How to get into Nintendo’s EarthBound series in 2026, and which order to play in
By now, it’s no secret that EarthBound is one of the greatest JRPG series of all time. It’s also no secret that if you don’t live in Japan, there’s no legal way to play the third game in a language you can read. You might’ve seen Ness in Super Smash Bros. or something similar, and want to get into the EarthBound series for the first time. So how do you do that? Well, the intended order of the series is EarthBound Beginnings, EarthBound, and then Mother 3, and players who have Nintendo Switch Online can access the first two games no problem. But we actually don’t recommend playing EarthBound Beginnings first – here’s everything you need to know about the best order to play the games in.
Don’t play EarthBound Beginnings first
The biggest piece of advice I can offer players looking to get into EarthBound for the first time: play EarthBound Beginnings last, not first. If you go into this game as your first in the series, you’re going to have a rough time. EarthBound Beginnings is rather primitive and incredibly grind-heavy – so much so, in fact, that the last area of the game supposedly was not even play-tested because the developers ran out of time. Moreover, though, EarthBound Beginnings isn’t good at giving the player a clear direction on where to go next. Without a walkthrough, you’ll spend much of your time wandering around aimlessly running away from random encounters every five seconds, which probably isn’t the best first impression of the series. With a walkthrough, you’ll still spend a lot of time wandering around aimlessly running away from random encounters every five seconds, but you’ll at least be doing it in the right direction. EarthBound Beginnings does have some neat story points, but the game as a whole is very outdated and would be a fantastic candidate for an official remake. While some of this may sound negative, if you’re wondering why you should give the game a chance, we suggest checking out this page.
By skipping this title and going straight to EarthBound, you’re not missing out on too much. EarthBound definitely isn’t a retelling of Beginnings, but the two share a lot in common. For one, Ninten and Ness look very much alike, and both collect eight melodies. EarthBound’s antagonist also has additional backstory in Beginnings, but you can just as well look that up and save yourself playing through the game if you don’t think you can get through. Overall, EarthBound Beginnings has a ton of potential, but in the end, the grind-heavy battles are probably going to deter a good amount of players from ever finishing the game. Which is a shame, because it does have some high points too.
EarthBound’s game names, explained
In Japan, EarthBound Beginnings is called Mother, EarthBound is called Mother 2, and Mother 3 is (shockingly) called Mother 3. Outside of Japan, Mother was planned to release as “Earth Bound”, and the translation was fully complete way back in the 1980s, but it never wound up seeing an official release for the NES because RPGs weren’t anywhere near as popular in America as they were in Japan. Mother 2 did wind up releasing outside of Japan, however, and because it was the first game in the series that most countries got, it was simply called “EarthBound”. Mother 3 never released outside of Japan, as many know, so it doesn’t have an official “EarthBound” title. However, text within EarthBound actually refers to Mother 3 as “EarthBound 2”, so maybe that’s what it would have been called if it had released in America.
In 2015, Nintendo released the original Mother in all countries as EarthBound Beginnings, using the English translation that had been completed decades earlier. For a time, this led fans to wonder if they’d give Mother 3 the same treatment, but this never happened. Mother 3 has never received an official English translation – only the very good fan translation – which means Nintendo would either have to translate the game themselves, or work out a deal to use the fan translation themselves. Both of these outcomes are unlikely, and Mother 3 includes many mature themes (many of which are now closely related to politics in one way or another) that they probably wouldn’t want to address in a modern game release. All of these factors make it very unlikely that Mother 3 ever receives an official release.
How to play Mother 3
The most “official” way to play Mother 3 outside of Japan would be to purchase a reproduction cart on Etsy or something similar. I personally feel like the game plays better on official hardware (even if it’s something like a DS Lite) than on an emulator. In this game, battles incorporate a rhythm system where you can get extra hits if you time your button presses to the beat of the music playing. I’ve played through Mother 3 on an emulator and on official hardware numerous times, and I always found this much more difficult on an emulator for whatever reason.
Of course, buying a reproduction cart on Etsy still doesn’t support the developers in any way. If you want to do that, EarthBound actually has a surprisingly robust merchandise scene over at the Hobonichi Mother Project. They have plushes, pins, blankets, figures, and pretty much anything else you can possibly think of. If we can’t support the developers by playing the game, might as well do it by buying merch! And on the off chance that Nintendo somehow releases their own translation of Mother 3 one day, it’d be good to support that as well. But again, that’s extremely unlikely.
Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime previously shared information about what was happening behind-the-scenes with Mother 3 and how it was once considered for western release, possibly going the digital route. We have much more on this here.
