# Nintendo releases Earthbound on Wii U Virtual Console!



## MelodieOctavia (Jul 18, 2013)

In a completely random and generous move by Nintendo, Earthbound has been released to Wii U Virtual Console. Now you no longer have to plonk down upwards of $200 to own a legit copy of Earthbound. For time immemorial (or at least since the Wii was released) Earthbound/Mother fans have been clamoring for a re-release on Virtual Console to get their fix, as Mother 3 was never released to Western markets, and copies of Earthbound were too steep to justify purchasing through legitimate means.

There has been much speculation as to why Earthbound was never re-released, from the final boss being too disturbing, to songs and characters in-game matching too closely to Beatles songs and band members. No matter what reason they didn't put it out until now, it's on sale on the Wii U Virtual Console for $10.

Source


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## Tonitonichopchop (Jul 18, 2013)

Really wish I had a Wii U so I could get this. I'm a huge fan of Earthbound and it saddens me that I've had no way of legally purchasing it until now. Once I finally plonk down for a Wii U, this is the game I'll have to get asap.


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## orcid (Jul 18, 2013)

I just checked the eshop and it is available in europe, too. (Of course 1:1 = 9.99 Euro)
Yesterday I was so disappointed that there is no new Wii U - VC this week and now there is Earthbound! 
Finally Earthbound is coming to europe!


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## GameWinner (Jul 18, 2013)

I never played Earthbound so maybe I will once I finally get a Wii U.


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## Enchilada (Jul 18, 2013)

There's still a full translation of Mother 3. I'll use that since I don't have a Wii U.


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## admung (Jul 18, 2013)

Enchilada said:


> There's still a full translation of Mother 3. I'll use that since I don't have a Wii U.


 
Earthbound is Mother 2, not Mother 3. You'll be playing a completely different game. Earthbound was released in the US anyways, so I don't know why would even need a translation...


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## narutofan777 (Jul 18, 2013)

Concerning the matter of making a new game in this franchise, I looked long and hard for a reason and found that such a thing is beyond my comprehension.

-----


i have no idea y these pplz cant make a new game for the series.


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## RchUncleSkeleton (Jul 18, 2013)

Completely random? It was announced about a month ago...


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## Yepi69 (Jul 18, 2013)

God damn finally, I am so getting that game, can't wait to hop on a Wii U's gamepad and play it on the gamepad while I'm taking a shit lol


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## mightymuffy (Jul 18, 2013)

Great news indeed, but that £6.99/€9.99 price tag is hardly what I'd call generous.... sure it's a great game but WHY do they feel justified in charging an inflated price? ...I was tempted to buy even though I have it in vWii mode, but at £1.50 extra? Cheeky buggers...


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## Gahars (Jul 18, 2013)

TwinRetro said:


> In a completely random and generous move by Nintendo


 

Didn't they announce this back in April or so? During one of their Nintendo directs? 

I don't know why Nintendo is offering this only on the Wii U Virtual Console. A port of an almost 30-year old niche title is not going to sell systems, and the more places you offer the game, the more people can be exposed to the title, which could only boost awareness of the franchise as a whole. I mean, that would make sense, but nooo...

Anyway, I can't say I care too much. I'm still awaiting the literary adaptation, _Prometheus Earthbound_.


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## TyBlood13 (Jul 18, 2013)

narutofan777 said:


> i have no idea y these pplz cant make a new game for the series.


 
Because Itoi wanted to get out of game design and nobody has taken up his offer of having somebody else make a new one.

More On-topic: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!! I've played this game so many times illegally and I can't wait to play my favorite game of all time legally (and in a language I understand, my MOTHER 2 cart doesn't get used much)!

Now to wait until I can afford a Wii U...


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## Yepi69 (Jul 18, 2013)

mightymuffy said:


> Great news indeed, but that £6.99/€9.99 price tag is hardly what I'd call generous.... sure it's a great game but WHY do they feel justified in charging an inflated price? ...I was tempted to buy even though I have it in vWii mode, but at £1.50 extra? Cheeky buggers...


 
How come you 'have it' on vWii if it wasn't released on Wii Shop yet? Unless its through emulation.
Also the original cartridge itself costs 200$ and more (official full box costs up to 1000$, no jokes aside).
So 10€ is a good price for that game.


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## Gahars (Jul 18, 2013)

narutofan777 said:


> i have no idea y these pplz cant make a new game for the series.


 
Because nobody buys them.


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## Yepi69 (Jul 18, 2013)

Gahars said:


> Because nobody buys them.


 
Because almost no one bought EarthBound, it sold pretty well on Japan, all 3 games.
Also the creator itself said he didn't want to make any more Mother games, Mother 3 had 6 years of development.


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## mightymuffy (Jul 18, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> How come you 'have it' on vWii if it wasn't released on Wii Shop yet? Unless its through emulation.
> Also the original cartridge itself costs 200$ and more (official full box costs up to 1000$, no jokes aside).
> So 10€ is a good price for that game.


