Itoi’s Message on MOTHER 2 Revival Site

I saw the brief ‘playground’ comment earlier, and it made me think. These days I’ve not really looked at them as somewhere I can play, and I know others do the same. They use it to build and create.

So rather than like a playground, I’d liken it to an old Lego set. An old, maybe yellowing set that won’t always be the same for everyone. Because some people lose pieces and have to replace them. Or people build on them. But at the end of the day it’s the same set, we just all see it differently, and take a different fondness from it.

That’s great! It would be even better if it would be released in the United States, Europe and Australia as well, but this is already great news for the people in Japan.

hoping for US release!!!!

“Fame, wealth, achievements and records don’t mean much. A man lives inside the stories that other people tell when they start with “One time he…” ”

Great line.

Japan needs to show their love for this game… then maybe it can gain movement for a release in NA. Or we can just ask Itoi starightup if he knows anything about that.

Please Mother, come here.

Meh.

@NTL quit acting like a child dude, who says this is not comming to America? you gotta have a sunny outlook in life as Joe said.

I still don’t want to buy a Wii U for this…Why not on the Eshop for the 3DS?

This is just the beginning.

Why not a download on the vanilla Wii? Wouldn’t it make more sense to make this game compatible with the system they just spent 5 years selling to millions of consumers? You know, as opposed to the relatively fewer people who just bought a Wii U a couple of months ago?

@Pokey Means Business
because Nintendo wants it on their home console and are entitled to that. Be happy its being released, don’t just moan over nothing.

@Protoplasm It makes sense in that the Wii will soon be obsolete. In the long run, the Wii U is a better choice as they transition to developing exclusively for the Wii U and 3DS.

@someguy: Certainly not in America, though.

And I agree with DelectaBit, because barely 1,000,000 people bought a Wii U already. Well over 50,000,000 people own a Wii. Also, Pandora’s Tower is still being released this year, so why the heck not?

You misunderstood me. I disagree because Pandora’s Tower is likely to be one of the last big Wii titles released here, and it’s not even a “new” game. Nor is it being brought here by Nintendo themselves, but by Xseed. It’s been out in Japan for nearly a year. Nintendo is no longer developing any more first-party games for the Wii. They’re trying to focus on the Wii U. This really isn’t difficult to understand.

@Arekou So having opinions or feeling disappointed makes me a child because you personally want to feel optimistic? Okay. That’s not pretentious at all.
Think whatever you want, I’m sick of getting my hopes up for nothing. If you want to believe this is going to get a worldwide release, good for you. I’m not trying to force my opinion into anyone and honestly it doesn’t matter, it’s not like our opinions will ever change the fate of this rerelease for the better or the worse, it all depends on Nintendo.

@Ntl Opinions are different from acting like a child, and saying “meh” like an angry kid it’s not an opinion.

Since you interpreted my comment like that I assumed you were referring to the more elaborate post I made on the previous article, but if you were seriously bothered by a simple “meh” then… wow.

Well, that was a lot of build-up for a whole lotta nothin’.

I didn’t care about the re-release project. This message was great though.

Maybe it’s a role reversal this time around? Japan only gets Mother 2, while us in America/EU get all three games?

Ha, well, it’s possible. 😛

I would not count that as nothing. There’s quite the big story behind Mother and the Virtual Console, as it was mentioned as one of the example titles for the Wii’s VC by Iwata back in the day and was rated (as EarthBound) by the ESRB. It’s come quite a long way to be released on the VC (even if it’s only in Japan [for now]) where it was presumably supposed to be since about 2007. Being on there really is something regarding that history, and I personally am glad to see that, as it kindles my hope for it to come to the West. I know that we have been let down a lot of times, but this is the first time since Mother 3 that there’s been a “new” Mother release, like anywhere on the world. So yeah, I would not say it’s nothing. It’s more than we thought or expected one year ago. Hell, if somebody had told me, say, in August 2012 that Mother 2’s getting a VC release in Japan in early 2013, I would not have believed it.

