Bon Voyage, Amigo

News & Editorials

Itoi’s Childhood Story, New Hobonichi Merch, & eShop Closed

Tonda Gossa! This is Kody NOKOLO back with another Mother Forever Almost Monthly News for April! A lot of new information has come out, and my feature for this month is centered on new info I’ve found about Itoi’s childhood from a biography published by Hobonichi. Watch it in video form or read it below.

Oates Interview

In February 2023, one of the Motherlike game developers that showcased their project in the Mother Direct, Oates, released their new game, Sorry, We’re Open.

After getting hooked on the game and eventually completing it, I asked Oates a few questions about their experiences with MOTHER and the making of Sorry, We’re Open.

MOTHER Was Always a Trilogy?! – Itoi Guidebook Interview

A few months after the first MOTHER launched, in September 1989, publisher Shogakukan sold the MOTHER Strategy Guidebook filled with lots of fun art of the characters that you can find on our MOTHER Guidebook Art page and a walkthrough of the game. Thanks so much to Biozilla for sending in the scans of this book! You can find the complete scans on the Internet Archive. Shigesato Itoi was interviewed for this guidebook and revealed more details about the first game’s characters and plans for the whole series.

Website Updates, New Scans, M4E at PAX East, & MOTHER 3 Area Concept!

Tonda Gossa! This is Kody NOKOLO back with another Mother Forever Almost Monthly News for February! This month was packed! Watch it in video form or read it below.

First, did you know our website hosts a game now? I managed to get MOTHER: Cognitive Dissonance running a web-based version of the program EasyRPG, and thanks to the help and permission of the game’s director, Otherhand, I made it playable online right now! Play it now on your computer or phone at mothercogdis.com, and check out our page for the game to learn more about it!

And speaking of our website, I’ve been making some updates there too.

News & Editorials

Thanks for reading!

After five years of regular updates, whether they were through articles or videos, I just announced that we’ll be winding down Mother Forever’s updates during Mother Direct 2024. Watch the part where I explain that for more information on it!

MOTHER 3 On Switch Reactions & GNOMONIC Updates!

Tonda Gossa! This is Kody NOKOLO back with another Mother Forever Almost Monthly News for February and March! Watch it in video form or read it below.

Well, it finally happened: MOTHER 3 is now available on Nintendo Switch Online. Of course, it’s only in Japanese, but you can download it by any region just by either creating a new Japanese account to access their store or by changing your own account’s region.

I Met Two MOTHER Devs in Japan!

Tonda Gossa! This is Kody NOKOLO back with another Mother Forever Almost Monthly News for November! This might be the biggest news month all year! Watch it in video form or read it below.

First, it’s that time again, Mother Direct submissions are now open until the beginning of January! Send in your fan project, ROM hack, or Motherlike indie game applications to be a part of it whwn it airs next July. I hope I can bring you all a Direct that can celebrate 35 years of MOTHER. These Directs over the past few years have been tons of fun! I love meeting the artists behind each of the projects every year, and I’m sure it’ll be fun to put this year’s together. For anyone that isn’t interested in Mother Direct, but has an indie RPG on Steam, applications are also open to ALL indie RPGs for our Steam event called RPG Direct 2024!

Any Direct themed merchandise from this year is still available too, and all profits support Child’s Play Charity!

Aaron Cargile Interview

A conversation with Aaron Cargile: EarthBound, USA’s Archival Producer. Interview conducted by Thane Gaming, transcribed & reworked for Mother Forever. They talk copyright & fair use (in YouTube and in film), Fangamer, and the EarthBound fandom! Aaron Cargile’s opinions are his own, and not necessarily representative of Fangamer.

New MOTHER Scans & Post-Mother Direct!

Tonda Gossa! This is Kody NOKOLO back with another Mother Forever Almost Monthly News spanning summer through October! Watch it in video form or read it below.

First, if you haven’t yet, go see the Mother Direct!! It released on July 27th, MOTHER‘s 34th anniversary, and I think it was the best show yet. I’m not sure if it’ll be topped next year, but I’ll try! Speaking of next year, sign ups for the next Mother Direct will begin by December.

Mother Direct 2024 will be celebrating MOTHER‘s 35th anniversary, so I hope to put something together that can really show how far we’ve come as a community, even if the announcements can’t live up to the high bar from this year.

Itoi’s Childhood Story, New Hobonichi Merch, & eShop Closed

Tonda Gossa! This is Kody NOKOLO back with another Mother Forever Almost Monthly News for April! A lot of new information has come out, and my feature for this month is centered on new info I’ve found about Itoi’s childhood from a biography published by Hobonichi. Watch it in video form or read it below.

Pages of the Day

MOTHER 2 Art – Guidebooks

In MOTHER 2 / EarthBound, you can find different renderings of the game’s style in the formatting of its guidebooks, and even a considerable amount of art in one of the books. MOTHER 2 Instruction Manual EarthBound Player’s Guide Read the EarthBound Player’s Guide Download? Unfortunately we can’t host the entire EarthBound Player’s Guide. Luckily […]

Super Smash Bros.

Super Smash Bros. is a series originally created by Masahiro Sakurai and HAL Laboratory for the Nintendo 64 on January 21st, 1999. The series has continued on every Nintendo home console platform since then under the direction of Sakurai, with its most recent release being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch. The game […]

Related Communities

Check out these communities related to our work on Mother Forever!

GNOMONIC

A Motherlike RPG featuring characters that know you're playing, a watercolor-paper place called The Shade, and Relics holding melodies of the past.

Learn more here!

MOTHER Encore

A remake of the original MOTHER featuring new mechanics and areas to explore that revitalize the MOTHER experience. Demo available now!

Learn more here!

MOTHER²

A fan made project with the intention of remastering MOTHER 2, complete with several new quality of life improvements, additional balance fixes, side-quests, items, and more.

Learn more here!

EarthBound Beginnings Remake

A hack by Gabbi that remakes EarthBound Beginnings within the original EarthBound, mimicing what the actual developers would have done if it was remade on the SNES.

Learn more here!

EarthBound Dimensions

An experimental fanmade reimagination of EarthBound/MOTHER 2 in 3D!

Learn more here!

MOTHER: Cognitive Dissonance

The first fully fledged fan entry to the MOTHER series that details the time between MOTHER and MOTHER 2.

Learn more here!

MOTHER 4

A fan-made sequel to the MOTHER series, following a group of teenagers and their road trip across a rose-tinted America.

Learn more here!

Mother To Earth

A documentary about the never released NES version of MOTHER that was cancelled before release in North America. A full hour and a half feature long story of the game that eventually became known as EarthBound Beginnings.

Learn more here!

EarthBound USA

A documentary where American teenagers connect on the early internet to crusade for their favorite videogame of all time, pitting their fan site against a corporate goliath and their own looming adulthoods.

Learn more here!

Starmen.net

The original MOTHER resource... Do not underestimate them.

Learn more here!

EarthBound Central

A website filled with MOTHER information, secrets, and findings by Clyde 'Tomato' Mandelin. Loads of resources, interviews, and other material can all be found there.

Learn more here!

MOTHER Party

A Japanese MOTHER community that posts updates about the series and hosts fan events.

Learn more here!

EarthBound Cafe & WikiBound

A MOTHER community created for Italian-speaking MOTHER fans, and developers of Italian fan translations. They also developed the Italian EarthBound encyclopedia: WikiBound.

Learn more here!