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• Talkin' RPGs With Itoi

  Shigesato Itoi, a true Renaissance Man of Japan's entertainment world, is mostly known to us gamers as the mastermind behind the Mother RPG series. And it's his iconoclastic, "outsider" view of the video game medium that makes his projects so unique and cult-friendly; someone deeply entrenched in the world of RPG development is far more likely to make a derivative Tales of game than anything approaching the level of Itoi's imagination. With how creatively successful the Mother games have been, it's surprising that developers haven't tried bringing in more outside artists to derail the tunnel-vision quite a few franchises and genres currently suffer from. Thanks to Itoi, I was deeply engrossed in Mother 3 over the fall and winter months of 2008, mainly because it took such a different approach than the other Mother games; rather than having a huge, worldwide scope (the usual method of most RPGs), the final entry in the Mother trilogy scaled things down to a much smaller and more detailed world that eventually changed (for the worse) over time. It was a fascinating approach that led me to care more about the game's world and inhabitants, all the way up until the heartbreaking ending. The reason I've been thinking about Itoi lately--aside from the fact that he's so dreamy--relates to a few translated interviews with the jack of all trades posted by the equally-dreamy Tomato over at Earthbound Central. The interviews may be framed by a larger discussion of Animal Crossing, but Itoi still has a few interesting things to say about RPG game design. Read More... Posted Apr 22 2009, 04:05 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, mother 2, bob mackey, mother, shigesato itoi

• Freaktastic Fanart: Mother 3 Models

  The fan made Mother 3 handbook is much gabbed-about for a reason. It is, without a doubt, the best way you'll spend $20. Outside of buying a fluffy new kitten. A grey one. With white socks. The guide, put together by good-hearted people at Fangamer.net, Starmen.net, and possibly God, draws major inspiration from the Earthbound player's guide that came packed in with the ill-fated RPG when Nintendo localized it for American audiences. It's funny, it's thorough, it's well-written, and its pages are dotted with custom clay character models. The handbook is recorded proof that fans can come together to produce something beyond pornographic fanfiction or seventy-page arguments about who could reach the sun faster, Goku or Superman? The clay figurines photographed in the handbook are by Arizona artist Camille Young. Young shows off some of her most impressive pieces in a blog post, including the Mecha-Drago, the Ultimate Chimera, the N.K. Cyborg, and, of course, Porky the sadist man-child. Read More... Posted Apr 16 2009, 09:12 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: mother 3, fan stuff, nadia oxford, freaktastic fanart

• The Mother 3 Handbook: Better than Advertised

  Ever since I found the Starmen.net community (then Earthbound.net) a decade ago, I've been amazed by both the devotion and productivity of the insane (in a good, fun way) Mother/Earthbound fans who call the site home. Since the beginning of Starmen.net, the community has certainly been through its ups and downs, from the disappointment of Mother 3's original cancellation to the elation caused by the announcement that the game was in the works for the Game Boy Advance--then, back to disappointment again when we found out Nintendo had no intention of publishing it here. The Mother 3 translation released last October was unquestionably the group's biggest labor of love; thanks to talented superhumans like Tomato, we Earthbound fans were given a complete localization of a fantastic game far more polished than the work produced by so-called professionals. Unfortunately, it looks like the Mother 3 translation now has a bit of competition in the category of "most ambitious, insane, and amazing Earthbound projects to reach completion:" now that I finally have the Mother 3 Handbook in my hands, it's impossible to decide what work is more mind-blowing. Read More... Posted Mar 30 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, earthbound, mother 3, bob mackey, mother, fan translations, fan art, fangamer

• Excitement Time: A New EarthBound on the Way?

  We here at 61FPS looove Earthbound. And from personal experience I can tell you that being a mega-fan of the series is an extremely bi-polar experience; we have our good moments, such as the recent Mother 3 translation, but we also have our bad moments, like every time Nintendo completely ignores the possibility of us seeing any Mother games on the Wii's Virtual Console. Now, we Mother fans are seemingly beset with more bad than good news, but a recent report from Earthbound Central may contain some of the best news we've heard in a looong time. In an article in the latest Weekly Famitsu about developer Level 5's unfortunately-named digital download service, Roid, the magazine hints at a possible new Mother game--though it doesn't drop any names. Here's what the amazing man behind EBC has to say about all of this: The article doesn’t say anything about the screenshot in particular, except asking, “Could this be THAT RPG?!” and that really big-title names are scheduled to be released on it. It’s not clear if this screenshot is just concept art or what, though. If you know Japanese, you can do an interactive demo of how the Roid interface works here, but there are no game demos or anything of interest in relation to this image. People didn't seem to believe Tomato's initial post, so, in Earthbound Central tradition, he overanalyzed the single, blurry picture of this mystery game to show how much of it was similar to EarthBound. Read More... Posted Mar 26 2009, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, mother 2, bob mackey, famitsu, mother, roid, level 5

