October 16th, 2019 | EarthBound, Interviews, Itoi, MOTHER 1, MOTHER 2, MOTHER 3, 日本語 | 18 Comments

Arino Kacho played MOTHER 2 on a recent string of Game Center CX episodes. Shigesato Itoi visited him while he was playing on day 2 and they had a little interview session. Read the interview here! Some topics of interest include: Itoi naming Ness silly things like “Peepee” and “Panties” when he plays the gameHow the two-hour “dad call” influenced ...Read More »

October 17th, 2018 | EarthBound 64, Interviews, Itoi, MOTHER 3, Rumors, Uncommon Knowledge | 6 Comments

Today is the 10th anniversary of the MOTHER 3 fan translation. To commemorate, Mato wrote a huge article documenting the cycle of hope, hype, and disappointment that surrounds the demand for an official MOTHER 3 translation from Nintendo. Some fans have been on this rollercoaster ride for 23 years and counting. For older fans, this article is a strange, funny, and heartrending trip down memory la...Read More »

September 22nd, 2017 | EarthBound, Itoi, Merchandise | 12 Comments

Each year, there seems to be more and more EarthBound (well, MOTHER 2) merchandise in the Hobonichi Planner shop. This year there are four new covers for the original A6 planner, a new Weeks cover, and a Mr. Saturn card case: #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img...Read More »

July 27th, 2017 | EarthBound, Itoi, Merchandise, MOTHER 1 | 9 Comments

My busy schedule has kept me from EarthBound-related news lately, so here’s a bunch all at once! Disney is for MOTHER 3 Last month there were two “Localize MOTHER 3” signs at wrestling events and then a plea to localize MOTHER 3 on TV via Adult Swim. This month one of Disney’s official Twitter accounts posted a similar request: Waiting for that Mother 3 localization like ...Read More »

February 9th, 2017 | Itoi | 11 Comments

After about 20 years, Shigesato Itoi’s company, Hobonichi, has applied to become a publicly traded company. If everything goes well, its expected to list on the JASDAQ market in March. It’s believed the change is intended to break free from the company’s casual “some guy’s small business” image and reputation. The company’s current growth looks good, and a...Read More »

November 14th, 2016 | EarthBound, Itoi, Uncommon Knowledge | 10 Comments

I’ve been going through lots of old game magazines lately for my Legends of Localization work, and there’s a lot of old MOTHER 2 info in there. I cover a lot of it in my EarthBound book but here’s something that I found in a magazine I got last week: (Click for larger pic) This was from April 1994, about four months before MOTHER 2 was on store shelves. Almost every screenshot h...Read More »

June 5th, 2016 | Images, Itoi | 6 Comments

The guys at Fangamer recently flew to Japan for a company trip, and many Fangamer friends went along too, including good ol’ Stephen Georg (aka xfis). During the trip they visited the office of Shigesato Itoi’s company, Hobonichi. And, just as they were leaving, they encountered the man himself! Itoi posted about the encounter on Twitter too: こういうメンバーだったんで�...Read More »

May 10th, 2016 | EarthBound, Itoi, Videos | 8 Comments

The guys behind “Gaming Show [In My Parents’ Garage]” recently posted a video that involves EarthBound’s creator, Shigesato Itoi: This is pretty cool, and I especially like how Itoi played along with the silliness of it all. ...Read More »

January 31st, 2016 | EarthBound 64, Interviews, Itoi, MOTHER 3 | 23 Comments

Last year, during the special MOTHER 2 event I assume, Nintendo Dream interviews Shigesato Itoi about a number of different topics, including MOTHER 3, the Nintendo 64 version of the game, fans outside of Japan, MOTHER 4, and more. Nintendo Dream: I see. Even though Mother 3 hasn’t been released overseas yet, they know about Lucas from SSB… Shigesato Itoi: But recently when I heard from foreig...Read More »

November 28th, 2015 | EarthBound, Interviews, Itoi, MOTHER 4 | 14 Comments

Fellow translator Jason M. just finished translating Shigesato Itoi’s most recent interview about the MOTHER series – you can check it out here! This is the same interview where he talks about why he’s not going to make any more MOTHER games, his thoughts on Iwata’s passing, his musings on the series’ popularity outside of Japan, and more. It’s an excellent rea...Read More »