Tag Archives: Earthbound

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Has Passed Away

In what could be be described as sudden and profoundly saddening, Nintendo has announced that its current president, Satoru Iwata, has passed away. They explain in a very short message that his death was due to a bile duct growth. He had surgery to remove this growth last year, which concerned many since it meant that he would skip out on last year’s E3. Upon his return, it seemed like everything was fine and that the surgery was a success. That is until today when Nintendo told us the news. According to their “Notification of Death and Personnel Change of a Representative Director (President)” (PDF) document, Iwata had actually died last Saturday, July 11th, and waited until today to fully confirm the news and relay the message to the public.

Continue reading →

Earthbound Out Now On Wii U Virtual Console

Leave a reply

In their latest Nintendo Direct (Mini) presentation, Nintendo announced that the release of Earthbound had narrowed down to a specific date. That date: NOW! Yep, Nintendo has gone and released Earthbound to an unsuspecting public on the Wii U Virtual Console. On top of this, Nintendo has also made the original, larger than normal Player’s Guide available for viewing online. And yes, you can see the whole guide. You can view the guide right here. While it might look strange viewing it on a computer now, it’ll look just fine on a Wii U gamepad.

Earthbound was originally released on the SNES in 1995. Sadly, the game did poorly sales -wise despite a somewhat massive advertising campaign and positive critical reception. This lead to Nintendo not releasing anymore Earthbound material outside Japan, including the much requested Earthbound 2 (Mother 3) on the GBA. Interest grew for the game after Ness’ (and Lucas’) appearance in the Smash Bros. series, alongside the established cult following the game garnered. Due to its rarity and its absence on other platforms outside of the SNES, prices for the original game, both boxed and cart-only, would range from as low as $200 to as high as $1000. There’s even a website dedicated to getting Earthbound at a price you can afford.

Earthbound is now available on the Wii U Virtual Console for $9.99

Nintendo Direct Mini 7.18.13 [Youtube]

The Wired Fish Podcast S4 – Episode 8

Leave a reply

A pretty big Nintendo Direct happened recently, and in this episode of The Wired Fish Podcast, we talk about it.

Continue reading →

Earthbound Is Now U.S. Virtual Console Bound!

3 Replies

Sorry for the pun, but it had to happen. Late this morning, Satoru Iwata in the latest Nintendo Direct announced that Earthbound will be headed to the North American Wii U Virtual Console by the end of this year. This news came as a result of North American fans practically bombarding the Mother 2 Miiverse with pleas of a U.S. release when it launched in Japan in March.

Earthbound (known as Mother 2 in Japan) was a commercial flop when it launched back on the SNES, leading Nintendo to ignore markets outside Japan whenever games in this series popped up. This also lead to Earthbound 2 (aka Mother 3) never getting launched here either. However, the series has gained a passionate cult following, clamoring for some kind of release in this series. It also helped that Ness, the main character of Earthbound, was something of a mainstay in the Super Smash Bros. series and helped give exposure to the game he came from (like Marth and Roy for Fire Emblem). Some, including myself, want to get into this game to see what all the hubbub is about. Unfortunately, the asking price for the cartridge alone is well into the $100+ range online. Maybe those assholes can lower the price now.

No word yet if the music will be changed since many fans believed it was the many music samples that prevented a re-release in the U.S. But now, more of the U.S. can finally play an RPG that some call one of the best RPGs of all time.

[via Nintendo Direct 4.17.13 around the 23:13 mark]

The Wired Fish Podcast S4 – Episode 6

Leave a reply

Ahoy Fellow Fishes to another Wired Fish Podcast! In this episode, look back on the Skullgirls Indiegogo campaign and get hyped up for its success. Not only did Skullgirls meet many of its goals, it also meant that Mane6, the developers of the C&D’ed Fighting is Magic, get to use the Skullgirls engine for their new fighting game. After that, we delve into the small, niche, and indie gaming scene and wonder how these guys are doing so well compared to the AAA scene.

Timestamp of contents after the break.

Continue reading →

Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: 12 Days Of Christmas

Leave a reply

Night-Time Listenings 29

Well then, Christmas came and went this past Tuesday. Hopefully you got the gifts you wanted. And hopefully this article goes up in the supposed apocalypse. For 12 Days, we listened to music that was played on snow levels. Some of the games featured are Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man Legends 2, Xenoblade, Odin Sphere, Final Fantasy X, and more! So curl up next to your favorite gift! It’s time to look back at the 12 Days of Christmas Music!

If you want to see the music as it goes up (and not wait every Saturday for these wrap-ups), remember to go to our Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM.

Continue reading →

Pages: 1 2

Top 10 Hard Rockin’ Nintendo Songs

Leave a reply

Back when videogame music was still bleeps and bloops, it was hard to really make a song that sounded, well, like a familiar genre. Some managed to attempt certain genres (like what we’ll cover today), but overall many just focused on making memorable melodies with the tools they had available. Then as the generations progress and improved, so too did the sound capabilities. Familiar genres could be heard as early as the SNES (and some NES). With Nintendo themselves, they stuck with what they did best: memorable melodies and happy tunes. Of course, they would venture off into some Space Opera-like themes with Star Fox. But a majority of the music made by Nintendo consisted of Jazz arrangements (PilotWings), easy listening (Sim City), or pop-y (most Mario games). With this light-hearted reputation, it’s sometimes a surprise to hear Nintendo come out of nowhere with a rock song in a game, and it freakin’ awesome every time. So sit back and get ready to bang your head, it’s Top 10 Hard Rockin’ Nintendo Themes.

Continue reading →