• Reminder: Those Mother 3 Handbooks Are Still Coming

  Remember the Mother 3 translation, released late last October? We at 61FPS couldn't stop talking about it--until that court order limited our Earthbound/Mother posts to only a mere dozen a week. Thankfully, sites like Earthbound Central (a must-visit) exist to fill the needs of the most psychotic Mother fans out there, but that doesn't mean there isn't franchise-related news worth reporting about here. Consider the Mother 3 Handbook produced by the devoted folks at FanGamer, for instance; we were all excited about it last Fall, but as its release date slipped into March, most of us have probably forgotten that we dropped 20 bucks on the guide many moons ago. So, as we reach the final days of March, where exactly is the Mother 3 Handbook? For all those concerned, a blog post on FanGamer's front page this week has confirmed that all of the books weren't lost in some freak postal accident. Read More... Posted Mar 20 2009, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, earthbound, mother 3, bob mackey, mother, fan translations, fan art

• What's In My MP3 Player: Mother 3+'s "Pollyanna"

  There exists a song that's a perfect accompaniment to the sunrise on the first warm day of the year. That song, as I discovered though an example of ideal iPod shuffling, is “Pollyanna” from the Mother 3+ soundtrack. Pollyanna is one of a few pieces of music that recur through all three games in the Mother/Earthbound series. The revision done for the Mother 3+ soundtrack—which you can buy on iTunes (do it)—is very pretty and, as I already stated, God's own theme song for springtime. However, I dare say that the first occurrence of the song (Mother for the Famicom) is the most impressive. The 8-bit era wasn't lacking for ambitious and memorable game music, but retro-Pollyanna is especially heartfelt and spunky. The story for Mother was a bit less structured than most Famicom RPG offerings: not aimless, but not as urgent as “Holy crap, a Dragon Lord draws near.” Pollyanna, which serves as the basic world map theme for Mother, reflects the laid-back start to Ninten's adventure. The name of the song is telling in itself: “Pollyanna” is a reference to the hyper-positive lead girl of a popular children's book initially published in 1913 (it's still being printed and adapted today). When things were looking down, Pollyanna played the “Glad Game,” which allowed her to see the good bad situations. “Pollyanna” is even a term in the English language that refers to cheerful optimism. Read More... Posted Mar 18 2009, 11:29 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, game music, retro, nadia oxford, mother, what's in my mp3 player, pollyanna

• Abandon All Hope: No Earthbound for the Virtual Console

  The Mother/Earthbound fandom is the loudest on the Internet. It's also the unluckiest. Earthbound was a commercial failure on the SNES. Mother 3 just ain't never gonna doggy-paddle its way here (officially). The first Mother game was dressed up for America, but was pulled at the last minute. And now it's looking like Earthbound won't be granted its long-awaited heroes' rest on the Virtual Console. “Oh God. What now?” The problem is beautiful in its irony: because it's such a thorough, loving tribute to the best and most creative bits of pop culture, Earthbound is also a fat target for copyright lawyers, IP theft paranoia and the bureaucracy bred by the same culture (that's irony, right? Right?). Earthbound's soundtrack alone uses a lot of samples from other songs, from The Who to the Monty Python theme. Shigesato Itoi makes no secret about his love for the Beatles, with John Lennon's “Mother” being not only the series' namesake, but its very foundations. Unfortunately, Apple Corps' sense of humour is about as sharp and attractive as a wet dish rag. Every IP lawyer in the world carries a list in his or her pocket that's titled, “I'm Just Not Going To Fuck With This,” and Apple Corps is on the top of each list. Read More... Posted Feb 16 2009, 11:14 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, wii, snes, rpg, earthbound, mother 3, nadia oxford, mother, virtual console, pop culture, shigesato itoi