I would not count this as nothing. There’s quite the big story behind Mother and the Virtual Console, as it was mentioned as one of the example titles for the Wii’s VC by Iwata back in the day and was rated (as EarthBound) by the ESRB. It’s come quite a long way to be released on the VC (even if it’s only in Japan [for now]) where it was presumably supposed to be since about 2007. Being on there really is something regarding that history, and I personally am glad to see that, as it kindles my hope for it to come to the West. I know that we have been let down a lot of times, but this is the first time since Mother 3 that there’s been a “new” Mother release, like anywhere on the world. So yeah, I would not say it’s nothing. It’s more than we thought or expected one year ago. Hell, if somebody had told me, say, in August 2012 that Mother 2’s getting a VC release in Japan in early 2013, I would not have believed it.
I mean, I know that this could lead to nowhere once again, and I expect the worst, but it is something. That combined with Itoi’s recent awareness of the western fanbase raised my hopes quite a bit regardless of what happened in the past.

Awesome! At least he’s saying something relatively connected to releasing Mother! I’ve never touched Mother 3 because I promised myself I’d play it when it’s out in America for real!

I just watched the Japanese Wii U Direct, it went over in a little detail about Mother 2. They went over the demo and Ness in Smash Bros. It seems to be a big thing, as the new Miiverse community for Mother 2/Shigesato. (most likely a community) And as some of you know, you can access worldwide communities on Wii U.

I knew it, it’s just Mother 2 VC Japan… Bummer. This kinda sucks 🙁

It’s not fair……it’s just not fair. We don’t get a rerelease or anything, even after Itoi became aware of us. It’s like no matter what anyone does nothing ever changes.

I wasn’t one of the people who was expecting the EarthBound 64 beta to be put on a disc. But I was expecting a rerelease, and after Itoi acknowledged western fans I was hoping for it to be done outside of Japan to. It was fair to expect a rerelease outside of Japan, but we didn’t get one 🙁

People in Japan have another way to play Mother 2 now besides on the SFC and GBA, and I’m glad they do. But what about people outside of Japan? People in the U.S are having to pay $200+ for a copy now, and god knows how much people in UK and other countries have to pay from international sellers on ebay/amazon. So yeah people in Japan have another alturnative besides the fairly cheap ways they already had, and thats good for them. But what about the rest of us? Instead we get Punch-out not even the Mike Tyson version.

I don’t think any edits on the WiiU version of Mother 2 are going to make a difference with a rerelease of EarthBound happening. It seems like they already decited to not rerelease it, and didn’t acknowledge it on the U.S Nintendo Direct because of it. I hope I’m dead wrong with all of this, and EarthBound aswell as EB Zero and Mother 3 get a rerelease outside of Japan. But with the way things look it will probably never happen. It’s really sad to. We all got our hopes up for a Japan only rerelease.

I’m really suprised Itoi hasn’t said anything about westurn fans today on his Twitter. I do think if it were up to him the games would see a rerelease outside of Japan.

before we start to whine, has anybody bothered to ask Mr. Itoi about Mother not being in the US list? just saying.

People are already whining, just look at the comic Mato pointed out, quite funny.

Anywho, I was thinking that too. Just ask Itoi.

There has to be some acknowledgement from the man himself or even from NoA saying something about it.

I’ve been having a bad day, and am not trying to whine. It’s just seeing that this rerelease we’ve been excited about for over a month being Japan only was really upsetting.

The comic Mato pointed out was funny. I’ve been a fan of series for over 10 years, and still I find myself getting upset like new EB fans do.

I sent Itoi two tweets. One in English and one translated in Japanese using Google translator. But he hasn’t responded to either of them, he hasn’t posted anything on his twitter in a few hours. Maybe the next time he logs on he’ll respond to mine or someone elses tweets about the game.

@Porky Minch

Nah, I know what you mean. Some folks just get upset the wrong way. Heck, I’ve been a fan for just one year but it feels like a long time now with reading everything on this site and on starman.

Oh man, I hope he says something in the least.

