History VideoGame / EarthBound1994

''[=EarthBound=]'', originally released in Japan in 1994, is a twist on the standard RPG setting for the {{Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}} that follows the story of Ness, a seemingly normal boy who lives in {{Eagleland}}. Late one night, a meteorite landing outside town awakens Ness. The meteorite brings with it a bee ([[IAmNotWeasel or not]]) from the future, who tells Ness of [[ApocalypseHow its devastation]] at the hands of an indestructible being called [[EldritchAbomination Giygas]]-- a being Ness is destined to defeat. Ness's journey to stop Giygas will take him through time and space to meet the remainder of the [[TheChosenMany Chosen Four]] (Paula, Jeff, and Poo) and collect the Eight Melodies for his SoundStone to unite the power of Earth as his own.

''[=EarthBound=]'', originally released in Japan in 1994, is a twist on the standard RPG setting for the {{UsefulNotes/SNES}} that follows the story of Ness, a seemingly normal boy who lives in {{Eagleland}}. Late one night, a meteorite landing outside town awakens Ness. The meteorite brings with it a bee ([[IAmNotWeasel or not]]) from the future, who tells Ness of [[ApocalypseHow its devastation]] at the hands of an indestructible being called [[EldritchAbomination Giygas]]-- a being Ness is destined to defeat. Ness's journey to stop Giygas will take him through time and space to meet the remainder of the [[TheChosenMany Chosen Four]] (Paula, Jeff, and Poo) and collect the Eight Melodies for his SoundStone to unite the power of Earth as his own.

Of the three games in the ''Mother'' series, only ''[=EarthBound=]'' ever received a physical release in North America, coming out in 1995. It was a critical and commercial disaster in America, but in the years since it's become very much VindicatedByHistory and is now considered one of the greatest games ever made. Nintendo eventually digitally released the unproduced localization of the first game, ''Mother'' for the Virtual Console, under the title ''[=EarthBound Beginnings=]''. To date, ''Videogame/Mother3,'' originally released in Japan for the Game Boy Advance (after a planned N64 release was scrapped due to requiring a N64 add-on drive that too was never released), is [[NoExportForYou not currently planned for an official North American localization,]] although in certain places on the Internet you can find a fan-translated version.

After nearly 20 years of unavailability outside secondhand markets, on July 19, 2013, Nintendo finally re-released the game via the UsefulNotes/WiiU Virtual Console, initially relegated only to Japan but later released overseas due to high fan demand (and at the far-lower-than-[=eBay=]-auctions price point of $9.99); the game's international Virtual Console release not only covered North America, but also Europe, marking the first time the latter region officially got their hands on ''[=EarthBound=]''. To round out the package, it also [[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/common/pdf/CLV-P-SAAJE.pdf digitized the original Player's Guide]] that it bundled with the SNES release and offered it up for free (so that players could read the guide in a browser, including using the Wii U's browser on the [=GamePad=]). Nintendo also re-released the game on the New Nintendo 3DS and the New Nintendo 3DS XL handheld systems as a part of their Super Nintendo Virtual Console in early March 2016 [[note]]this excludes the original Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL and Nintendo 2DS[[/note]]. It was also included on the Super NES Classic Edition in 2017.