• Mother 3's Soundtrack Disassembled

  The Game Boy Advance never had much of a problem matching up to the SNES graphically. As for audio, well, that was another matter. GBA remakes of SNES classics like Final Fantasy IV and especially Final Fantasy VI tried really hard to ship the games' epic soundtracks. The end result got an A for Effort, but it was like listening to a favourite singer belt out a classic song with a wad of cotton stuffed in each cheek. Something about the whole affair felt off. I can recall only two instances where I was genuinely impressed by the soundtrack in a GBA game: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Mother 3. You wouldn't accept a flimsy soundtrack from a Castlevania game (least of all one that has the stones to feature a subtitle with “Aria” in it), but Mother 3's soundtrack is an integral part of the title's gameplay because the player performs “combos” by tapping the attack button in tune to the game's battle themes. These combos make all the difference between an easy battle and a difficult one, not to mention the difference between taking an active part in the fight or sitting on the sidelines, dejected and bored, possibly with rainwater streaming down your face. Mother 3 has a pretty huge roster of battle themes, but it's no sweat. Once you memorise the rhythm for a song, you have it in a lock for the rest of the game, right? Sixteen-hit combo city! ”WRONG!” Harmonix employee Dan Bruno recently analysed Mother 3's soundtrack down to the last note—no, really, he has sheet music written out—and lays out the staggering amount of work that went into Mother 3's battle tunes. Read More... Posted Feb 10 2009, 11:28 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: mother 3, game music, harmonix, gba, game boy advance, nadia oxford, castlevania aria of sorrow

• Whatcha Listening To?: 1-Up's Retronauts Podcast Covers the History of Earthbound

  It's a double dose of Earthbound today and a double dose of video game podcasts. Deal with it. Read More... Posted Jan 21 2009, 06:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: 1up, earthbound, mother 3, podcasts, retronauts, whatcha listening to?: cole stryker

• Mother 3 a Shred More Likely to Hit US

  Siliconera reports that Mother 3 developer Brownie Brown is interested in putting the game on the DS: While it’s way too late for Nintendo of America to backtrack and release Mother 3 as a Game Boy Advance game they could port it to the Nintendo DS. “If we were asked to make one [a DS version of Mother 3], then we would definitely like for fans abroad to play the game,” Kameoka-san said. Read More... Posted Jan 21 2009, 02:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, wii, ds, cole stryker, mother 3, gba, brownie brown

• Nintendo’s New Year’s Resolution

  Hell yeah! I love that new year smell. It’s a heady blend of desperation, manic behavior, stale cookies, and endless possibility! You can practically taste it on the air: the tang of freshly printed gym membership cards, the musk of old car models being discounted. This is the time when we wide-eyed lovers of videogames stare forward, ready for anything that may come. We take our last looks at 2008 and get to predicting what’s on the horizon. In the spirit of embracing new opportunities, I would like to recommend one New Year’s resolution for each gaming console maker as well as a select few third-party publishers. We’ll start with your friend and mine, Nintendo. Nintendo? You resolve to release Star Fox 2 on WiiWare in 2009. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 07:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, snes, star fox 2, wiiware, mother 3, new year’s resolution

• Some Games Nadia Played In 2008 Instead of Working: Mother--Awwww...

  Mackey stole my big idea to declare Mother 3 one of my favourite games of the year--if not my very favourite of the year--despite it being a two-year-old Game Boy Advance title. I was going to be a rebel. I was going to spit out of the side of my mouth and tell you I don’t give a rat’s ass about your opinion on my taste in games, see? Oh well, it’s good to know that I’m not the only one who thinks Mother 3 deserves recognition amongst this year‘s shiny big-budget games. Mackey and I need to stop putting things off, get married and name our twins Lucas and Claus regardless of whether or not they’re male. All right, time to stop saying stupid things for the sake of being funny. I’m going to be serious and stupid, now. Mother 3 is the kind of game that reinforces my love for the pastime. When I finished it, I said, “God damn I am so glad I experienced that. I’m happy I’m a gamer.” Mackey and I already have about twenty thousand Mother 3 essays between us that covers everything from the game’s emotion-driven story to the rhythm based battle system that involves you in every fight; no more turbo-mashing the “A” button while simultaneously trying to please your girlfriend with the other hand. Mild spoilers follow the jump. Read More... Posted Dec 23 2008, 10:17 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, game boy advance, nadia oxford, top 10, game stories

• My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Mother 3

  It's the end of another year, and that can only mean one thing: it's list season. Inevitably, you're going to see top ten lists by the thousands; and, as an official member of the enthusiast press, I'm afraid I can't violate my directive. But, to make things a little more interesting, I've decided to assemble my 10 favorite games of this year in non-hierarchical form because--let's face facts--it's hard to pick a favorite. And unlike other top 10 lists, this one will be doled out to you in piecemeal for--oh wait, we've reach the end of the list! Thanks for playing. I know, I know; Mother 3 didn't come out in 2008--its Japanese release date was April of 2006.  But none of that matters when you're a love-starved Earthbound fan looking for his next fix--and besides, who's writing this list, you or me?  Sorry for getting a bit emotional there, but I can't help it; Mother 3 is a game worth getting emotional about.  Finally getting a sequel to something you've loved for over thirteen years is a pretty monumental event, especially when said sequel doesn't pee all over what made its predecessor good in the first place.  Mother 3 may be tad different than Earthbound, but in keeping with the tradition of the series, it's completely unlike any game out there--despite being built on a very old, Dragon Quest-y foundation.  And thanks to the heroic efforts of Tomato and his translation team, Mother 3 might just be my favorite game of the year.  I now regret never ranking my list entries. Read More... Posted Dec 23 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, mother 2, bob mackey, mother, top 10, top 10 of 2008

• Joe’s Top Ten Games of 2008 – Part One

  The official mandate has come down from the top—that it is December, and we all write about games, so we all have to pick some arbitrary number of them that we enjoyed above all others this year. I am taking on this task in the way of our forefathers, using their traditional number (10) and order (from great to most greatest). Games were chosen for this list using a highly scientific list of criteria, including but not limited to dopamine levels, blood alcohol content, coin flips, and the rate at which the number of in-game explosions approached infinity. Today is #10-#8.   10. Fable 2 I played Fable 2 during a two-week period in which I saw some significant real-life difficulties, so the game’s emotional moments, being fiction, didn’t resonate as strongly with me as they did with others. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the risks the game took or the choices it forced the player to make. Yet while it went further than most games, it still didn’t go far enough, with punishment for doing the right thing in the face of temptation still being too easy to make up for later. But the game play was there; Fable 2’s shallow but broad mechanics encouraged experimentation while making sure there was always something new to try.   Read More... Posted Dec 11 2008, 05:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with no comments Filed under: fable 2, mother 3, spore, joe keiser, top 10, top 10 of 2008

• The Mother GBA Translation: Tomato is a Crazy Mofo

  No, not that Mother translation.  I'm talking about the first Mother: released in Japan in 1989, translated by Nintendo of America, abandoned, discovered, and re-released by the ROM hacking community in 1998 as Earthbound Zero.  Mother was also ported to the Game Boy Advance along with its sequel (AKA Earthbound) in 2003; unfortunately, this game fell victim to Nintendo's policy of Earthbound fans not having nice things.  Fortunately we have dudes like Tomato, whose amazing hacking/translating skills will one day give us the privilege of playing the first Mother on the go.  Here's a video of his progress so far: Of course, this isn't quite as monumental as the Mother 3 translation--after all, an English script for this game already exists--but Tomato plans on making quite a few interesting changes this time around. Read More... Posted Dec 08 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, mother 3, translation, mother 2, bob mackey, mother, rom hacks

• Your JRPG Narrative is Bad and You Should Feel Bad

  I recently gave up on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World a scant four hours into my experience for one reason alone: the game was literally stabbing me in the brain with its narrative.  It's not that DotNW's story was exceptionally bad; actually, it was delightfully mediocre, which is really all I can ask for from a JRPG these days.  The biggest problem, you see, is that DotNW's stopped to show me its accursed story about every 5 seconds, like an attention-starved child waving a macaroni art project in my face. "Yes, I see. Very nice. Daddy's trying to play his game now." Listen up, JRPG developers: the stories you're trying to tell?  They aren't necessarily worth telling.  In fact, I can really only name two RPGs in the past decade that've had stories which ranked far above "serviceable:"  Final Fantasy XII, and Mother 3--note that the latter of these two was written by an actual writer.  I may come off as kind of snobbish with this post, though I think that just comes with age; there was a point in my life when I thought RPG plots were totally tubular, but that was back when I was in high school.  Turning into a cranky old man has given me the benefit of perspective; through experiencing a number of excellent narratives (across various media), I've obtained standards that I can't quite drop.  (Also, I need some way to justify my expensive BA.) The problem of lousy narrative is a pretty big hurdle for JRPG developers, but I've taken the liberty of coming up with some easy-to-follow and unsolicited solutions. Read More... Posted Nov 26 2008, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: chrono trigger, mother 3, namco bandai, jrpg, bob mackey, story, tales of, tales of symponia: dawn of the new world, narrative

• Do You Translate When You Emulate?

