Earthbound

EarthBound, originally released as Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushū in Japan, is a role-playing video game co-developed by Ape and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. Both releases have semi-alternate titles identified in the game's attract demo: EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! for EarthBound and Mother 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back! for Mother 2. It was designed by Shigesato Itoi, who also developed its predecessor, the Japan-exclusive Mother. EarthBound was released in Japan on August 27, 1994, and in North America on June 1, 1995 as a stand-alone title. Despite the poor sales figures, the game has been lauded by gamers for its humorous depictions of American culture and parody of the role-playing video game genre, and has since become a cult classic. A sequel to EarthBound for the Nintendo 64DD, titled EarthBound 64, was in development for many years before finally being canceled. This project eventually resurfaced as a Game Boy Advance title called Mother 3 and was released only in Japan. Like Mother, Mother 3 has only a loose connection to EarthBound, starring new characters, though it does include several returning characters. A collection of Mother and EarthBound was released in Japan under the title Mother 1 + 2.