MOTHER-like games, with Twin Peaks Sprinkled on Top

The graphic artist commissioned to make EarthBound's localized box art just found the original prints in storage

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https://x.com/eSleeps_/status/1771038245540753803?s=20

https://youtu.be/sMpWMSUZwV0?si=9FqnCRkVchE0GVY8

oddly very appropriate

https://youtu.be/m4FzFOWNVYs?si=FxVnkw8g9_jlgJpW

No way
Now this is huge
https://twitter.com/ShintaKameoka/status/1781634683769704905
also see replies.
the art style much more resembles Magical Vacation, but also shows the transition from the inconsistent 3D artstyle to what it looked like in 2D before the extremely consistent Mother 2-like style we know today.

I feel like I’m the only one who has pointed out the amount of Brownie Brown which bled into Mother 3 after the switch to GBA. This really shows how much it looked like Magical Vacation and Sword of Mana for a bit.

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just for those to whom this is not immediately obvious, iykyk
it is clear to me that at the very least these have the exact same vibe

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i would suggest FRANKEN by Splendidland. its free and on PC. i’d say its closer in vibes than gameplay. great music and very charming characters all round

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Splendidland is an old friend who took queues from my own art back in the day, I haven’t played much of their stuff but I’m sure it’s splendid.

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This is super charming. It looks like these guys nailed their tone and visuals, and are taking it in their own direction. Rooting for them.

Demo’s coming soon too

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this is so cool! super rare photos released. look, that’s hip tanaka with a SFC controller in his hand! he only worked on two or three super NES games total!

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Keyboard player in keiichi Suzuki’s band for the Music of MOTHER broadcast is wearing a twin peaks sheriffs department cap.


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well we got new footage of tanaka playing bass. adding to the collection of photos of tanaka playing bass in the 70’s.
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in fact the bass is similar to the one in the first photo. I’m not into guitars enough to know what they are called. I’ll ask the nearest dad.

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disclaimer - i am not a dad just an insufferable guitar-knower

this looks like a Kay or Harmony or something. cheapish guitars from the 60s

maybe a steinberger headless guitar/bass guitar? they were popular with jazzfunk crowd in the 80s afaik

looks like a mustang bass. possibly a jaguar bass but i’m leaning to mustang

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very on-brand for your username thank you

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  • Keiichi Suzuki is the Jerry Garcia of video games
  • Hip Tanaka is the Bob Marley of video games-

[Edit]: I’m joking. keiichii Suzuki is obviously the randy Newman of video games.

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New trailer for Dreamtone. This wasn’t on my radar before but the character design and pixel art looks great!

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It’s fucked up imo that Mother 1+2 GBA didn’t have a music player like Mother 3 did.
In general, I feel like the potential for MOTHER on GBC and GBA was squandered. Mother 3 was where all the hype was in 2003/4/5, and people were kind of overlooking how dope mother 1+2 is.
look at all these people on reddit regretting how much they shit on the soundtrack:
https://www.reddit.com/r/earthbound/comments/qh4zwz/is_earthbounds_gba_soundtrack_that_bad/
I remember how everyone wrote it off.
I always disagreed. the chippification they did for mother 2 on GBA was actually hittin’ much of the time. it’s not SONY sample quality like mother 2 originally was, but the chippy, often 8bit approximation they did was awesome! at times, it sounds like what a GBC port could have sounded like.
Still some of the coolest tunes to ever come out of a GBA speaker.
Now when I replay Mother 2, it’s often in Japanese, on GBA.
it’s also quite a shame the mother 2 side never got a fan translation. Dope as hell that we got one for the mother 1 side though.
it’s getting harder to find the original rips that aren’t upsampled. but I like the hiss.

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Double post.
I think the thing that makes the term MOTHER-like very different from other “genres” like metroidvania, roguelikes, soulslike, etc. is that so much isn’t tied to gameplay, and so much is tied to writing, tone, etc. that the majority of self proclaimed motherlikes that come out still don’t fully understand the original work they are imitating. It’s like trying to make an animation a ghibli-like, or a film a lynch-like. The other example genres have very clearly defined gameplay, and you can work within those restraints to do whatever you want. Gamers tend to understand mechanics more than nuanced writing, so they very easily focus more on the superficial aspects of the game, much in the same way twin peaks fans will hyperfixate on the cherry pie.

basically:

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I’ve been saying this for years. I’m not gonna log on to the internet and be rude towards a bunch of passionate fans and talented creators, but this was my main takeaway from that recent Mother Direct. There were so many ROM hacks featured that just stripped away the truth and personality of these games for the sake of “upgrading” or “completing” them. “Quality of life features,” they call it… Sometimes I see the way MOTHER fans behave and wonder what it is about the games they even like at all

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I made this thread in the hopes that those kids will see what they are missing.

I am not exclusive, exclusionist, gatekeeping, but I also do not find these kids MOTHER content to be appealing.

There have been times where I incidentally make contact with younger fans who are members of the community. I try to guide them.

Despite that, I’m always at risk of sounding like a jerk talking about it.

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I think the reason I feel I “just get it” and some people don’t, is because to me, mother is a lifestyle…

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