Western fans of the Earthbound/Mother franchise have had a rough couple of decades, from the original NES game that was translated and never saw an official release until just a few years ago, to the cancelled Nintendo 64 project, and the unlocalized Mother 3… Well, maybe one day we’ll get that one. Now it turns out there was another project that never even got off the ground, and it was pitched by an unlikely source – Namco.
Former Namco developer Yasuyuki Honne, who now coincidentally works at Nintendo subsidiary Monolith Soft, shared his memories of pitching an Earthbound game for the GameCube in light of the recent announcement of a book focusing on the writings of Satoru Iwata. As detailed in the tweets below, with translations via Nintendo Everything, Honne went to Nintendo to pitch the idea with artwork in 2003.
岩田さんの本が楽しみ。岩田さん、糸井さん両名同時にお会いしたのは、2003年当時のナムコ、任天堂からゲームキューブ版マザーの話が出た時。喜んでビジュアル画を作り青山に行くと、岩田さんも同席。糸井さんあまり乗り気でなくて、変だなと思いつつ話をすすめていると糸井さんが感づいた。続く↓
— 本根 康之 (@honnesan) July 10, 2019
続き→糸井さん『どうせ岩田くんが話仕組んだんでしょ』。一同ポカーン。岩田さん、アチャーな表情。結局話は流れちゃったけど、私が持ち込んだフェルトテイストで80年代米国を再現する絵回りのアイデアは糸井さんも面白がってくれた。二度と表に出ないと思う絵がこれ。2003年夏の思い出。 pic.twitter.com/AzvFgqNGoi
— 本根 康之 (@honnesan) July 10, 2019
Unfortunately series creator Shigesato Itoi apparently didn’t seem too interested, but he asked for Iwata’s thoughts, who was apparently flabbergasted.
Three years later Nintendo would release Mother 3 in Japan, wrapping up the franchise, but we can always imagine a world where Earthbound came back in full force with a strange new artstyle on the GameCube!
Leave a Comment
Written by Tom Brown
Whether it’s an exciting new entry in a series long established or a weird experiment meant only for the dedicated, Tom is eager to report on it. Rest assured, if Nintendo ever announces Elite Beat Agents 2, he’ll be there.