  All of our incessant conversation about Mother 3 (it’s worth every word, believe me—I’ve read essay anthologies about less meaningful, layered work than this game) seems to bring us inexorably back to the pros and cons of emulation. John and Mackey have covered the bases on this pretty well—though I do want to add for the record that hacking an Xbox Classic and getting one of those Street Fighter Anniversary controllers with the awesome d-pad will square you for pitch-perfect couch-based emulation. But let’s talk more about emulation’s wonderful translation scene. Mother 3 is without a doubt the most high profile fan-created ROM translation ever, but it’s not the be all and end all by any means. The translation scene is perhaps the best thing to come out of rampant internet-based ROM sharing, as it has allowed plenty of games to be rendered enjoyable for people that previously would not have been able to play them. And this doesn’t just mean English speakers finally can play the craziest Japanese Famicom RPGs, either—it’s also given South American and European non-English speakers games we’ve been enjoying for decades. You’re probably concerned about the English stuff though, and there’s plenty of it. Romhacking.net, probably the best resource for this kind of thing, records no less than 46 complete translations being made this year. And it’s not all crap, either. There’s no beating Mother 3 for quality and relevance, but unfortunately overshadowed by that mammoth release was a complete translation of Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the precursor to Eternal Punishment that Atlus never felt fit to bring to these shores. Mackey’s told you about it, and after fiddling around with it I have to say it looks like good work. Then there’s Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart, widely considered the best game in the DQM spin-off series. Japan-only SNES classic Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem was also rendered fit for western consumption by crazed fans this year. So was PlayStation Rez precursor Internal Section, and a variety of interesting Langrisser games. Ever been curious about Famicom Wars, the first game in the series that spawned the beloved Advanced Wars titles? Now you can check it out for yourself. Read More... Posted Nov 25 2008, 03:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: mother 3, translation, persona 2, emulation, joe keiser

• Hey, RPG Hero: Go Home and Be a Family Man

  So on Saturday I indulged in my weekly Mother 3 play session-- ("Oh God, she's talking about Mother 3 again, you sneak up behind her with this piano wire while I slip this cyanide into Mackey's coffee.") Please let me live. I don't know when I'm going to be so motivated to pick a game's brain ever again. Mother 3 is unlike any RPG I've ever played--and for the simplest reasons. This, more than anything, is what fascinates me about the game. Shigesato Itoi realises that the easiest way to get people to love your characters is to treat them like human beings. For some reason, woefully few of his fellow RPG designers have picked that up. It's rare to find an RPG cast that everyone can relate to on a human level. Mother 3's world-saving brigade casts ground-shaking magic and racks up experience points and throws giant staples at enemies like any other JRPG (okay, the staples, not so much), but Itoi wants us to feel close to them. So he draws us in by being realstic about the one thing that unites even Superman with the common Earthling: family. Here there be spoilers. (Oh and don't feed Mackey any cyanide. Thank you. His parents appreciate your restraint.) Read More... Posted Nov 24 2008, 07:35 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: rpg, earthbound, mother 3, gba, jrpg, nadia oxford, shigesato itoi, famly

• OST: Mother

  Everyone knows that Earthbound has some godly music, and we've all recently come to discover that Mother 3 is no slouch in this department, either. But what about the first Mother, AKA Earthbound Zero? Sadly, this is the one game in the trilogy that's almost always overlooked; it may be the least fun to play out of all three Mothers, but the soundtrack by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka helped lay the foundation for some of Earthbound's best tracks. American gamers had no idea back in 1995, but the sleepy, heartwarming music of Ness' house is a direct callback to one of the overworld themes of the first Mother; makes sense, given the connection with childhood homes and nostalgia. The greatest--and at the same time, strangest--thing about the first Mother is without a doubt its Japan-only (duh) soundtrack.  Instead of putting out the simple NES tunes on a CD, the producers went one step further by creating "complete" versions of Suzuki and Tanaka's songs with full instrumentation and lyrics.  I'm not going to lie; most of these lyrics are pure Velveeta straight out of the late 80s--but at least a native English speaker is singing them.  Embarrassing or not, these songs give us a peek into an alternate universe where Mother was a Disney musical instead of a Japanese 8-bit video game. And notably, two of the OST's songs are far more sweeping and epic than any Celine Dion Titanic single could ever be. Read More... Posted Nov 21 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: ost, earthbound, mother 3, mother 2, bob mackey, mother

• "Have You Heard the News? He's Gay!"

