MOTHER (Famicom)

MOTHER (マザー) is a role-playing game developed by Ape Inc. and Pax Softnica and published by Nintendo and released for the Family Computer on July 27, 1989. It was Nintendo's sole Famicom release of 1989. The game was planned to release for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America as Earth Bound but was cancelled and wouldn't see a release until 2015 for the Wii U Virtual Console under the name EarthBound Beginnings.

Gameplay
You play as the 12-year old boy, Ninten, who leaves his hometown of Podunk to realize his powers of PSI. Along the way, he is joined by stereotypical nerd Lloyd, kind-hearted psychic Ana, and gang leader Teddy (though all four are able to be named whatever the player chooses). Similar to other RPGs of the time, Mother utilizes random encounters. If Ninten takes a certain amount of steps, the game transitions to a battle, where an enemy is displayed. Enemies can be defeated using PSI or items, or can be ran from. If the enemy is defeated, all party members are granted EXP, which increase each characters levels, allowing for new abilities and increase in stats.

Other Releases
The game was a smash hit in Japan, prompting the release of a sequel on Nintendo's upcoming Super Famicom console. The success of the sequel, Mother 2: Gigu no Gyakushu (known as EarthBound in the West), as well as the positive reception of the player character of Mother 2 being included in 1999 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. led Nintendo to release the compilation title Mother 1+2 on the Game Boy Advance in 2003 in Japan only. It later saw its first English release in 2015 via the Wii U's Virtual Console under the name EarthBound Beginnings. Both Mother and Beginnings were also rereleased on the Nintendo Switch Online service in 2022.