Earthbound Super Nintendo SNES Complete In Box Nice

EarthBound / MOTHER Games

EarthBound Cartridge

EarthBound carts are rare these days, and boxed versions are even rarer. They seem to go up in value by the year. Even at used game shops, EarthBound is rare and expensive. Your best bet to find one online is eBay or Amazon.

Find EarthBound Carts - Search eBay - Check Amazon.com

MOTHER 2 Cartridge

This is the Japanese version of EarthBound, and it's much cheaper and easier to find than EarthBound is. You can get a cart for $10 in some cases! Incidentally, 99% of the text is in katakana and hiragana, almost no kanji at all.

Find MOTHER 2 Carts - Search eBay - Check Play-Asia

MOTHER Cartridge

This is the game that started it all. It's semi-rare, but isn't nearly as expensive as EarthBound can be. You'll probably need a convertor to play it on a non-Japanese NES.

Find MOTHER Carts - Search eBay - Find Converters

MOTHER 1+2 Cartridge

A GBA compilation of the first two games. These carts are common and reasonably priced. They come in two varieties: the original release and the "Value Selection" that came years later. The only difference is the box art.

Find MOTHER 1+2 Carts - Search eBay - Check Play-Asia

MOTHER 3 Cartridge

MOTHER 3 carts aren't being made anymore, so they'll soon start to rise in price and rarity. Even though the text is Japanese, a lot is conveyed simply through the game's direction. 99% of the text is in hiragana and katakana.

Find MOTHER 3 Carts - Search eBay - Check Play-Asia

MOTHER 3 Deluxe Box

A limited-edition MOTHER 3 release. It includes the game, a custom MOTHER 3 GBA Micro, a Franklin Badge, and other stuff. Rare and understandably pricy. Full pic here.

Find MOTHER 3 Deluxe Boxes - Search eBay - Check Play-Asia

EarthBound Prototype

Only a few of these are known to exist. They're believed to be review copies and thus virtually identical to the final version, but there might still be some minor differences. More details he

Find EarthBound Protos (cross your fingers) - Search eBay

EarthBound Zero Prototype

Only two of these prototypes are known to exist outside of Nintendo of America. Both are extremely expensive whenever they show up on eBay. Info and history here.

Find EarthBound Zero Protos (luck be with you) - Search eBay

EarthBound NES Cartridge / Reproduction

Sometimes people slap the EB0 ROM on NES carts with fan art labels and try to sell them for lots of money. They just want to make a quick buck and often don't care that the ROM has anti-piracy stuff that can (and likely will) brick the cart. Beware.

Here's what can happen.

Super Smash Bros.

The original Smash Bros. game for the Nintendo 64. Ness is a secret, unlockable character, and helped introduce many players to EarthBound years after EB had disappeared.

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Super Smash Bros. Melee

The GameCube classic! This not only made Ness even more famous, but it also included a ton of EarthBound content like stages, trophies, and songs. It definitely gave a huge boost to the EB community!

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Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Featuring tons of EarthBound and MOTHER 3 stuff! This time, both Lucas and Ness are playable characters, and there's a ton of related content here. This game also helped introduce many people to MOTHER 3.

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Ordering from Japanese Sites

I've included links to places like Amazon Japan and Yahoo! Auctions Japan (YAJ for short), but ordering things from these places can be kind of tricky.

Amazon Japan: Ordering from Amazon Japan isn't too bad, but you might be scared by all the Japanese text at first. But fear not! On most Amazon Japan pages is a link you can click that will turn a lot of the site's text into English for you. The other thing you'll need to know is that 1. Amazon Japan can't and won't ship games outside of Japan and 2. if you're ordering a used item, not all sellers will ship internationally. But otherwise Amazon Japan is a cinch to order from.

Yahoo! Auctions Japan: This is an absolute treasure trove of MOTHER merchandise. Sadly, it's not very convenient to use if you're not in Japan. Most sellers won't ship outside of Japan and will probably be freaked out if you ask them a question in English. If you're not in Japan and don't know Japanese, then you'll need to use a service like Celga that will bid on stuff for you and then ship you the stuff once they receive it.

 
 

Recent Comments

  • MechaMutoh: I wonder if there is a Mr. Saturn figurine.
  • PK Mudkip: @LucasTizma That’s how it usually is here…until the source of the problem goes away.
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  • Labrynian Rebel: Not everyone should (or would like) to have to learn Japanese to play a game.
  • chaobreeder20: @Jungyin I don’t know how it would play honostly,but it’s the by the way it looks like it would play that gives me that...
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