  I'm still not done with Mother 3. You could say I'm savouring it (something Mackey can surely appreciate). I'm coming close to the end though, so I'm in an adequate position to talk about the game on message boards. This is an especially fun way to waste time because Mother's papa, Shigesato Itoi, never struck me as a convential game designer. He's a writer first, something that I think comes out clearly in his games. For instance, I was talking with a dapper gentleman in a tophat about some of Itoi's characters in Earthbound and Mother 3. Both games feature at least one gay character. This is nothing new in Japanese-developed games and anime, where gays and transvestites serve the same function as our own laughtracks. Everyone laugh at the flamboyant man fretting over his shoes and dress! It's funny 'cause men aren't supposed to do that! The difference with Itoi's characters is that the player is not really supposed to laugh at them. They're vital to the plot, but they just so happen to be gay. Read More... Posted Nov 13 2008, 07:19 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, mother 2, nadia oxford, homosexuality, shigesato itoi, gay characters, gay

• Our Emulation Habits

  A long, long time ago (actually, it was just this past Friday) fellow blogger and 61FPS boss-man pined over his inability to emulate.  I'm afraid that I'm a bit less romantic than John, even though my feelings about emulation have changed slightly over the years.  But when I first started emulating--man oh man--it was like some sort of amazing technology I dreamed about but never thought would exist.  As is the case with most people who caught onto emulation, I got hooked on NESticle back in 1997, and spent the copious amounts of free time I had (I was a dork in high school, after all) downloading all the games from my past I was dying to play again.  If I'm not mistaken, I think this was also the year that SNES emulators--a baffling proposition at the time--first started to support sound.  I remember downloading a .wav file of the Chrono Trigger opening song as played through the soon-to-be released SNES9X and sitting there completely awestruck.  Yes, even then I realized how nerdy I was. Read More... Posted Oct 29 2008, 06:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: snes, nes, chrono trigger, mother 3, translation, bob mackey, seiken densetsu 3, rom hacks, emulation

• Earthbound in 3D

  With writer Shigesato Itoi calling it quits with the Mother franchise after Mother 3, it won't be long until we start seeing remakes--or maybe that's just wishful thinking. As charming as the original Earthbound (Mother 2) was, those 3D renders of in-games towns Onett and Fourside in Super Smash Bros. Melee were enough to make any EB fan squeal with glee. In my wildest of video game-related daydreams, I've often thought of an Earthbound remake, made completely in 3D, with the characters looking just like their little clay models did in the strategy guide. Some men dream, while others do; like YouTube user cswavely, who has painstakingly rendered a few of Earthbound's town in glorious 3D. Even with that whole new axis, they feel completely authentic to the original game's stubby sprites; but I'll let you judge for yourself: More videos after the cut. Read More... Posted Oct 28 2008, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, fan projects, mother 2, fan stuff, fandom, remakes, bob mackey, mother, shigesato itoi

• The Reason Why Mother 3 Never Came to America

  None. There is no good reason why Mother 3 never came to America. Oh, there are a couple of valid reasons why we never officially received Earthbound's follow-up, but they're not necessarily good. The easiest blame can be laid on finances. We are elbow-deep in the era of the Nintendo DS right now and the heyday of the Game Boy Advance is long over. Nintendo might get away with releasing all three Mother games in a DS collection, but that's obviously not going to happen in a grand hurry. By now, the universe knows that the original Earthbound bombed on the Super Nintendo. Nintendo did a beautiful, loving job with the packaging and translation, but dropped the marketing ball hard enough to cannonball clear to China. Earthbound was marketed as a cheesy science fiction game brimming with toilet humour, which it wasn't. Alas, a mass-mailing of scratch-and-sniff stickers made to smell like rancid pizza will do a lot to kill an appetite for game. Besides, after experiencing the majesty of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, why would anyone want to fight against giant piles of barf? I sure didn't. Earthbound tanked, Nintendo made up their mind about American tastes and Mother 3 never had a chance at a ticket to America. Since the release of the translation patch, however, more than one person has claimed that maybe Nintendo's fear of another financial disaster wasn't the only thing keeping Mother 3 from the States. There was suddenly talk about in-game content being inappropriate for American audiences: the dark story, the characters (oh, the characters) and whatnot. God knows Japan has thousands of little quirks that only those born under its flag can truly appreciate, but I don't see how Mother 3 is one of them. Read More... Posted Oct 27 2008, 05:35 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: snes, earthbound, mother 3, super nintendo, retail, censorship, game boy advance, nadia oxford, profits

• Question of the Day: Why Can’t I Emulate?

