It is no secret that Nintendo of America had to make some serious editing choices (read as censoring) when they decided to bring Earthbound (Mother 2 for those in the know) to North America.  There were more than a few things that had to go before English gamers could enjoy this game.  Things like obvious pop culture icons, references to other games (Nintendo doesn’t like to give credit unless they have to) and graphics had to be changed a bit here and there.  With the PK MaternalBound Σ, gamers will be able enjoy this beloved game the way it was intended by Shigesato Itoi (even the Virtual Console release is heavily censored).

While not all of the censored elements are returned in this patch, a great many are.  What the team at the Starmen forums have done here is uncensored the original North American release, not re-localize it.  They also claim that there is no swearing in this hack so if you were comfortable letting little gamers enjoy the original, they can play this too.  Depending on their understanding of “retro” culture they may, or may not, find the game as enjoyable as they may something newer.  That is your choice though.

Depending on your interests there are a couple of title screens available in different patches.  This allows you to pick the one that best suits what you know as Earthbound, and gives a slight uniqueness to your copy.

Over on Retrocollect they have a great rundown on the differences of the original North American release and the Japanese original.  Head over there, check their article out and make the jump to a much more detailed feature.  It might just make you an Earthbound fan, if you weren’t already.

This is a ROM hack, just like every other fan translation we have featured, so that means you will probably have to illegally download a copy of Earthbound (we cannot help with that part of this process).  That is a small problem for fans though.  Head over to the Starmen forums to grab your translation patch.

Source: Starmen forums via Retrocollect and ROMHacking.net

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams