Do you think anyone would care about Mother if Ness never made it to Smash?
Probably at least some, though I checked out that Earthbound ROM way back in the day because I heard it starred that psychic kid you could unlock in Smash, and I thought the game was pretty cool for being so different from all other RPGs I knew.
Eventually, yes. People cared about a JP-only game like Moon enough for them to be convinced to bring it overseas a few years back, there 100% would have been ecelebs making nostalgia videos about Earthbound and bringing attention to the series.
>>12033246Yes, because the game itself has merit, but it definitely wouldn't be the cultural phenomenon it became. It would be a quaint hidden gem.
>>12033246Realistically very few people would've discovered his game in the west if it weren't because of Super Smash Bros. Earthbound sold poorly outside of Japan.
>>12033257white people only care about moon because toby fox said it inspired him.
>>12033325I think people would still have discovered it through emulation as they go through listings, but Smash certainly helped it out.
>>12033343True.
I got into the series thanks to Keiichi Suzuki and Moonriders, so I would care at least
>>12033343nta but I do agree, that's how I discovered some of my favorite games on the SNES like Pocky and Rocky, but also despite people like PBG and Projared talking about it and its recent sequel, it's hardly a game everyone knows (or at least to the extent Earthbound is).Know jack shit about his history so I don't know how Toby Fox discovered it (my introduction was through Smash so I can't comment on myself), but obviously he's a genuine fan who would have made Undertale as he did as long as he had played Earthbound, so I'd wager the modern circlejerk around it would be the exact same. Like >>12033338 said, people like to follow the inspirations of things/artists they like.
>>12033246I got Smash when it came out, but I was 12. My friend and I hadn't unlocked Ness, we had no idea who he was or had ever heard of Earthbound (never released in PAL) The fucker told me that Ness was an Nintendo Entertainment System with eyes, arms and legs. Seriously. It made sense at the time.
I've literally never played a Smash game but still got interested in games like Mother and Kid Icarus so I guess at least some people would care
>>12033343scrolling through sites like emuparadise and snesorama is how i found so many games i'd never heard of that i grew to love, i imagine it's a pretty common experience
>>12033246I was already interested in it because of the huge box and ads, plus my older brother telling me about the RPG that takes place in modern America. I would've tried it on an emulator someday either way, considering I've played most major SNES RPGs. As a Nintendo game, it would have more people trying it than most other SNES RPGs I'm guessing. But yeah, more of a hidden gem than it is now. Smash brought a lot of attention obviously.
>>12033246Not to the degree where the loose earthbound cart would sell for 300 dollars in 2010. Considering its uncommon at best It probably would have been a much more reasonable 70-80 dollar game back then
>>12033246Not really. If anything, nobody really cared about the series until Mother 3 got its fan-translation.
>>12033528It's how I found Wild Guns back in the day. Never heard of, but the title sounds good, and holy shit, this game is actually amazing! One of my most favorite SNES titles to this day.
Would anyone care about fire emblem if it weren't for smash
>>12033982there wasnt even fire emblem to care about internationally when marth and roy were put in smash, its pretty clearly no.
>>12033982Awakening made people care about the series, not smash
I had it when it came out and loved it. If I had skipped it I probably would have emulated it anyway, hell I still play random snes rpgs when someone drops a new translation
>>12034031You know some diehard somewhere was like "Wait, Fire Emblem? I know that anime!"
>>12033246This is a very stupid question when you consider hundreds of thousands of people have played at least one MOTHER game before Smash was even conceived. The cause and effect here is backwards. MOTHER got rep in Smash Bros. because people cared about it, not the other way around.
>>12034065No it was a niche franchise that only got in because Sakurai is friends with Itoi
We didn’t get everyone just reporting/advertising the same shit in every outlet back then. So I’m not saying this is a universal experience, but with the big push from Nintendo power I never considered this wasn’t a popular or failed game until like the 2000s when people younger than me started getting into it. But you hold a gun to my head in 1998 and tell me to name on obscure snes game, something like secret of evermore would have came to mind before earthbound.
>>12034068That and the never-ever N64 title that was Mother 3 at the time. Since every single character except Samus was shilling an N64 game.
>>12034075People lose perspective on what "Earthbound under performed" actually means. Earthbound did not sell poorly. It sold over 100,000 copies. That's more than the overwhelming majority of SNES games. It sold poorly for a Nintendo game, not in general.
>>12034104Nice. I knew this game was a winner.
>>12033246People would not care about FIre Emblem if not for Smash.
>>12034038Man that game ruined it for me
>>12034460Why? As someone who started with GBA fire emblems I thought it was epic as fuck
>>12034496Just didn't like it. And then everything that came after was even worse
>>12034075>>12034104I think it also doesn't help that it wasn't even released on the European markets, so that segment of the gaming population didn't really see the game until later.
Not really, even though I and several other kids I knew owned it or played it in the 90s.I even explained his provenance to one non-RPG-playing friend group one night during a sleepover that involved playing Smash and eating weird shit from 7-Eleven that they don't have anymore (ice cream stuffed fruit, for example). Since said friend who hosted the sleepover lived just down the street from the Sev, we'd go out through the basement/garage door, grab snacks and head back to his house to throw various Nintendo characters off of platforms inexplicably floating in the air using other Nintendo characters.
>>12034509I'm sorry you feel that way
>>12034509The final battle is epic as fuck, much better than the nameless dragon from 7
>>12037740>>12039502Ok
>>12033246It'd definitely have a way smaller fanbase. Earthbound flopped in America and didn't even release in PAL regions.
>>12033246no. I know this because better games have been forgotten and/or have much smaller fanbases. Hell even within the series nobody gives a shit about mother 1
i dont think it wouldve made much difference. jrpgs got incredibly popular in the 2000s and of course everyone pored over the snes library. the game is unique and stands out.
>>12039618It's not but I'm glad you distance yourself
>>12039637definitely a shame a lot of people look over MOTHER 1. It may be old and a little jank at points, but it overall has this different kind of energy to it I really fuck with
>>12033246Yes because its a unique and entertaining game with a heartfelt story and surreal script that people tend to remember and talk about.
