Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings Coming Today to Nintendo Switch

After years of heavy fan demand, Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings are coming today to Nintendo Switch Online. Fans have wanted to see the two games released on the service for years now, and the announcement finally came during today’s Nintendo Direct presentation. While the news was certainly welcome, it did not come as a complete surprise. Director Shigesato Itoi sent some cryptic Tweets a few hours ahead of the show, ramping up speculation that some kind of announcement would be made. Now, long-time fans and newcomers alike will have the chance to check out the first two games in the series!

For those unfamiliar with the Earthbound games, they’ve had a pretty strange history. In Japan, the series goes by the name “Mother,” where there have been three releases since 1989. The second game, Mother 2, was the first one released in North America, where it was given the name Earthbound. That game released in 1995 on the Super Nintendo. The game failed to find much of an audience outside of Japan, but its main character, Ness, would return just a few years later as one of the first unlockable characters in the original Super Smash Bros.

In 2006, Nintendo released the third installment in the series, Mother 3. That game never received an official localization, but there have been fan translations over the years. In 2015, Nintendo surprised fans of the franchise with the release of Earthbound Beginnings on Wii U, the first official translation of the original Mother game. After 26 years, fans in North America could finally play the first game in the series!

Now that both of these games are officially coming to Switch, it will be interesting to see if Mother 3 ever gets released on the platform. Earthbound fans tend to be pretty passionate in general, but Mother 3 has a devoted following, and people have been begging to see the game on Switch. A localization might seem unlikely after all these years, but the same argument could have been made about Earthbound Beginnings! Perhaps one day all three games will be available on one platform.

Are you looking forward to playing the Earthbound games on Nintendo Switch? Do you think we’ll ever see Mother 3 localized? Let us know in the comments or share directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!