Game Comparisons  »  EarthBound  »  New Game

New Game

Flavor Country

When you start a new game in MOTHER 2, you first get to choose how fast the text will display. Next, you choose Stereo or Mono sound. After this, you get to choose the window type. Here is a list of the types to choose from:

MOTHER 2EarthBound
PlainPlain flavor
MintMint flavor
StrawberryStrawberry flavor
BananaBanana flavor
NutPeanut flavor

Note that MOTHER 2 doesn’t mention the idea of a window “flavor”.

Many Alphabets

You then get to choose your characters’ names. In MOTHER 2, you’re allowed to use 3 different character sets: hiragana, katakana, and the roman alphabet:

In EarthBound, the Japanese characters sets were removed, and an uppercase and lowercase English character set were implemented. Some small punctuation and miscellaneous characters were changed around too.

Default Names

If you’re too lazy to think of a name, both MOTHER 2 and EarthBound have a set of default names to choose from for each character/food/etc.

Default Names for Ness

MOTHER 2EarthBound
NessNess
HatAlec
TakuyaRoger
JohnWill
MonkeymaruBrian
MarioTyler
Sit UpLane

Default Names for Paula

MOTHER 2EarthBound
PaulaPaula
RibbonNancy
GorokoSkye
YokoPaige
RillaMarie
PeachHolly
ShakeJane

Default Names for Jeff

MOTHER 2EarthBound
JeffJeff
GlassesDan
TsuyoshiHenry
PaulIsaac
OranRalph
LuigiSean
FetchRob

Default Names for Poo

MOTHER 2EarthBound
PooPoo
PigtailKato
ShingoKai
GeorgeOmar
ChimpRamin
Kinopio (Toad in the U.S.)Aziz
Roll OverLado

Default Names for Ness’ Dog

MOTHER 2EarthBound
RuntKing
BernardPeach
MasahirorinSparky
RingoRex
LucyBaby
YoshiRover
(To go for a) WalkMisty

Default Names for Ness’ Favorite Food

MOTHER 2EarthBound
Salisbury SteakSteak
SukiyakiPie
MorisobaPasta
Honey Pie (in the literal sense)Cake
BananaEggs
MushroomsBread
Dog FoodSalmon

Default Names for Ness’ Favorite Thing

MOTHER 2EarthBound
Fighting SpiritRockin
KapowHammer
SMAPLove
LOVEGifts
APESlime
GoalGaming
ChampionBoxing

Interesting default names. I wonder why EarthBound didn’t have all those Super Mario characters.

Anyway, you’ll notice several things about the sets of names. One set contains Beatles-related stuff. For some interesting info on that, see this video.

Another set of names is commands you say to dogs.

Another set has ape-related names, because APE was involved in the game’s creation.

Another set contains the names of members from SMAP, a mega-popular Japanese boy band. SMAP is really hard to describe, but basically, if you ever so much as step foot in Japan, you’ll have already encountered them in some form. Even just looking in Japan’s direction, you’ll probably see them. They’re EVERYWHERE, even a decade and a half later.

Incidentally, Kimura Takuya of SMAP played the older brother in the MOTHER 2 commercials. Here are some videos and images for reference:

Commercial 1
Commercial 2

Commercial 3

MOTHER 2 magazine ad

MOTHER 2 in-store poster

This section of the EarthBound Legends of Localization book also includes:

  • A look at Nintendo’s multiple & inconsistent spellings of “EarthBound”
  • Details behind Japanese’s three main writing systems, and why Shigesato Itoi purposely only uses two in the MOTHER games
  • The real inspiration behind the name “Ness”
  • Further details about SMAP
  • The reason the Beatles names were dropped from EarthBound’s localization
« Previous Page
Next Page »
Last update: Jun 3rd, 2019
Hey! Let's be friends!
  • Friend me on Twitter!
  • Friend me on Facebook!
  • Friend me on Tumblr!
  • Check out my game streams!
  • Follow me on YouTube!
  • Let me know what you think!

Check out some of my other detailed localization analyses!

Let's be friends!

Back to Legends of Localization!