Yep, emulation. And yep, I know it costs an arm n a leg for the cartridge, but I still can't see why they feel it justifies an extra £1.50 over the other SNES VC games (and yes they did the same thing on Wii VC/3DS eShop, which also pisses me off - Squeenix do the same with PS1 classics too..)
Still great value of course, but the UK price of £5.49 should really be standard for all games: I mean what's next "Link to the Past always gets good reviews, let's clod a couple of quid on that too" ??


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## Guild McCommunist (Jul 18, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> Because almost no one bought EarthBound, it sold pretty well on Japan, all 3 games.
> Also the creator itself said he didn't want to make any more Mother games, Mother 3 had 6 years of development.


 

"Sells well in Japan" is not really good for Nintendo which basically goes for a worldwide approach.


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## Gahars (Jul 18, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> Because almost no one bought EarthBound, it sold pretty well on Japan, all 3 games.
> Also the creator itself said he didn't want to make any more Mother games, Mother 3 had 6 years of development.


 

We've had this discussion before, but no, they really didn't. Mother 3, for example, only sold about 400,000 copies. For a Nintendo franchise on the GBA (an incredibly popular and widely adopted platform), that's paltry. Compare those sales to, say, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (which sold 1.25 million in their first few days of release in Japan). Even if you split that in half to account for both versions, each version still sold about 625,000 in just a few days, while Mother 3 could only reach 400,000 throughout its whole lifetime.

The Mother franchise has always been a franchise that appealed only to a niche audience. Whatever the creator says, if Nintendo saw another Mother entry as a worthwhile venture, they would have made it.


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## emigre (Jul 18, 2013)

Honestly never really saw the fuss about Earthbound.

So I'll give this a miss on my non existant WiiU.


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## Yepi69 (Jul 18, 2013)

Guild McCommunist said:


> "Sells well in Japan" is not really good for Nintendo which basically goes for a worldwide approach.


 
''sold well in Japan'' but its just a franchise that was made popular on Japan only.


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## Guild McCommunist (Jul 18, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> ''sold well in Japan'' but its just a franchise that was made popular on Japan only.


 

Even more reason why they wouldn't make a new one. Nintendo wants to sell worldwide, they don't want to dump the same development costs into a Mother game that'll only sell a moderate amount in Japan as they can in a Mario Kart game that will sell gangbusters worldwide.


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## Yepi69 (Jul 18, 2013)

Guild McCommunist said:


> Even more reason why they wouldn't make a new one. Nintendo wants to sell worldwide, they don't want to dump the same development costs into a Mother game that'll only sell a moderate amount in Japan as they can in a Mario Kart game that will sell gangbusters worldwide.


 
Thus the release of EarthBound on the Wii U, they have nothing to lose so they just added the game to see if anyone would buy it, since a lot of fans asked for it.


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## Guild McCommunist (Jul 18, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> Thus the release of EarthBound on the Wii U, they have nothing to lose so they just added the game to see if anyone would buy it, since a lot of fans asked for it.


 

There's no issue with that, I'm saying there's no reason for another entry in the series.


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## IBNobody (Jul 18, 2013)

emigre said:


> Honestly never really saw the fuss about Earthbound.


 

Yeah... Same here. I don't understand why people thought it was so special. It was drastically overshadowed by many Square and Enix RPGs on the platform.


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## Kikirini (Jul 18, 2013)

Ahh, never actually played this one. Guess I'm gonna have to shell out the money to play it and see why everyone loves it so much.
...especially if it comes with a full player's guide. That's a pretty good deal, Nintendo.


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## Yepi69 (Jul 18, 2013)

Kikirini said:


> Ahh, never actually played this one. Guess I'm gonna have to shell out the money to play it and see why everyone loves it so much.
> ...especially if it comes with a full player's guide. That's a pretty good deal, Nintendo.


 
Its worth it, trust me


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## Kikirini (Jul 18, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> Its worth it, trust me


 
Well, then I can't wait!


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## TyBlood13 (Jul 18, 2013)

IBNobody said:


> Yeah... Same here. I don't understand why people thought it was so special. It was drastically overshadowed by many Square and Enix RPGs on the platform.


 
Being overshadowed by something doesn't make bad (or good, for that matter). It's loved because it's different, not in that stereotypical medieval world that is way overused. And the game doesn't take itself seriously, and it's actually funny.

Besides, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, & Dragon Quest VI were the only good RPGs from Sqaure & Enix on the SFC.


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## razielleonhart (Jul 18, 2013)

about damn time Nintendo. now I can stop playing my GBA carts on my gamecube and play it on my Wii U


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## Ergo (Jul 18, 2013)

IBNobody said:


> Yeah... Same here. I don't understand why people thought it was so special. It was drastically overshadowed by many Square and Enix RPGs on the platform.



