Wednesday, February 02, 2011

This ain't your Mother's game ad

This rather epic, if a bit corny, commercial was used to promote Shigesato Itoi's Mother (aka EarthBound Zero) prior to its Japanese release in 1989.



After spending some quality time with the game over the last week, I can't help but think about how it would have fared in the US--had it been released in, say, 1990 or 1991.

Given its all-American hero, setting and story--not to mention its humor--I have a feeling it would have sold better than Nintendo of America's marketing execs believed at the time.

5 comments:

Viewtiful_Justin said...

And Mother 3 would have done even better...what a heartwrenching game that is...

Bryan Ochalla said...

Oh, don't even get me started on Mother 3. At least we can play it through emulation, right?

NOA is so confusing sometimes. You'd think that with all of the money they made with the NES and the GameBoy, for instance, they would have been more willing to take a chance on games like the original Mother and Mother 3 (or the first Rhythm Heaven/Tengoku).

Admittedly, timing was an issue, too, but that's not always the case. Just look at what they've done with games like Last Window and Tingle RPG for the DS and Another Code: R, Disaster and Zangeki no Reginleiv for the Wii.

Why they decided to pass on releasing these and similar games in North America is beyond me.

Viewtiful_Justin said...

Yeah...it's a sad state when sequels and shovelware sell so well that new IPs and original ideas don't get to see the audiences that would truly appreciate them.

RetroKingSimon said...

Yeah, it makes me laugh when they justify releasing all the same old crap by saying "it's what the public wants, they wouldn't buy it otherwise"... we don't have any choice, it's all there is to buy!!

Bryan Ochalla said...

My feelings exactly, RetroKingSimon. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we get the games we do get, but I'd love if it they'd give us some of those niche releases, too.