Hopefully he’ll say something about it when he logs onto twitter again. Hes probably gotten a lot of tweets about it.

When in doubt, email! Remember, be polite and just ask why we aren’t also getting Mother 2 overseas. Enough emails on the subject may get the attention of the people that matter.

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/contact.jsp

I am not angry at this state of affairs. In fact, I was certain something of this sort would happen. But frustration will not right things, and there are greater things to dwell on. A new generation shall meet with Ness, as well as Paula, Jeff, Poo, King, Pokey, Picky, the Mr. Saturns, Dr. Andonuts, the Happy Happyists, the Mani Mani, the New Age Retro Hippie, Everdred, Bubble Monkey, and all the rest of ’em. The old playground has found new feet, and that’s cause enough to be glad.

¬¬’
Boring.

As cool as this is, I also can’t forget to not get excited. It’s possible that this Japan-only re-release is all there is. As much as I want there to be more, by the tone of his big message, it seems like this was the whole thing.

*fingers crossed*

Why not pk tweet at Itoi until he has no choice but to acknowledge our fan base? Imagine hundreds of thousands of tweets.

If you ever want to see anything Mother related released in the US, you’re going to have to really work for it. No half-hearted letter writing campaigns like Operation Complainfall,

@2sang: But he’s already acknowledged the fanbase. Tweeting Itoi won’t do anything, I know he’d like us to be able to to play it as well. If you tweet anyone about it, it should be the real ones in charge of this situation. NintendoAmerica

Mato what do you think the chances of this being released in America are?

@delecabit
That might be a good way to show our presence & blow off some steam. Does the regginator have a twitter?

Even though I wasn’t expecting it, I was hoping for a Nintendo 3DS EarthBound trilogy/remakes, but that would obviously be too good to be true. I actually thought maybe an edited EarthBound would have least tried to make it’s way on the NA/PAL Virtual Console, but after the looks of today it seems that NOA will ignore the game for the rest of it’s days.

If it’s not coming out in NA then I don’t care. It’s already been rereleased in Japan before.

Just got this response from a email I sent to Nintendo this morning. Don’t know if it was a pasted type email they send to everyone asking about Mother/EarthBound or not. But thought I’d share.

“It’s always great to hear from passionate Nintendo fans! I can definitely understand why you want to see the Mother/Earthbound series released in the Americas. Unfortunately, I can only reiterate what we’ve stated before, we have no plans to release them in this market at this time for any of our systems,.

I realize this is disappointing, but your comments have been documented and made available for other departments here to use as they see fit.

Sincerely,

(name removed)”

It’s more personal than most answers. I guess that’s something.

Maybe it’s a fan?

Here’s a pretty funny fake article about the Mother 2 VC release: http://www.p4rgaming.com/?p=1059

‘So, now that you can play MOTHER 2 to your heart’s content.’

Pass the sick bucket.

@anonymous thats the same response to the letter, that i received last night. Seems they have an automated response prepared for us.

they’ve probably been sending that same response to any email mentioning earthbound for years

They sent me the same response like that when I asked about it two weeks ago.

Do you think anything can be done to make us get a rerelease?

Same message for me. I responded by posting this in their customer satisfaction survey: “I refuse to buy a Wii U or any further Wii U products. I was previously intending to buy more than at least 15 retail Wii U games, as well as buying several digital games. Now, due to my dismay with the lack of a Earthbound/Mother rerelease outside of Japan, I intend to instead invest my money in a PC. I will be very glad to change my mind at such a time when the entire Mother/Earthbound series, or at the very least Mother 2/Earthbound, is rereleased. Until then, I am now bitter against NOA.”

Maybe if everyone does something similar they might take us a little more seriously…

I sent a message to Nintendo, mine was a bit different (I’ll translate since I got it in portuguese):

“We know that would be excelent tell you that EarthBound was announced for Wii U Virtual Console and give you a release date. But unfortunately nothing was announced nor even mentioned about it, from us or our partners, so we can presume the product doesn’t exist yet”.