  I am a console gamer. It’s not something I’m proud of, not a badge I wear to mark myself or somehow justify the way I view the medium as a whole. It does, however, define what I’m drawn to play, what genres I return to year after year, and just what I’ve had the opportunity to play since I was four years-old. Only playing games on devices that fit in my pocket or plug into a television has, by turns, given me an incredibly imbalanced game-literacy. Deep, respected play experiences bound to personal computers are things I’m familiar with by name only. Space Quest? Fallout? Oh, yeah, sure, I’ve heard of those. Great games, right? Call me a nerd with a seriously warped perspective, but I’m actually embarrassed, that guy sitting in a circle of academics discussing James Joyce and having to admit that the last book I read was Harry Potter. My console crutch hasn’t just kept me away from keyboard-and-mouse-only fare either; there are literal hundreds of classic console games I’ve never played, and will never have the spare cash or access to the actual cartridges or discs, waiting at my fingertips via emulation. Read More... Posted Oct 24 2008, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, snes, PC, final fight, mother 3, game boy advance, question of the day, fallout, Space quest

• I've Decided on a Game Tattoo

  If I ever gather up the metaphorical balls to get a tattoo, that is. If you carefully cast your eyes to the right, you'll see the design I have in mind. Now I'm going to make you sit and listen as I slowly explain my choice. You may be tempted to flee, but pretend I'm an intimidating prison inmate showing off his tapestry. You wouldn't run from your cellmate, right? He makes you happy at night. See, I think there is a very fine line between classy and trashy video game tattoos. When I say "fine" I mean this line is as thin as the silk belched out of a spider's bum. Personally, I believe that if you're going to get the summation of your beliefs and feelings scratched onto your skin, you may as well have something to say that both you and the whole world can appreciate. You can get away with tattooing Super Mario on your forehead because pretty much everyone in the civilised world knows who Mario is and understands his contributions to modern culture. Chances are good--though by no means secure--that Mario will endure for a while longer. On the other hand, there was a time when Sonic the Hedgehog was the coolest mascot ever and it was inconceivable that he would become the fantasy husband of 12-year-old fangirls. The people who got Sonic tattoos in the '90s have some 'splainin' to do (or some big-ass gauze bandages to buy). Flynn DeMarco over at Kotaku got Jack's chains from Bioshock drawn on his wrists. This, in my opinion, is an example of an awesome game tattoo. Fans of the game recognise it immediately and everyone else can apply their own meaning to it. Nice conversation starter. Read More... Posted Oct 22 2008, 05:36 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: bioshock, legend of zelda, mother 3, tattoos, nadia oxford, dragons, vanity

• Mother 3 Makes Me Feel Human Again

  Nadia's recent post got me thinking (and sniffling) about a game I've been playing--and a game I hope you're not sick of hearing about yet--Mother 3. The Japanese advertising campaign for Mother 3 declared the long-awaited sequel to be "strange, funny, and heartrending." While I haven't exactly been shedding tears over Mother 3, I can at least say that it's remarkably sad; and shockingly, scenario writer Shigesato Itoi has made his game "heartrending" in a completely sincere way. Forget about melodramatic depictions of flower girls being impaled; the tiny sprites of Mother 3 have been able to convey more emotion than any other game in recent memory. Spoilers for Chapters 1-3 coming up. This Japanese Mother 3 commercial should provide a nice buffer: Spoilers after the cut... Read More... Posted Oct 22 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, gba, bob mackey, shigesato itoi, emotions

