Runaway Five

Runaway Five

EarthBound, originally released as Mother 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back (MOTHER2 ギーグの逆襲, Mazā Tsū: Gīgu 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. The game was released as Mother 2 in Japan on August 27, 1994, and rebranded as EarthBound for its June 5, 1995 North American release. Despite its 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 later 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. The game was rereleased on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan on March 20, 2013 and will be released for North America and, for the first time, Europe, in late 2013.