Nintendo of America’s localization team was given enormous freedom during the game’s conversion process. Mother 2’s journey to becoming EarthBound, primarily handled by Marcus Lindblom, is such an intensive and winding tale that it has been covered comprehensively in dedicated websites, online videos, and 400-page books!
The most popular quote from EarthBound, “Say fuzzy pickles!” (created by Dan Owsen) was originally, “Say cheese sandwich!” This is an example of Japanese colloquialisms that don’t translate accurately across oceans. In this case, the localization team opted to go weirder and funnier, which was often the case. In Mother 2, a man explains that his wife had run away from home twice and that he had no luck. In EarthBound, the same man says his wife has run away twice, and that he’s very lucky!
Mother 2 featured a staggering amount of Western pop culture references, some of which were removed, while others were added in EarthBound. Nods to the Blues Brothers, Superman, the Grateful Dead, and Coca-Cola were changed or suppressed to prevent potential legal issues in the States. Likewise, due to Nintendo of America’s policies on certain content, almost all instances or references to religion, death, crosses, alcohol, child discipline/abuse, and nudity were altered.
As a nod to the game’s original title, EarthBound often uses the word “mother” in place of “mom.”
