Mother/Trivia

MOTHER 1

 * Fan Nickname: The game is widely known as "EarthBound Zero". Its North American release was canceled at the last minute, and the Dub Name Change title, Earth Bound, was later reused, albeit without the space, for the SNES sequel MOTHER 2. When a prototype of the game was discovered and dumped, after a few modifications to get it to work properly on the emulators of the day, the releasers tacked "Zero" onto the title screen to differentiate the release from the nonfunctional ROM releases, also acting as a nod to it sharing the name of its sequel, and the name stuck.
 * Fan Translation: At the time of the discovery of the English prototype, a group of fans had been working on their own fan translation; eventually, they were the ones who obtained the prototype and released the ROM to the general public, and for a while there were those who saw that as somewhat suspicious. Full story here.
 * There was also a Fan Translation of the MOTHER 1 portion of the Game Boy Advance Compilation Re-release MOTHER 1+2 that brings the text more in line with the original Japanese version, such as making all the towns named after holidays, as well as renaming Giegue to his proper international name, "Giygas" in order to tie it in with its sequel better.
 * No Export for You: The NES version is a particularly interesting case - it was complete and ready to go, then it simply didn't happen, likely because it arrived at the end of the NES's lifespan. The GBA version could be because of the legal issues said to doom the franchise's western presence, but it could simply have been out of lack of perceived interest; word has it from Nsiders and Clan of the Gray Wolf that one of STARMEN.net's famous call-in campaigns made Nintendo consider localizing it, but since the campaign was only a week long and they didn't hear more about it afterward, they assumed there wasn't really an interest in localizing it and decided not to.
 * Word of Dante: The live-action commercial's depiction of Ninten is the basis of a vast majority of fanart of this game - adopting his neckerchief and slightly different clothing here as a way to differentiate Ninten from Ness, who is by far the more famous wearer of their standard clothing.

MOTHER 2 / Earthbound

 * Beam Me Up, Scotty: Giygas never actually said "I feel... h...a...p...p...y...", although many people quote him on this. He said "I'm h...a...p...p...y..." and "I feel... g... o... o... d..." but he never actually said "I feel... h...a...p...p...y...".
 * Crack is Cheaper: This is really all there is to say on the matter. Once more for emphasis: The game's CARDBOARD INSERT was put up for over $100.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: One of the most infamous and bemoaned examples in gaming, generally attributed to being mired in legal issues as a result of background music with blatant samples of The Beatles, Our Gang, and Ric Ocasek, and an enemy that was inspired by the work of Salvador Dali. As a result, even used boxless copies of the game go for astronomical prices on eBay.
 * No Export for You: None of the MOTHER games have been released in Europe. And of the three MOTHER games, only this, the second, was released in the US, and even then only once.
 * The GBA compilation containing this game and its predecessor was only released in Japan, despite the fact that the original version of one game previously had a North American release while the other had a complete English translation that was only scrapped due to the age of the system it was on. As above, there was a brief consideration of releasing it in America, which didn't pan out.
 * It should be noted that while for MOTHER a straight script-dump from the NES prototype to MOTHER 1+2 would be possible, the same could not be said for Earthbound. After the release of the MOTHER 1+2 partial fan translation, in which the Earthbound half went pretty much untranslated, Tomato discussed why he wasn't going to do the Earthbound half properly: because both are so densely and strangely programmed, in completely different ways no less, that it's pretty much impossible.
 * Screwed by the Network: One of the most egregious cases in gaming. Only one third of the entire series ever made it to American shores, and the infamous marketing campaign ("this game stinks" was the marketing slogan) likely put a dent on sales. Even in Japan this seems to be the case; there it's even stranger, since several Nintendo bigwigs, including president Satoru Iwata, were directly involved in the game and are still tight bros with Itoi, so it can't be that that Nintendo of Japan at least are deliberately screwing the game over.
 * Word of Gay: Tony, confirmed by Itoi here.

Mother 3
Despite its extensive previewing at various Nintendo and game events, it never got very far. It was stuck in Development Hell for a very long time, and Shigesato Itoi was, not being very knowledgeable about computers, very ambitious with the project.
 * Development Hell: The game started out as being a Super Famicom game shortly after the release of Earthbound, and was then moved to the N64DD, then the N64, then delayed several times until finally being canceled. It was ultimately revived for the GBA.
 * Marth Debuted in Smash Bros: Infamously, Lucas debuted in the West in Super Smash Bros Brawl and with him brought a truckload of spoilers to casually sling around as if it doesn't matter, including . This did not amuse a large number of fans.
 * No Export for You: Damn it, Nintendo.
 * To put it in perspective, Lucas is the only playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl that hasn't had his/her game released outside of Japan.
 * Brownie Brown has stated that if this game ever gets a rerelease, they will attempt to avert this trope.
 * Urban Legend of Zelda: Using the silver dragonfly item against Negative Man is said to yield an extremely rare and valuable item.
 * What Could Have Been: MOTHER 3 started life as a Nintendo 64 title, which was rather widely previewed and received significant press attention both in Japan and internationally, and Nintendo of America seemed pretty dead-set on giving it an international release. DCMC was originally supposed to have a female vocalist, and Kumatora's outfit was surprisingly more Stripperific; most of the cast's appearances and clothing were fairly different. Ness may have been set to appear in it, or perhaps Lucas was intended to look identical to him much as Ness was identical to Ninten. The N64 game was also supposed to be a lot Darker and Edgier - mostly due to the fact Itoi was suffering from depression at the time. This version of the game was widely called Earthbound 64 by both Nintendo and gaming press, so more often than not it's still called that in discussions to differentiate it from the released GBA version.
 * One of the most famous sequences from the 64 version which didn't make it into the GBA game was a sequence where Claus and Lucas rode a cart through a mine shaft.
 * Not even the Game Boy Advance version is free of this trope. Some sprites were found with in a different machine and some of those sprites of him in that machine when put together make a glass shattering animation which looks like his defeat was different from the final version which could mean that you originally were able to kill him off before they changed it to where.
 * also had unused sprites showing . There's also unused boss music and backgrounds showing.