Josh Miller – Father

Earthbound 64 (Mother 3) – Nintendo 64

I was late to the Super Nintendo. I was a Genesis kid. But as the SNES was on the way out, I was adamant I get one. And one birthday in the mid-90’s, got one I did. It wasn’t long after though that I was suddenly asking for a Nintendo 64, which never happened due to just getting the SNES. But the blame goes on Nintendo Power #94, because they showcased a game I had to play: EarthBound 64.

Around the time that magazine released, I was becoming obsessed with EarthBound. I didn’t own it, but instead had to reatart it an ungodly amount of times thanks to save files being deleted from the Blockbuster copy. Each time I went though, it was the first game I sought out. I had to finish it. I loved it to the point where it became my favorite game of all time (at least until Omori). So seeing there was a N64 sequel coming? Oh my god, I was so excited.

But just like that, poof, never heard from again. That 2-page spread in Nintendo Power was the only time I had seen it until I actively searched for it again years later. IT DID RELEASE! …..

…But as a GBA game reworked from the ground up and it never left Japan. Oof, that hurt.

While no complaint can really be had for the classic that is Mother 3 on the GBA (the sprites alone hold up better than the 64 models would); I still really want to see what EarthBound 64 would have done. While much of what Mother 3 would hit the same story beats, EarthBound 64 was going to be told differently. Instead of 8 chapters over 3 years, it was going to be 12 chapters over 10 years and be a much darker story. We knew certain locations were cut such as The Spectacular Cave and that characters were going to be in the party longer than they were in the final game.

Much of these moments were noted due to the number of magazine spots it received in the original lead-up along with a trailer and playable demo at Nintendo Space World event in 1999. At the time, the game was said to be released in March of 2000, only for it to be cancelled a few months prior to it’s release date.

The game itself was said to be fully playable for the first part of the game and about 60% of the game was completed programming wise. However, the N64 proved more difficult for them to figure out and after originally debating on moving it to the GameCube, decided to instead go with the GBA. However, there are a few copies of the original ROM floating around somewhere though none have surfaced to my knowledge.

EarthBound 64 is such a fascinating game. What was originally planned to be a SNES game would eventually be tossed around multiple Nintendo products only for it to find it’s footing in a GBA release that only one part of the world could legally play. I hope that one day, one of those rare copies of the game find it’s way into the hands of someone willing to showcase it for the world. It would truly be a awesome thing to see.