Because it was something whimsical and different, rather than the clichéd to death and back again fantasy setting that Square and Enix trod and trod and trod.

Plus, game mechanics-wise, it was no better or worse than, say, FFIV or DQIV.

(I'd also argue that in this (sad) day and age where story tends to trump gameplay in many, many gamers' eyes, it would perform much better now than it did then.)

(And I'm not a huge fan, but I can certainly appreciate *why* a great many people love it.)


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## The Real Jdbye (Jul 18, 2013)

Awesome. Now they just need to translate Mother 3


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## orcid (Jul 18, 2013)

RchUncleSkeleton said:


> Completely random? It was announced about a month ago...


...but not for today and also it was not part of the normal e-shop-update every thursday.
At the end of the last mini nintendo direct, that I just watched in the eshop, they said: "Surprise! Earthbound is now available!"


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## DiscostewSM (Jul 18, 2013)

Regard it being $10 instead of $8 like other SNES VC, isn't the additional cost due to the digital strategy guide that comes with it?


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## gokujr1000 (Jul 18, 2013)

This'd be awesome news if it was a 3DS release.


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## Flame (Jul 18, 2013)

gokujr1000 said:


> This'd be awesome news if it was a 3DS release.


 
I agree, why not 3DS.


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## Deleted-236924 (Jul 18, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> God damn finally, I am so getting that game, can't wait to hop on a Wii U's gamepad and play it on the gamepad while I'm taking a shit lol


 
I actually forgot about the Wii U's ability to play games using the game pad's screen, that'll be awesome for every Virtual Console game.


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## Yepi69 (Jul 18, 2013)

The Real Jdbye said:


> Awesome. Now they just need to translate Mother 3


 
There's already an unofficial perfect translation, I highly doubt they will ever translated it due to how well its already translated that the team who made the translation might want some credit for it in which, I believe Nintendo will not give.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 18, 2013)

Bought it, because it was the first VC game in weeks that didn't suck


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## beta4attack (Jul 18, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> There's already an unofficial perfect translation, I highly doubt they will ever translated it due to how well its already translated that the team who made the translation might want some credit for it in which, I believe Nintendo will not give.


Well, they did say they will gladly give the translation to Nintendo for free. But, I'm pretty sure they would at least want credits, like you said.


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## chavosaur (Jul 18, 2013)

Said it before, I'll say it again, Earthbound is such an overrated title. 

I have played every single game, just ATTEMPTING to get into it, but I just can't. 
I understand the concept and its uniqueness of being based in the US and all that, but it just plays like any other RPG. There really isn't a LOT that sets it apart from your average RPG. 
I can understand how it must have been unique for its time, but trying to get into it nowadays just isn't easy.


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## qweesy777 (Jul 19, 2013)

wtf why not on 3DS??????????????


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## Fishaman P (Jul 19, 2013)

Maybe this means our local used game stores will finally be getting physical copies in!


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## 2ndApex (Jul 19, 2013)

Funny thing is, buying a Wii U for Earthbound is probably about the same price as getting an original cartridge on eBay.


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## GreatZimkogway (Jul 19, 2013)

2ndApex said:


> Funny thing is, buying a Wii U for Earthbound is probably about the same price as getting an original cartridge on eBay.


 
Less, actually.  Earthbound goes for roughly $100+shipping used.


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## Species8472 (Jul 19, 2013)

Played through the game for the first time within the last month and a half. It has it's problems that almost caused me to give up on it, but overall I enjoyed my time with it.


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## Yepi69 (Jul 19, 2013)

2ndApex said:


> Funny thing is, buying a Wii U for Earthbound is probably about the same price as getting an original cartridge on eBay.


 
---post deleted---


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## mechagouki (Jul 19, 2013)

The prices mentioned here of $100 to $200 for a SNES cart seem crazy high. I bought a (admittedly dirty, but with good label) cartridge on eBay for $18 in 2005.


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## AngryGeek416 (Jul 19, 2013)

To the people in here bad mouthing Earthbound.....LOL...seriously that's all I can do is laugh.
Fucking Classic Enough Said.



mechagouki said:


> The prices mentioned here of $100 to $200 for a SNES cart seem crazy high. I bought a (admittedly dirty, but with good label) cartridge on eBay for $18 in 2005.


 
I found one at my local game store for $60 ya 200 is wayyyyy overpriced


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## Snailface (Jul 19, 2013)

qweesy777 said:


> wtf why not on 3DS??????????????


SNES is more difficult to emulate than GBA due to the SNES using a non-ARM CPU. We will likely never see SNES games on 3DS for this reason.


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## Yepi69 (Jul 19, 2013)

CanuckBuck said:


> To the people in here bad mouthing Earthbound.....LOL...seriously that's all i can do is laugh.
> Fucking Classic Enough Said.


