Everyone knows that Earthbound has some godly music, and we've all recently come to discover that Mother 3 is no slouch in this department, either. But what about the first Mother, AKA Earthbound Zero? Sadly, this is the one game in the trilogy that's almost always overlooked; it may be the least fun to play out of all three Mothers, but the soundtrack by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka helped lay the foundation for some of Earthbound's best tracks. American gamers had no idea back in 1995, but the sleepy, heartwarming music of Ness' house is a direct callback to one of the overworld themes of the first Mother; makes sense, given the connection with childhood homes and nostalgia.
The greatest--and at the same time, strangest--thing about the first Mother is without a doubt its Japan-only (duh) soundtrack. Instead of putting out the simple NES tunes on a CD, the producers went one step further by creating "complete" versions of Suzuki and Tanaka's songs with full instrumentation and lyrics. I'm not going to lie; most of these lyrics are pure Velveeta straight out of the late 80s--but at least a native English speaker is singing them. Embarrassing or not, these songs give us a peek into an alternate universe where Mother was a Disney musical instead of a Japanese 8-bit video game.
And notably, two of the OST's songs are far more sweeping and epic than any Celine Dion Titanic single could ever be. In order to show you just how mindblowingly awesome this soundtrack is, I now present "Wisdom of the World," which, along with "Eight Melodies," is one of Mother's best songs. Try not to giggle at the sexual subtext in the lyrics:
And, in case you want to hear the original 8-bit tune, here it is:
In closing, click here for a version of the song that, while beautiful, may scare the pants off of you.
Related Links:
The Reason Why Mother 3 Never Came to America
"Have You Heard the News? He's Gay!"
What I'm Playing This Weekend: Mother 3. Doi.