Nintendo might never announce a new Earthbound. It certainly seems intent on never releasing the sequel, Mother 3, in the West. But at least a fan remake of the first game in the trilogy might finally see the light of day. EarthBound Beginnings Remake is a ROM hack that recreates the first game using the 16-bit look of its SNES successor.
Released in 1989 for the NES, Mother had never officially been localized into English until it came to the Wii U virtual shop as Earthbound Beginnings. It plays very similarly to Earthbound, with some shared locations, enemies, and story beats that loosely connect the two adventures. It’s also never had the vibrant pixel art or level of gameplay polish that its successor had.
EarthBound Beginnings Remake is a ROM hack that attempts to remedy those shortcomings by recreating the adventure inside EarthBound. As Time Extension reports, however, it’s been a long and difficult road to get there. The project was started back in 2007 and has changed hands and gone dark several times since. But there’s finally a new 2025 trailer showing off the progress fans have made, with a promise for it to be complete by sometime in 2026.
“I have been following this project since I was in middle school,” wrote one fan on YouTube. “All the time through high school, college, and what’s happened since, I had been checking in on this every now and again. There were many years where I didn’t believe it would be finished. I cannot wait to play the final product. Earthbound Beginnings is my favorite game in the trilogy, so to see this fills me with so much joy.”
The new trailer was released on the original game’s 36th anniversary. An entire exhibition on the series recently opened in Tokyo as well. And Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi recently opened a side-shop dedicated to new merchandise for the series. Just $230 will get you this incredible set of Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo, and Mr. Saturn figures.
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