 
Aren't canadians supposed to be kind?
And I am also a EarthBound fan but I don't give a shit of what they say.


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## Ryupower (Jul 19, 2013)

mechagouki said:


> The prices mentioned here of $100 to $200 for a SNES cart seem crazy high. I bought a (admittedly dirty, but with good label) cartridge on eBay for $18 in 2005.


it the set
game and guide  and it unopened
and or
it 100% real with a good condition label and the guide in is very good condition


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## AngryGeek416 (Jul 19, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> Aren't canadians supposed to be kind?
> And I am also a EarthBound fan but I don't give a shit of what they say.


 
Stereotypes gotta love em, come to Toronto and tell me if you find any of these "Kind Canadian's" your mentioning. Anyway ya Earthbound is amazing I'm not gonna argue about it I just thought it was funny that people actually say its overrated I mean fine it's not your cup of tea but overrated? come on


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## the_randomizer (Jul 19, 2013)

Snailface said:


> SNES is more difficult to emulate than GBA due to the SNES using a non-ARM CPU. We will likely never see SNES games on 3DS for this reason.


 

Which is weird seeing as Sega is releasing a few Genesis games in 3D sometime this year; the Genesis had a Motorola 68000 with a Z80 co-processor, so at least Sega proved it possible to emulate a 16-bit console on the 3DS. 

The problem with Snes is you'd have to translate code from Ricoh 65c816 ASM to ARM, which while not impossible, is very difficult. Power wise, speed should be fine, but the coding isn't easy at all.


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## Gahars (Jul 19, 2013)

CanuckBuck said:


> Stereotypes gotta love em, come to Toronto and tell me if you find any of these "Kind Canadian's" your mentioning. Anyway ya Earthbound is amazing I'm not gonna argue about it I just thought it was funny that people actually say its overrated I mean fine it's not your cup of tea but overrated? come on


 

You realize that "overrated" doesn't mean bad, right? Not being as good as people claim doesn't mean it can't still be good.

Earthbound's fine. It's a pretty decent RPG with some interesting ideas and a few nice jokes. When people praise the game as if it was the absolute greatest thing to ever grace the medium, however, it's going to struggle to live up to the hype and people will call it "overrated" as a result.


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## DiscostewSM (Jul 19, 2013)

Snailface said:


> SNES is more difficult to emulate than GBA due to the SNES using a non-ARM CPU. We will likely never see SNES games on 3DS for this reason.


 
I think 3DS is more than capable of running SNES games that don't require special chips. Having seen SNES emulators on the DS running decently, abeit with some graphical problems, is proof of that (not to mention they had to deal with some faulty hardware design like reading non-sequentially from RAM). Also remember, not all VC emulators are the same. Each one is more or less fine-tuned to work better and more stable with the game designed for it.


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## wrettcaughn (Jul 19, 2013)

Played through Earthbound at least a half dozen times when it came out on the SNES.  Was probably my favorite RPG of that gen.  Don't remember how/where I got it but it was cool that it came with a strategy guide and scratch & sniff cards.

How many people clamoring on here for it were even alive when this was released?


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## the_randomizer (Jul 19, 2013)

wrettcaughn said:


> Played through Earthbound at least a half dozen times when it came out on the SNES. Was probably my favorite RPG of that gen. Don't remember how/where I got it but it was cool that it came with a strategy guide and scratch & sniff cards.
> 
> How many people clamoring on here for it were even alive when this was released?


 

Been gaming since 1993 thank you, Snes was my first console. Rented it back in 1995 then I got it for $30 later on. I bought the game because I want to support Nintendo. Buying it for the Wii U > than spending $100 for a used copy that doesn't work


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## Yepi69 (Jul 19, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> Been gaming since 1993 thank you, Snes was my first console. Rented it back in 19985 then I got it for $30 later on. If Nintendo wants people to support the VC, there needs to be more games people are familiar with. I bought the game because I want to support Nintendo.


 
Randomizer's so retro that he has been renting consoles since 19985


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## the_randomizer (Jul 19, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> Randomizer's so retro that he has been renting consoles since 19985


 

Oh you I'm from the future, like Buzz Buzz.

Fixed it


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## 2ndApex (Jul 19, 2013)

Snailface said:


> SNES is more difficult to emulate than GBA due to the SNES using a non-ARM CPU. We will likely never see SNES games on 3DS for this reason.


 

PSP and the DSTWO can do it easy and IIRC Earthbound was one of the few games that SnemuLDS (the SNES emulator for plain DS carts) didn't even have a problem with. It's more of a matter of Nintendo wanting/not wanting to release SNES games on handheld than it is the actual capabilities of the 3DS.


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## IBNobody (Jul 19, 2013)

TyBlood13 said:


> Being overshadowed by something doesn't make bad (or good, for that matter). It's loved because it's different, not in that stereotypical medieval world that is way overused. And the game doesn't take itself seriously, and it's actually funny.


