Earthbound's precursor lands on Wii U as Earthbound Beginnings

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This announcement stinks! I mean that in the complimentary 90's way of course, because Nintendo just announced Earthbound Beginnings - the first official western release of the original Mother game - for immediate release on the Wii U virtual console in North America and Europe. Good lord, that's the mother of all announcements!

While this may not seem like much to those who haven't been following the Mother saga since its inception in the late 80s, this is a huge break for Western fans after decades of Nintendo giving them to cold shoulder. The original Mother was released in Japan in July 1989 and a North American version was fully localized, but the company neglected to release it, citing a lack of commercial viability. While fans were eventually able to see the original Mother for themselves through a hacked rom known as Earthbound Zero, it lacked the prestige of a future release and showed a lack of interest with Earthbound on Nintendo of America's part for years to come.

Ashley Reed
Ashley Reed

Former Associate Editor at GamesRadar, Ashley is now Lead Writer at Respawn working on Apex Legends. She's a lover of FPS titles, horror games, and stealth games. If you can see her, you're already dead.