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Anonymous05/14/26, 05:14No.12570685
When did this game actually become as popular as it is? I swear before Smash nobody knew what an Earthbound was or that it was a localisation of a Japanese series of games called Mother.
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Anon05/14/26, 05:18No.12570691
I honestly want to say Smash was a big reason it blew up, that it really is that simple.
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Anon05/14/26, 05:28No.12570707
Smash came out in 1999 but the real big Mother craze didn't start until the late 00s, along with the retro craze.
I think it was a sum of factors, Smash is one, but also Mother 3 english translation patch and the fact people were willing to play older games more than during the early 00s
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Anon05/14/26, 11:35No.12571219
It was absolutely because of Smash. Smash is also the only reason Fire Emblem was ever released outside of Japan.
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Anon05/14/26, 17:30No.12571868
>before Smash nobody knew what an Earthbound wasNintendo Power talked about it plenty. That is how I learned of it. I played a rented copy of it. It was fun but I didn't love it enough to ask for it for Christmas or whatever.
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Anon05/15/26, 03:47No.12572645
I knew what it was. I played it as a fifth grader. Didn't know it was a port of a game called Mother until some hipster who found the game from playing college smash told me all about it's hidden meanings in like 2011. If the abandoned 64 port was actually released after FF7 (when I think western consumers "woke up" to jrpgs) it might have done serious numbers and been a real phenomenon... to say nothing of Mother 3's lack of success.
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Anon05/15/26, 04:15No.12572684
Smash had little to do with it imo but it helped with some visibility. It was just too ahead of its time and it took culture 15 years to catch up. Even if it was partially superficial and nobody played it as much as signalling that they like it to fit in
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Anon05/15/26, 11:33No.12573082
Playing Smash Bros. in the early 2000s none of my friends had any idea what the fuck Earthbound was or who Ness was. We thought he was just a weird random character, and the Earthbound stages were weird and retarded too, it didn't give us any insight into Earthbound it just made us vaguely aware of its existence. It wasn't until the later 2000s that people started actually playing the game itself (via emulation, in my case) because people started talking about it on forums. I think Smash contributed only marginally, it had more to do with emulation becoming more accessible and the retro gaming fad of the time.
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Anon05/15/26, 11:43No.12573096
What are you asking? When it became popular or when people knew about it? If it's the latter, you can blame NP magazine with their bizarre "this game stinks" ads.
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Anon05/15/26, 17:12No.12573674
Why is it so hard to fathom that it blew up in popularity when its characters were featured in a highly popular game series?
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Anon05/15/26, 17:46No.12573747
Online fandom and things like Retronauts got the ball rolling. Ness being featured in Smash was a big part of it too.