 
Just because something isn't set in the stereotypical RPG world doesn't make it good. I have a good sense of humor, but I didn't enjoy the game when I played it. It was a bunch of little kids in a boring world with a rather simple combat system. When it came out, I was in my late teens. I played it because there weren't any other RPGs at the time that I HADN'T played. It's one of the few RPGs that I beat and returned to the store.

And then two months later, Chrono Trigger came out.


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## DJPlace (Jul 19, 2013)

I think in the japan version ness runs around naked or something they should put that in here but that's wishful thinking in my part...


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## Deleted-188346 (Jul 19, 2013)

Gahars said:


> I don't know why Nintendo is offering this only on the Wii U Virtual Console. A port of an almost 30-year old niche title is not going to sell systems, and the more places you offer the game, the more people can be exposed to the title, which could only boost awareness of the franchise as a whole. I mean, that would make sense, but nooo...


I don't think Nintendo expects this to sell systems. But, it does improve the overall desirability of the Wii U, which it gravely needs. The 3DS doesn't need much more support right now.


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## beundertaker (Jul 19, 2013)

lame. let me know when there is an official earthbound 2 translation. minimum effort on nintendo's part means minimum effort on my part aka keep pirating.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 19, 2013)

Puppy_Washer said:


> I don't think Nintendo expects this to sell systems. But, it does improve the overall desirability of the Wii U, which it gravely needs. The 3DS doesn't need much more support right now.


 

Gahars thinks that 2013 - 1995 is 30 years? That's news to me 




beundertaker said:


> lame. let me know when there is an official earthbound 2 translation. minimum effort on nintendo's part means minimum effort on my part aka keep pirating.


 
The hackers' translation was pretty dang professional, I doubt Nintendo wants to spend the money to localize it.

BTW, your self-entitlement is showing


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## Yepi69 (Jul 19, 2013)

2ndApex said:


> PSP and the DSTWO can do it easy and IIRC Earthbound was one of the few games that SnemuLDS (the SNES emulator for plain DS carts) didn't even have a problem with. It's more of a matter of Nintendo wanting/not wanting to release SNES games on handheld than it is the actual capabilities of the 3DS.


 
What? SnemuLDS had sprite glitches and battle glitches on EarthBound.



DJPlace said:


> I think in the japan version ness runs around naked or something they should put that in here but that's wishful thinking in my part...


 

On the Japan version (Mother 2) Ness IS naked when he enters on magicant, however they removed that on the American Version because people would complain he was showing a pixelated dick.


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## Slamicite (Jul 19, 2013)

I love MOTHER 1 and 3, but not Earthbound.
The battle system is pretty much what you'd get from an early NES RPG such as Dragon Warrior 2. Lackluster battle animations, unbalanced party members and being forced to run away from the constantly recurring fights to save MP. Having the enemies appear on the overworld doesn't do much since they move faster and can see you from all directions. At best you can leave them stuck by an edge when they chase you.


Spoiler



Earthbound drags on for almost the entirety of its long length with no significant plot advancement at all. The ending some may call open-ended, but I call it awful. It has no cohesion with MOTHER 1. 
The battle with Giygas is pathetic. Oh, ok, you make your villain incredibly powerful, now that's cool, right? Well, it would be, if you just didn't have to pull off a textbook deus ex machina to finish the story.


The setting is the only point where I understand the praise. However, I personally disagree that it alone can make the game worth it. Most good fantasy settings have their idiosyncrasies anyway, and there are other options for radically different ones.

I'm glad it's been re-released, though. There is a serious lack of accessible legitimate ways to play that game. I wonder if they may release it on the 3DS too, since more people have that.


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## Deleted-188346 (Jul 19, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> 2013 - 1995 is 30 years? That's news to me.


I think you quoted the wrong person.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 19, 2013)

Puppy_Washer said:


> I think you quoted the wrong person.


 

Fixed, added Gahars' name into the quote, as he assumes Earthbound is 30 years old


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## Boy12 (Jul 19, 2013)

Damn, why don't i have a Wii U?


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## Bryon15 (Jul 19, 2013)

I have a serious question. Why did everybody care so much about this game releasing on virtual console, when you could easily play it on a modded Wii with snes9x gx years ago?


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## Hielkenator (Jul 19, 2013)

beundertaker said:


> lame. let me know when there is an official earthbound 2 translation. minimum effort on nintendos part means minimum effort on my part aka keep pirating.


 
Get the USA version of earthbound.


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## eyecat14 (Jul 19, 2013)

admung said:


> Earthbound is Mother 2, not Mother 3. You'll be playing a completely different game. Earthbound was released in the US anyways, so I don't know why would even need a translation...


This is off topic but I fucking LOVE Octocat!


