Topic: Nintendo President Acknowledges Western Mother 3 Fans

[HeyItsMe]

Well I never played Earthbound before. So I really hope they do something with it. I like trying out new franchises. I really didn't care for Pikmin or Animal Crossing. But picked up the Gamecube games a long time ago and loved them.

basically Earthbound was about this kid with a yo-yo and baseball bat, kinda like the goonies fighting aliens.

Well of course I know what Ness looks like. I have played Smash Bros. . Ever since I first saw Ness in Smash Bros. I couldn't wait to try out the franchise. But poor Nintendo won't bring it out. Now I love Lucas in Smash Bros. Brawl as well my favorite character. Anytime Nintendo wants to put Mother/Earthbound in the States I'm plopping my money down.

[Infinitys_End]

It comes down to two issues: music sampling and artistic integrity.  They either change the samples/arrangements of famous western music, or never touch it, never bring it out here again, and keep the game's artistic integrity.  It's similar to how Alan Moore doesn't want to be associated with the movies made of his graphic novels.  I think they're shooting themselves in the foot by not doing the former, but who knows how much it would cost to rearrange the music/sfx and reprogram the game?

All we can do for now is be satisfied we have fan translations and emulators. 

[Kairon]

Anytime Nintendo wants to put Mother/Earthbound in the States I'm plopping my money down.

This. I'm at a place emotionally where I'd pay a premium for Mother games right now.

[Fiendlord_Timmay]

Father

Father's Brother's Nephew's Cousin's Former Roommate.

[Ian Sane]

Even with the music issue with Earthbound they could release the FIRST Mother game on the VC.  NOA even officially translated it and then didn't release it.  The damn thing is ready to go exactly like it would have been as an official NES cartridge.

I never even heard of any music issue with Earthbound until only a few years ago.  I wonder if Nintendo didn't bring it up if anyone would have noticed.  I think the Beatles were involved or something.  As if a geezer like Paul McCartney would have any fucking idea that some obscure niche videogame has sampled his song in some way unless Nintendo themselves drew attention to it.  Is this stuff still an issue with the GBA re-release?  Somehow this game got re-released in the 21st century.  Is it different because it's in Japan?  In theory they could translate the GBA versions of all three games and then release them on the 3DS eShop.

I really wonder if there is some internal political thing in Nintendo about this.  Only the second game got released here and it wasn't very successful so you wonder if some guys in Nintendo thought releasing it in America was a bad idea and they were proven right and don't want to re-release it and risk losing face if it turns out to be successful the second time around.

[Luigi Dude]

Even with the music issue with Earthbound they could release the FIRST Mother game on the VC.  NOA even officially translated it and then didn't release it.  The damn thing is ready to go exactly like it would have been as an official NES cartridge.

I never even heard of any music issue with Earthbound until only a few years ago.  I wonder if Nintendo didn't bring it up if anyone would have noticed.  I think the Beatles were involved or something.  As if a geezer like Paul McCartney would have any fucking idea that some obscure niche videogame has sampled his song in some way unless Nintendo themselves drew attention to it.  Is this stuff still an issue with the GBA re-release?  Somehow this game got re-released in the 21st century.  Is it different because it's in Japan?  In theory they could translate the GBA versions of all three games and then release them on the 3DS eShop.

I really wonder if there is some internal political thing in Nintendo about this.  Only the second game got released here and it wasn't very successful so you wonder if some guys in Nintendo thought releasing it in America was a bad idea and they were proven right and don't want to re-release it and risk losing face if it turns out to be successful the second time around.

None of the Mother games have been released on the Japan Virtual Console either.  This shows that even in Japan there is something internal going on we don't know about regarding this series.  Which is funny because the Japanese version of Brawl had a Mother 2 demo in the Masterpieces section, but it never came to the Virtual Console, making it the only game in that section to not be on the Virtual Console.

So yeah, something must have happened in 2008 that made even NCL have a problem with re-releasing the games in Japan as well.

[Shaymin]

I never even heard of any music issue with Earthbound until only a few years ago.  I wonder if Nintendo didn't bring it up if anyone would have noticed.  I think the Beatles were involved or something.  As if a geezer like Paul McCartney would have any fucking idea that some obscure niche videogame has sampled his song in some way unless Nintendo themselves drew attention to it.

Yeah, the Beatles. And The Doors, and Pink Floyd, and The Who ("Won't Get Fooled Again")...
http://earthboundcentral.com/2009/02/earthbound-legal-issues/

[Chozo Ghost]

They could just do like they did with Punch-Out after their deal with Mike Tyson expired they just made the character white and changed the name to "Mr. Dream" or whatever, but otherwise it was completely identical.

If music licensing issues are a problem, Nintendo can just hire some composers to make some new music and use that as a replacement. How is that a big deal? If we're talking about an NES game its only going to be simple electronic MIDI type music so who really cares?

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't have a source on this handy, but I remember reading somewhere that Itoi doesn't want to do that. If that's true, then I admire Nintendo for not forcing one of its game designers to compromise his artistic integrity just to make a few bucks, even though I've always wanted to play Earthbound and would love to see it on the Virtual Console.

[Luigi Dude]

I don't have a source on this handy, but I remember reading somewhere that Itoi doesn't want to do that. If that's true, then I admire Nintendo for not forcing one of its game designers to compromise his artistic integrity just to make a few bucks, even though I've always wanted to play Earthbound and would love to see it on the Virtual Console.

Yep, it's the creator of the series Itoi who's preventing any changes.  People have to remember Itoi is an actual writer who's critically acclaimed in Japan.  To him, the Mother games are basically books he's written, and so changing the music would be like changing parts of the story in one of his books.  It's like how some writers get angry with adaptions of their books for movies or TV shows, because they have a problem with their work being changed in any way possible.  Even if the adaption is still about 90% faithful, the 10% that was changed will still cause them to get mad.

Since Itoi doesn't want any of his work changed and he's good friends with Iwata, that pretty much guarantees nothing will ever be changed in the Mother games meaning they'll probably never be re-released.  Smash Bros is pretty much the only games people will get any Mother related content from now on.

[MegaByte]

I'd love to see the source. It's not like Itoi wrote the specific music for the game; the story wouldn't be changed.

[Kairon]

I guess if I support Bill Watterson's fight to control the Calvin and Hobbes brand, then I figure I support Itoi's position on not breaking up the "EarthBound" product on the same grounds: creator's prerogative.

[Mop it up]

I thought Itoi said he didn't mind if someone else continued the series, but I don't recall where that was. Or maybe there was just no one else who wanted to.

[ThePerm]

They should just make a spiritual successor. Goonies with psychic powers fighting aliens. I would really like to see a game like that, but with realistic graphics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pcd9VnnXSQ
i remember this trailer and thinking cool, ill get this. Lol, this music doesn't sound original either.

[Mop it up]

They should just make a spiritual successor. Goonies with psychic powers fighting aliens.

Nintendo already have a series like that with StarTropics. And we actually probably have a greater chance of seeing another StarTropics game before we see anything from the Mother/Earthbound franchise again.

[Zup]

Itoi didn't have any problems with the changes made from Mother 2 to Earthbound. The localization isn't the issue. There is definitely something deeper going on than this surface level stuff or it would have been released in Japan (since Mother 1 + 2 and 3 were released in Japan on the GBA).