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• Earthbound Saga Pt. 4

  I check in with the folks at Starmen.net every few weeks in order to check up on the progress of the upcoming Mother 3 fan translation. It's not quite done yet, but the fourth installment of the Earthbound Saga is. This fan-made movie is a live-action slapstick take on the Earthbound story that began production in 1995. A bunch of kids filmed a few adorable scenes, and as children are wont, gave up and moved on to other pursuits. They've all grown up, but their love for Earthbound remains. Here's the original 1985 vignette: Part 4 after the jump: Read More... Posted Sep 11 2008, 11:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, earthbound, mother 3

• Whatcha (Trying To) Play: Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds

  Blessed are the fan translators. Without them we would never be able to experience the wonder of games like Seiken Densetsu 3, Mother 3 (it's coming!) or Final Fantasy V years before it recieved an awful translation on the Playstation. Less blessed are the ROM hackers. I know we all went through our childhood tormented by questions like, "What if Mario had a gigantic penis to trip him up while he tried to rescue the Princess?" and, "Gee, Sonic the Hedgehog is great, but it would be really great if someone replaced Mobius' clouds with Swastikas!" but ultimately the answers to these questions turn out to be nothing but messy self-indulgence. But even my jaded heart can recognise a great piece of fan work when I see it. The Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds is a great piece of fanwork. It's also near unplayable for pussies who embody the type of girly gamer who should slink back to her copy of Barbie's Horse Adventures (hint: Me). Read More... Posted Sep 10 2008, 06:10 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: mother 3, fan stuff, nadia oxford, seiken densetsu 3, rom hacks, fan translations, final fantasy v, the legend of zelda link to the past, fan hacks, the legend of zelda parallel worlds

• The Mother 3 Translation: We're Not Worthy!

  Ever since Nadia Oxford started writing about the Earthbound soundtrack, something keeps popping up in my mind that I've been trying to supress out of sheer impatience: the unofficial translation of Mother 3--for you non-Earthbound fanatics, that's essentially Earthbound 2.  From all of my lurking in Earthbound fandom for over ten years, I can tell you that the translation couldn't be in better hands; it's being guided by a fellow with the hacker alias "Tomato" who--along with a few other folks--basically orgazined the online Earthbound fanhorde just as the Internet started taking off. Back in 2006, I assumed that the translation patch for Earthbound would be out days after the game's release in Japan; but I had no idea how hard Tomato's team (one of a few who took a crack at the game) was working, or about the unhackable quality of Mother 3's code.  If you check out their to-do list, you can see just how far the translation team has come in the last two years--all that's left to do is testing.  Here's a video from Tomato himself showcasing some of the work they've done on the game so far.  Note how faithful it is to the spirit of Earthbound's awesome localization: Read More... Posted Aug 26 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, translation, gba, bob mackey

• Earthbound and Back Again

  If you've never played Earthbound, known to the pure as Mother 2, I sincerely hope you'll give it a try someday, somehow. Most of America overlooked the title when it was released towards the end of the Super Nintendo's lifespan: the world was awash with Playstation-Saturn-N64 hype and nobody had any time for a (deceptively) primitive-looking Crayola adventure. Having only just recently experienced Earthbound myself, I know that the love and care put into the game's characters, atmosphere and story won't leave me for a long, long time. Seriously, I'll be rocking on the porch of Pine Box Acres and rasping for my grandson, Ness, to bring granny her cigarettes. I'll slowly draw one out and take a large drag after three shaky attempts with the lighter, producing nothing but sparks until I finally put flint to steel. And Ness will watch me patiently with his hands behind his back while I talk about the time his namesake took down three Krakens in the Sea of Eden. And then I'll die and Ness will steal my wallet and never look back. If you're insane like myself, you'll want to check out Earthbound and Back Again. It's a list of the Japanese enemy names used in Mother 2 compared side-by-side with their english translations from Earthbound. The list is compiled by Tomato, the gentleman in charge of the Mother 3 fan translation project. Write to your local Pope and elect him for Sainthood. Read More... Posted Jul 29 2008, 06:08 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, translation, mother 2, enemies, fan translation, ness, tomato

• Earthbound 2/Mother 3 Fan Translation Nears Completion

  Shigesato Itoi's brainchild was known in the West as Earthbound, a quirky RPG that eschewed every role playing convention. Like L. Frank Baum and Lewis Carrol before him, Itoi lured ordinary children into a world of bizarre fantasy. Itoi realized the limitations of his technology and the infancy of his medium, opting for a breezy, existentialist humor. Deconstructing the console RPG into its fundamental parts, Itoi was able to bring RPG mechanics outside of Tolkien-esque storyboards and into a world closely resembling modern-day suburbia. Its hero wasn't a muscled he-man nor a femme half-elf, but an ordinary adolescent kid. Ness saved the world with a cracked baseball bat and a t-shirt rather than a broadsword and chain mail. Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 10:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: rpg, earthbound, mother 3