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## raulpica (Jul 19, 2013)

Bryon15 said:


> I have a serious question. Why did everybody care so much about this game releasing on virtual console, when you could easily play it on a modded Wii with snes9x gx years ago?


Because buying and playing something legally (and not $200 for an original cartridge) is awesome?


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## Boy12 (Jul 19, 2013)

raulpica said:


> Because buying and playing something legally (and not $200 for an original cartridge) is awesome?


 
Duh!


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## the_randomizer (Jul 19, 2013)

Bryon15 said:


> I have a serious question. Why did everybody care so much about this game releasing on virtual console, when you could easily play it on a modded Wii with snes9x gx years ago?


 
Because this version doesn't have the anti-piracy protection that crashes the game at the last boss or increases the encounter rate...? More often than not, most dumped ROMs of this game had more enemies to fight, making it near-impossible to get through. Spending $10 is helluva better than paying those greedy sods who charge $100 for a new or good condition copy.


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## koimayeul (Jul 19, 2013)

Still yet to play this one.. I'll check if it's on the french Wii (not U) store in a little while.


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## beta4attack (Jul 19, 2013)

koimayeul said:


> Still yet to play this one.. I'll check if it's on the french Wii (not U) store in a little while.


No, it's just for Wii U.


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## chavosaur (Jul 19, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> Because this version doesn't have the anti-piracy protection that crashes the game at the last boss or increases the encounter rate...? More often than not, most dumped ROMs of this game had more enemies to fight, making it near-impossible to get through. Spending $10 is helluva better than paying those greedy sods who charge $100 for a new or good condition copy.


Huh. 
I never knew that existed. That would explain why the past couple times I tried to play it, I set it down because I would encounter something every 4 steps :/
Maybe I will pick this up then.


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## Yepi69 (Jul 20, 2013)

Slamicite said:


> I love MOTHER 1 and 3, but not Earthbound.
> The battle system is pretty much what you'd get from an early NES RPG such as Dragon Warrior 2. Lackluster battle animations, unbalanced party members and being forced to run away from the constantly recurring fights to save MP. Having the enemies appear on the overworld doesn't do much since they move faster and can see you from all directions. At best you can leave them stuck by an edge when they chase you.
> 
> 
> ...


 
Wha...? EarthBound was probably the only game where you get loads of money while being overpowered over enemies, and if you did played Mother 1 and Mother 3 (as you stated) you would know EarthBound wasn't about fucking the final boss up until he's coffin blood and split apart, was about beating the final boss with everyone's help, what less can you expect from a SNES game from 1995? And no, don't compare to Dragon Warrior 2 cuz EarthBound takes a different level over gameplay.
And Mother games have ''cohesion'' on all of them, the music from Mother 1 is on EarthBound, and the music from both is on Mother 3.



the_randomizer said:


> Because this version doesn't have the anti-piracy protection that crashes the game at the last boss or increases the encounter rate...? More often than not, most dumped ROMs of this game had more enemies to fight, making it near-impossible to get through. Spending $10 is helluva better than paying those greedy sods who charge $100 for a new or good condition copy.


 

I think you meant fake cartridges cuz the rom dumps don't have anti piracy, only the bootleg cartridges.



Bryon15 said:


> I have a serious question. Why did everybody care so much about this game releasing on virtual console, when you could easily play it on a modded Wii with snes9x gx years ago?


 
Why people make this stupid question, it was already answered because its better and officially, not everyone needs to hack their Wii to play the game, not to mention playing it on the Wii U's gamepad is way better.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 20, 2013)

chavosaur said:


> Huh.
> I never knew that existed. That would explain why the past couple times I tried to play it, I set it down because I would encounter something every 4 steps :/
> Maybe I will pick this up then.


 

Yup, it was good way to troll people who had certain versions of the ROM


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## Nathan Drake (Jul 20, 2013)

chavosaur said:


> Huh.
> I never knew that existed. That would explain why the past couple times I tried to play it, I set it down because I would encounter something every 4 steps :/
> Maybe I will pick this up then.


The AP was discovered and was cracked awhile ago. You have to re-enable the AP yourself via codes in order to experience it at this point because every emulator from the past at least six or seven years (and likely before that) bypasses it automatically. If you were experiencing a high encounter rate, I assure you, it was just the game and not anything else.



the_randomizer said:


> Because this version doesn't have the anti-piracy protection that crashes the game at the last boss or increases the encounter rate...? More often than not, most dumped ROMs of this game had more enemies to fight, making it near-impossible to get through. Spending $10 is helluva better than paying those greedy sods who charge $100 for a new or good condition copy.


