Franchise: Earthbound

When Contact released its first teaser materials in Japan, some EarthBound fans believed the teasers to be for Mother 3, due to the presence of a doctor who strongly resembles Dr. Andonuts from EarthBound, drawn in a similar art style.

Monolith Soft, known for the Xeno series, had approached Nintendo in 2003 with a pitch for an EarthBound sequel, intended for the GameCube. The game was designed as if it were made of arts and crafts, similar to Kirby's Epic Yarn and Yoshi's Woolly World, and was supposed to be set in America during the 80's.

The meeting for this new EarthBound game was arranged by Nintendo's then-CEO Satoru Iwata without Shigesato Itoi (EarthBound's creator) knowing about it. Despite Itoi not knowing about this project, it's unclear what led to the cancellation of the game.

In EarthBound/Mother 2, the sound that plays after naming a character is actually the voice of Shigesato Itoi saying "OK desu ka?", which the sound designers recorded and then added in at the last second without Itoi's knowledge.

The sound clip is used again in Mother 3.

"MOTHER", the series's Japanese title, was inspired by the John Lennon song of the same name. Series creator Shigesato Itoi chose this name because he could heavily relate to the lyrics, which deal with Lennon's experiences growing up without a father. This theme is addressed in the first two entries in the trilogy, where Ninten and Ness's fathers are unseen, appearing solely as voices on a telephone. Itoi also felt that the title "MOTHER" was especially fitting, as the series was more feminine than other RPGs.

The Earth in the series logo is actually the famous "Blue Marble" photograph of Earth flipped upside down. Interestingly, the original photo itself was upside down. It was rotated 180 degrees so it had the same orientation as our maps, making it easier for us to identify.

During development of EarthBound 64, Shigesato Itoi thought about making a Mr. Saturn spin-off action puzzle game, but this never materialized.

While proposing Mother, Shigesato Itoi had a bit of a rough patch. He had been interested in working with games for a while, and when he first pitched the premise for Mother, Shigeru Miyamoto was skeptical, as several Japanese celebrities had already put out some pretty terrible Famicom games. Though Miyamoto's hesitation reportedly made Itoi cry on the bullet train back home, he understood Miyamoto's decision in retrospect.

Shigesato Itoi first founded Ape Inc., the company that worked on EarthBound's predecessor Mother / EarthBound: Beginnings. Ape Inc. later reformed as Creatures Inc. with the help of Satoru Iwata. Ape Inc. worked on EarthBound, and later helped Game Freak develop the Pokémon series as the reformed Creatures Inc. Their influence can be seen in Pokémon. The main villain in Mother, Giygas, has a battle sprite that resembles Mewtwo. He also has a mental power called PSI. Additionally, there's an item in EarthBound called "Bag of Dragonite." There is also a Pokémon named Dragonite.