Because I wasn’t familiar with this project before, and it took a bit of digging on the website to find out, and OP seems to think everyone knows already… this is a project to remake the NES Earthbound game (Mother 1) to the SNES, by means of romhacking SNES Earthbound (Mother 2). It also comes with a bunch of bug fixes to that engine, and they provide a separate patch file you can use to fix the regular Earthbound game without turning it into the Mother 1 remake.
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2026
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Thanks for the sum up, that does sound cool!
Thank you. The website was so vague and op just assumes everybody just knows this obscure title. And it is obscure. I only learned about this games existence from the avgn episode.
OP gives a brief description in their post, and I don’t see that they’ve edited it! I was unfamiliar as well, but now it’s on my must-play list!
oh my god, that website almost caused my heart to stop because of the intense late 90s angelfire/geocities vibe in the design.
I am in fuckin love.
I found some cool sites on neocities too. I do miss the vibes.
Same, dude. Same.
That era of internet was special, more special than any that has followed.
If I have never played Earthbound, should I start with the OG game or this remake?
Edit: Complete overhaul of my reply.
In short, this is a Remake of the first Mother 1 game on the NES, but using the modern Earthbound (Mother 2) engine on SNES. So you want to play the original instead. However they provide a second Romhack titled Giygas Strikes Back. I am not sure, but if I understand correctly this is not a Remake, but its EarthBound (Mother 2) with only bug fixes and quality of life improvements applied. If so, maybe this is the ultimate version to play instead the original game. Below is a sum up to the best of my knowledge and understanding.
Original Releases
Famicom / NES | Mother 1 (1989) | EarthBound Beginnings (2015, Virtual Console)
Super Famicom / Nintendo | Mother 2 (1994) | EarthBound (1995)
Mother 1 is the original first entry in the series on the Famicom. It is released only in Japan, 1989. Much later in 2015 game was first time officially released in English in the US as EarthBound Beginnings on the Wii U Virtual Console.
Mother 2 is the sequel on the SNES 1994. It was also released in the US in English. Because no other game in the series was released prior, they didn't want to name it "2" and changed the title to EarthBound in the US in 1995.
Romhacks
EarthBound Beginnings Remake is a Romhack / Mod of EarthBound on the Super Nintendo. This is a remake of the first game from the Famicom / NES, using the modern engine on the Super Nintendo.
And when I understand it correctly, the second Romhack that is included here named EarthBound Giygas Strikes Back just contains all the bug fixes and improvements, but is not a Remake. So this is basically EarthBound with bug fixes. But I'm not 100% sure.
The only changelog they provide is https://ebbr.neocities.org/EBGSB_changes and titled List of all changes in the quality-of-life patch, EarthBound: Giygas Strikes Back!. But I could not find changelog for the Remake. I'm as much confused as you guys.
So Beginnings Remake is a remake of the NES game in a new engine and Giygas Strikes Back! is Earthbound US version with bug fixes?
If the NES game came first I should probably play that
The Romhacks are NOT for Mother 1 (which is known as EarthBound Beginnings on NES). They are Romhacks of Mother 2, also known as EarthBound on the Super Nintendo.
The Romhack is an attempt of Remaking the original Mother 1 on the Mother 2 engine. That is known as EarthBound Beginnings Remake. Then they offer a second Romhack, just called Giygas Strikes Back. If I understand it correctly, this is "just" EarthBound on the SNES with bug fixes. So they offer two Romhacks: 1) Remake of NES game, but on the Super Nintendo engine, 2) Bug fix of the EarthBound on Super Nintendo
Well done, thanks I get it now
Oooo thank you for bringing this to my attention! I LOVE that they made a Huge Box for it!