eventually cancelled.[3] The Localization Producer and English Script Writer for Earth Bound, Phil Sandhop, explained, "Once the Super NES squatted in the pipeline and shoved the game aside from its appointed time, I believe that the marketing execs just decided that the game would be too expensive to produce and unsuccessful without marketing, and that's why it fell into oblivion."[3] In 1998, a beta cartridge of Earth Bound was auctioned off, and was later shipped to a member of Neo Demiforce.[3] Soon after, the game was dumped into a ROM and circulated around the internet.[3] "Zero" was appended onto the title to discern it from its sequel, EarthBound. Fans of the series and other video game enthusiasts debated as to the origin of the original development cartridge, but today it is generally agreed that the cartridge is legitimate, as Mother 1 + 2 contains all of the changes found in the beta cartridge.[3]
Music
Mother's soundtrack was composed by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka. The music was released on compact disc and cassette tape by Sony Records. It consists of 11 tracks, 7 of which have vocals. Some of the game's notable songs include Eight Melodies, which plays a heavy role in the story, and Pollyanna. Both have lyrical versions, sung by St. Paul's Cathedinal Choir and Catherine Warwick, respectively. Louis Philippe and Jeb Million also sing on the album. Songs from Mother appear in EarthBound, Mother 3, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl in their original or remixed form.
Reception
Mother was successful in Japan, selling around 400,000 copies.[4] In two polls conducted by Famitsu, voters rated it as the 9th best game on the Famicom and the 38th best game of all time.[5][6] Some have complained about the game's difficulty. Jeremy Parish from 1UP.com states, "the game balance is completely ridiculous, relying far too heavily on picking up better weapons and grinding for far too long"[7] Shigesato Itoi, the game's designer, said that the last parts of Mother were not tested for bugs and balance issues. When talking about this at a Mother 1 + 2 promotional event, Itoi humorously stated, "When we got to fine-tuning the difficulty there [Mt. Itoi], I was like, 'Whatever!'".
References
- ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=VAxDwc5S4bk
- ^ (November 1990) "Nintendo Power's Pak Watch". Nintendo Power 18: 92.
- ^ a b c d e Jonathan Wirth (2004-07-31). Spotlight: EarthBound. Lost Levels. Retrieved on 15 December 2007.
- ^ MOTHER / EarthBound Zero. Starmen.Net. Retrieved on 15 December 2007.
- ^ John Szczepaniak. Form is Superior to Mass: Famicom History. NTSC-uk. Retrieved on 18 December 2007.
- ^ Colin Campbell (2006-03-03). Japan Votes on All Time Top 100. Next Generation. Retrieved on 15 December 2007.
- ^ Jeremy Parish (2006-04-22). Retronauts Hall of Fame: Earthbound Zero. 1UP.com. Retrieved on 16 December 2007.
External links
- Starmen.net: Earthbound Zero - Website with information and fan works on Mother
- RPGClassics Shrine
- Lost Levels article
- Mother's Day - A website with a translation guide for Mother.
- EarthBound IPM - Website with information on Mother
- Mother capture(Japanese)
- (Japanese) Mother Party (Mother-jp.net): Mother - Japanese Fanpage with information on Mother
- Mother at MobyGames
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| Mother · EarthBound · Mother 1 + 2 · Mother 3 |