Besides your bit about the AP being a bit off, those aren't "greedy sods" selling the game for $100+. It's supply and demand. If there's a higher demand than there is supply, the price will go up. In this case, if there's 10,000 people that want a copy of Earthbound for the SNES but only about 100 copies at a time being circulated through the market, then you have to expect that the prices will be higher than you might like. In case you haven't noticed, rarer retro games tend to sell for quite a bit depending on condition.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 20, 2013)

Nathan Drake said:


> The AP was discovered and was cracked awhile ago. You have to re-enable the AP yourself via codes in order to experience it at this point because every emulator from the past at least six or seven years (and likely before that) bypasses it automatically. If you were experiencing a high encounter rate, I assure you, it was just the game and not anything else.
> 
> 
> Besides your bit about the AP being a bit off, those aren't "greedy sods" selling the game for $100+. It's supply and demand. If there's a higher demand than there is supply, the price will go up. In this case, if there's 10,000 people that want a copy of Earthbound for the SNES but only about 100 copies at a time being circulated through the market, then you have to expect that the prices will be higher than you might like. In case you haven't noticed, rarer retro games tend to sell for quite a bit depending on condition.


 

Meh, $50-75 for a rare game is reasonable, but selling a game for $200+ is ridiculous.  This is my opinion though.


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## Nathan Drake (Jul 20, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> Meh, $50-75 for a rare game is reasonable, but selling a game for $200+ is ridiculous. This is my opinion though.


Unfortunately for yourself, your opinion doesn't dictate how an economy operates. As long as people are willing to buy at $100+ or even $200+, it will continue to sell at those prices. I assure you, if a warehouse of 100,000 copies was suddenly discovered, the price would drop pretty dramatically, but until that time comes, don't expect the value to do anything but go up.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 20, 2013)

Nathan Drake said:


> Unfortunately for yourself, your opinion doesn't dictate how an economy operates. As long as people are willing to buy at $100+ or even $200+, it will continue to sell at those prices. I assure you, if a warehouse of 100,000 copies was suddenly discovered, the price would drop pretty dramatically, but until that time comes, don't expect the value to do anything but go up.


 

I'd sooner support Nintendo than second-hand retailers for getting Snes games.


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## Nathan Drake (Jul 20, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> I'd sooner support Nintendo than second-hand retailers for getting Snes games.


And that's your choice. That doesn't change that many people want a tangible copy of the game though, and tangibility is worth quite a bit.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 20, 2013)

Nathan Drake said:


> And that's your choice. That doesn't change that many people want a tangible copy of the game though, and tangibility is worth quite a bit.


 

And I agree, my opinion is just that, my opinion. People will pay whatever the hell they want for a rare game, and I think I have some somewhat rare games myself, including a fully functional Super Famicom


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## The Real Jdbye (Jul 21, 2013)

Yepi69 said:


> There's already an unofficial perfect translation, I highly doubt they will ever translated it due to how well its already translated that the team who made the translation might want some credit for it in which, I believe Nintendo will not give.


Sure, but I would rather have an official perfect translation 
I was thinking of a translation for a Virtual Console release though. It has happened to other games, though I guess not RPGs with a lot of dialogue.
I'm a bit confused at the last part. How would someone be able to demand royalties for a translation Nintendo makes from the ground up?


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## Psionic Roshambo (Jul 21, 2013)

The Real Jdbye said:


> Sure, but I would rather have an official perfect translation
> I was thinking of a translation for a Virtual Console release though. It has happened to other games, though I guess not RPGs with a lot of dialogue.
> I'm a bit confused at the last part. How would someone be able to demand royalties for a translation Nintendo makes from the ground up?


 

Translations of a book or a game or a movie do not entitle the translator to anything other than perhaps being charged with copyright infringement if they are not the copyright holder in the first place. 

I think fan translations are a fine thing, but legally speaking they are copyright infringement. Changing a word from Japanese to English does not make one the copyright holder...


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## tbgtbg (Jul 21, 2013)

Psionic Roshambo said:


> Changing a word from Japanese to English does not make one the copyright holder...



If you translate a work, that translation then becomes a new work, and just because you had no rights to translate the original in the first place doesn't give the original holder the rights to your translation. It might just wind up being a work no one has a right to put out.

But no, no one could demand royalties from Nintendo if Nintendo did their own translation. Each translation would be its own work. The KJV Bible is public domain, but that doesn't mean The NIV Bible doesn't have copyright protection. Both are translations of the same work, though. Each translation is its own new work, and treated separately.


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## Psionic Roshambo (Jul 21, 2013)

tbgtbg said:


> If you translate a work, that translation then becomes a new work, and just because you had no rights to translate the original in the first place doesn't give the original holder the rights to your translation. It might just wind up being a work no one has a right to put out.
> 
> But no, no one could demand royalties from Nintendo if Nintendo did their own translation. Each translation would be its own work. The KJV Bible is public domain, but that doesn't mean The NIV Bible doesn't have copyright protection. Both are translations of the same work, though. Each translation is its own new work, and treated separately.


 

I'm pretty sure it's even legally enforceable.... 

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/10/swedish-fan-made-subtitle-site-is-shut-down-by-copyright-police/

As an example. 