• When Video Games Make Us Sniffle

  It's all right to cry. Crying takes the sad out of you. Anyone else remember Rosey Grier serenading us while wearing a very groovy collar? He taught us that it's okay to weep when we're feeling sad, because even big boys feel down in the dumps sometimes. Gamers have taken his song to heart, shuffling and sniffling when bad things happen to good game characters. Video games and emotional expression have shifted monumentally: our fathers didn't cry for Donkey Kong, doomed to fall four storeys and crack his skull open over and over like some simian Sisyphus. But according to Roger Moore, who reviewed the indigestable Max Payne in the Orlando Sentinel, gamers have never cried at a game's story, because game stories never give gamers a reason to cry. This, of course, is false: denying that gamers have ever cried means denying the River of Aerith, which was formed from the tears of RPG fans when--well, you know. I do have to admit that I'm hard-pressed to remember specific instances when a game's story made me weepy. Don't get me wrong, I bawl pretty easily, but mostly because of something that happened in a book ("Dammit Colour-Me-Elmo, why can't I stay in your lines? Sob sob!") or a movie. I know I'm the exception here, but  games just don't seem to touch me in the same way as often. Read More... Posted Oct 20 2008, 07:33 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 16 comment(s) Filed under: shadow of the colossus, final fantasy vi, mother 3, max payne, nadia oxford, game moves, sad games

• The Mother 3 Strategy Guide: Fandom Done Right

  Since I've had the chance to play it all weekend, I can say that I've been completely impressed by the Mother 3 translation project--so much so that the kind people at 61FPS are probably going to have to send people to my house to get me to stop blogging about it (this also happened with Mega Man 9). But until hired goons show up at my door, I'd like to write about the upcoming Mother 3 strategy guide, which shows just as much devotion, hard work, and obsessiveness (the good kind) as the translation itself. In keeping with the theme of the amazing (though mostly unecessary) strategy guide originally bundled with the American release of Earthbound, the fine people at Starmen.net and Fangamer have been working on a Mother 3 strategy guide in a pseudo-travelogue format--though this is no paltry .txt file uploaded hastily to GameFAQs.  We're looking at a full-color, roughly 200 page tome of Mother 3 goodness, fully illustrated (and clay-modeled) by devoted fans, that won't ship until early next year. And if you've got a small amount of disposable income like me, you can head on over to Fangamer's Mother 3 handbook page and give up a mere twenty dollars to make yourself happier in the future.  As a bonus, you'll also get a Franklin Badge keychain that probably won't ward off lightning.  I wouldn't try it, anyway. Read More... Posted Oct 20 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, translation, bob mackey, merchandise, strategy guides, fangamer

• What I'm Playing This Weekend: Mother 3. Doi.

  When we log onto the wide, wide Internet and talk about the games we loved as children, it's inevitable that a mean person will say, "That's just nostalgia talking. Game X was actually badly designed/badly written/infected with rabies." Then you break down and cry because you know it's true, at least to a point. But having only experienced Earthbound for the first time a mere few months ago, there is nothing nostalgic about my naked, shameless love for that game. I wholly believe that video games try way too hard to be art, but there are only a rare few titles that I would be comfortable about shooting into space to represent the human species as a whole. Earthbound is one, a lovely story about growing up in the shadow of world-devouring elder gods. I am fortunate because my wait for the Mother 3 translation has been short compared to long-established Earthbound fans'. Even so, it's been a nail-biting few months; I checked the site every day, poured over the trailers, marvelled at Tomato's work. Finally, the wait is over. Read More... Posted Oct 17 2008, 08:57 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, fan translation, nadia oxford, what i'm playing this weekend

• THE MOTHER 3 TRANSLATION IS OUT

  I have to apologize for posting about the Mother 3 translation project twice in one week, but this post contains actual news, as opposed to just speculation. Today--right now--you can finally grab the Mother 3 translation patch; though how you choose to use it is entirely up to you (Note: it cannot possibly be used for evil). Here's the newest trailer, in case you still need convincing: I can't think of a better way to end this post than with project lead Tomato's comments about this project finally wrapping up: After more than 13 years of waiting, the sequel to EarthBound is now in English! I hope fans of the series, new and old, will find MOTHER 3 to be just as unique and interesting as its predecessors. We tried our very best to make a worthy translation, and I think we came close to hitting that mark. With any luck, the translation will seem just as "strange, funny, and heartrending" as the original Japanese version. MOTHER 3 is filled with secrets and rarities. Characters say new things after even the tiniest of events. Take your time to explore the game's intriguing world - you won't be disappointed! And when you're done, be sure to come back here, because we've prepared many more goodies for fans to check out and enjoy post-game! Enjoy your time in the world of MOTHER 3! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to waste a significant portion of my Friday. Go and grab the patch HERE if you didn't do so immediately. Read More... Posted Oct 17 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, translation, gba, bob mackey, rom hacks