Published 2009-05-17 6:00PM by Connor Beaton
Welcome to the twenty-second part of zConnection’s 100 Games To Play Before You Die, where we will be giving you a low-down of the 100 games (in no particular order) that any self-respecting gamer must play before their personal “Game Over”. From Asteroids to Half-Life, Bust-A-Move to The Longest Journey, expect to see a few familiar faces… and a few unfamiliar ones.
Mother is perhaps better known amongst Western gamers as EarthBound Zero, the name given to the unofficial translation released by ROM hacker organisation Demiforce. The game was never officially released outside of Japan, making it yet another fantastic NES title that never saw the light of European release.
This, however, hasn’t stopped it becoming an amazingly popular game with many idiosyncrasies and cultural references. The game spawned a sequel, which was released internationally, under the title EarthBound; unfortunately, the third game, which was released relatively recently on GameBoy Advance, has still not made a Western release, meaning only one of the franchise’s games has officially been released. Nevertheless, Ness and Lucas, protagonists from the franchise, have still managed to find a place on the character roster of every instalment of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. fighting game series, and a place in many gamers’ hearts.
Mother revolves around the tale of a 12-year old boy called Ninten (Ness in later instalments; see the Nintendo reference yet?) whose house is being attacked by paranormal events, which apparently includes stationary objects, including lamps, becoming violent and attacking the player. This is caused by an alien race called Starmen invading. Ninten must employ the help of Lloyd and Ana, similarly aged kids who agree to help, in order to learn the Eight Melodies, which they must sing in order to foil the Starmen’s plans.
On that note, we conclude the twenty-second part of our article. Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the next part!
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