Like I said though, I think fan translations of things are a great thing and there should be some deliberate loop hole put in the laws to allow some one who buys a book a movie or a game to get a translation. As the laws stand right now doing a translation is pretty much against the law unless your the original creator.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 21, 2013)

Then why didn't Nintendo stop those who translated Mother 3?


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## Deltaechoe (Jul 21, 2013)

One of my favorite games from the SNES days, I may have to buy it just for the nostalgia


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## Psionic Roshambo (Jul 21, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> Then why didn't Nintendo stop those who translated Mother 3?


 

Well sometimes it's not worth looking like a bunch of dicks to stop something especially if you have no plans to release it to the west yourself. At least that would be my personal guess.

The perfect no win situation, no matter how it goes you still lost. As with all legal cases even the wrong side will still have a side and with fan translations Nintendo would have ended up looking like a massive douche bag.


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## raulpica (Jul 21, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> Then why didn't Nintendo stop those who translated Mother 3?


Reggie said they knew about the project, while Tomato was still working on it (and far from release). So it looks like Nintendo knew that it'd do them no harm since they had NO intention of selling it in the West in the foreesable future.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 21, 2013)

raulpica said:


> Reggie said they knew about the project, while Tomato was still working on it (and far from release). So it looks like Nintendo knew that it'd do them no harm since they had NO intention of selling it in the West in the foreesable future.


 

Makes sense to me. I thought it was a good translation, considering how difficult it was.


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## Deleted-236924 (Jul 21, 2013)

What I like about the Mother 3 translation is that Mato tried as hard as he could in order for it to be as close to what an official translation would have been like.
Including the simple things like writing "Press the A button" instead of "Press A"


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## the_randomizer (Jul 21, 2013)

Pingouin7 said:


> What I like about the Mother 3 translation is that Mato tried as hard as he could in order for it to be as close to what an official translation would have been like.
> Including the simple things like writing "Press the A button" instead of "Press A"


 

Tomato did a fantastic job. Glad Nintendo didn't get after them for doing it, they were more like "oh, okay, well the game isn't being released so, no harm no foul"


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## grossaffe (Jul 21, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> Then why didn't Nintendo stop those who translated Mother 3?


From Satoru Iwata himself: "Of course, we cannot say that we can give tacit approval to any and all the activities which threaten our intellectual properties. But on the other hand, it would not be appropriate if we treated people who did something based on affection for Nintendo, as criminals."


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## koimayeul (Jul 22, 2013)

beta4attack said:


> No, it's just for Wii U.


 
 Figured.. To boost their WiiU sales.. Bad move, Big N.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 22, 2013)

koimayeul said:


> Figured.. To boost their WiiU sales.. Bad move, Big N.


 

Why release a game on a practically dead console?  The Wii U has more features than the Wii VC would ever have. The 3DS doesn't have an Snes emulator and they would have to write one from scratch.


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## gamefan5 (Jul 22, 2013)

koimayeul said:


> Figured.. To boost their WiiU sales.. Bad move, Big N.


 
If it prompts others (including you) to buy a WiiU. It's certainly a good move for Ninty.


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## the_randomizer (Jul 22, 2013)

gamefan5 said:


> If it prompts others (including you) to buy a WiiU. It's certainly a good move for Ninty.


 

Putting the game on the Wii U is better than putting on the Wii


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## koimayeul (Jul 22, 2013)

Hmm i would think it is not too much of a compatibility work to indroduce the same VC games for both the Wii and Wii U, and with such a giant userbase the old Wii has plus the years of pressure from fans to get Earthbound released, it just would have been nice, and also if not more profitable for N to mind us all. Feeling left out some here, we get already black bars and slower 50 hz TV mode for VC games in France, and this is just a marketing move for the U, not the fan service one would expect from their "Family entertainment, nostalgic, endearing company" (fake) image. Not too surprised either, but meh. ^^


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## gamefan5 (Jul 22, 2013)

koimayeul said:


> Hmm i would think it is not too much of a compatibility work to indroduce the same VC games for both the Wii and Wii U, *and with such a giant userbase the old Wii has plus the years of pressure from fans to get Earthbound released*, it just would have been nice, and also if not more profitable for N to mind us all. Feeling left out some here, we get already black bars and slower 50 hz TV mode for VC games in France, and this is just a marketing move for the U, not the fan service one would expect from their "Family entertainment, nostalgic, endearing company" (fake) image. Not too surprised either, but meh. ^^


 
All the more reason for them to move to the WiiU.
I hope I won't need to draw a picture to make you understand, 'cause I'm already busy with one. XD


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## a9cito (Jul 22, 2013)

the_randomizer said:


> Putting the game on the Wii U is better than putting on the Wii


thats right, i can download some games from club nintendo for vwii but i dont want to, until i can download to wii u virtual console.


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