Nintendo releases Earthbound on Wii U Virtual Console!

[MelodieOctavia]

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

 

[Tonitonichopchop]

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.

 

[orcid]

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!

 

[GameWinner]

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

 

[Enchilada]

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

 

[admung]

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...

 

[narutofan777]

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.

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

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

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

 

[Yepi69]

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

 

[mightymuffy]

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...

 

[Gahars]

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.

 

[TyBlood13]

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...

 

[Yepi69]

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.

 

[Gahars]

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

Because nobody buys them.

 

[Yepi69]

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.

 

[mightymuffy]

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" ??

 

[Guild McCommunist]

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.

 

[Gahars]

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.

 

[emigre]

Honestly never really saw the fuss about Earthbound.

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

 

[Yepi69]

"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.