In a mind blowing surprise announcement, Nintendo has revealed that Mother, now Earthbound Beginnings, is finally coming to the West – TONIGHT.
Every year, my mother encouraged us to go through our toys, pick out what we didn’t play with, and donate them. “They may be old to you,” she’d say, in all of her infinite wisdom. “But they’ll be new toys for another little boy or girl.”
Today, Nintendo is giving those in the West a new-old toy: Earthbound Beginnings, aka the original Mother, will be coming to the Wii U Virtual Console tonight at 6pm PST, 9pm EDT. The release was announced as a surprise kick off to the Nintendo World Championships event, mere days before the Nintendo presentation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
Mother was originally released in 1989 for the Famicom, Japan’s NES equivalent, and today marks the first time the title has made its way to North America.
“Hello, everyone overseas. I am Shigesato Itoi. Today I have some somewhat happy news for you.” Itoi, the Earthbound series creator, continued “This is a work that had never been released overseas despite being created long before Earthbound, but it will now be released in both the Americas and Europe under the title Earthbound Beginnings. It will be released as a Wii U Virtual Console Game.”
The decision was made to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the SNES version of Earthbound, which was actually Mother 2.
If you missed the announcement video, you can watch it below.
Fans on Twitter have responded in a huge way. “Earthbound Beginnings for the WiiU Virtual Console tonight? Better grab a parka when you pass away, because Hell certainly is frosty as f..!” one user wrote. “Earthbound Beginnings has killed all of my excitement for watching the Nintendo World Championships. I just wanna play 8-bit Earthbound.” another user chimed in.