The first part was the same all of you got. Well, the “yet” part can give us some hope – at least I want to believe that…

It would be great if there’s an event in march for the release because I will be in Tokyo during that month!

Some of guys are getting upset over nothing.

Let’s see if the re-release has any minor edits which seem to reflect the legal conflicts, if they do there’s a rather great deal of hope for a US release.

Ugh… To know if it is going to be released you just have to compare the japenese and american nintendo Direct.
Japan:
Balloon Fight
MOTHER 2
Kirby’s Adventure
Super Metroid
Yoshi
Donkey Kong
America:
Balloon Fight
F-ZERO
Punch Out! Featuring Mr. Dream
Kirby’s Adventure
Super Metroid
Yoshi
Donkey Kong
It’s sad but true.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t coming here. It just means it isn’t going to be a part of the Famicom anniversary promotion.

Yeah I guess.. but still.
Alot of people are getting excited that about it saying that it is going to come here.

That’s because it is

Nintendo’s biggest mistake is not programming in a gift buying option with the Wii U in the same way they did with the Wii (the 3DS also lacks this option).

Let’s all face facts. The majority of us all own the original game on the original hardware. Buying the game again might be appealing to some here, but a lot of us won’t buy the rerelease for ourselves, except maybe to promote interest. What we WILL all do is buy the game, perhaps multiple times, to send as gifts to all manner of people we know who never had the game but we think would be interested.

I would snatch up Earthbound and send copies to some of my friends and my youngest sibling in a heart beat if I had the ability to. With the Wii, I did just that with Super Mario RPG, Secret of Mana, and even the horribly translated Breath of Fire 2, and my youngest sibling adored those games. Nintendo is missing a big opportunity not allowing gift giving in their system.

Aah, aah, this is EXACTLY my sentiments on Mother 2! I played the game just a few years ago, recommended by a friend. I only vaguely knew that it was made by a guy named Itoi and he was some sort of writer… but when I got to Dungeon Man and all his signs, I said to myself, “Ah! So this is who Itoi-san is!” In particular I love one sign that asks you to keep it in mind; a few hours later in-game I realized I had done nothing with it… except to keep it in mind, exactly like it had asked. Nobody places any importance on the day-to-day “rubbish”, but it really makes up 90% of our time and shapes us as people, you know?

I wonder, with his new-found awareness of Western fans, if Itoi would put in a good word for us for a US release? 🙂

http://www.change.org/petitions/nintendo-of-america-nintendo-of-japan-nintendo-of-europe-rerelease-the-earthbound-mother-series-to-all-regions-outside-of-japan

Please feature this Earthbound Petition on your website so we can get as much attention for it as possible!

You know, to the people outside of Japan, this feels kinda insulting.

I’m actually really excited this game is being revived at all. It has been A LONG time since the GBA ports and the GBA M3 release that Mother got any sort of treatment since then. Remember that one tweet where Itoi thanked starmen? He is actually recognizing us and thanking us for our support towards his games and merchandise. I personally think he will see to having the games localized.

Look at games like Xenoblade, Last Story, and the recently announced NTSC Pandora’s Tower. Theses were set to be Japan and Europe only but NoA eventually allowed them to be localized into our market. If those games made it, why can’t this revived version of M2 too?

Think about it, NoA has been more lenient these days. Sure its not a guarantee, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen either.

Look, it’s Miitoi!

If Nintendo mever rereleases it, oh well. There’s always emulation an original SNES carts. It’s not as if the game if impossible to play. Sometimes I feel the whiners and complainers forget this.

That said, I too am a bit disappointed that there is mo word on a US release date yet. Oh well! Life goes on!

(typing from iphone, sorry about the bad spelling 😉

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGOEMCG2Ll4 When you’re planning petition for MOTHER 1/EarthBound Zero and MOTHER 3/EarthBound 2 on Wii U Virtual Console in USA , Europe and Japan ?

I can make this before you step by step of course .

http://www.change.org/petitions/satoru-iwata-shigesato-itoi-mother-4-earthbound-3