I'm currently playing the fan translation of Mother, the 1989 Japan-only precursor to the beloved SNES RPG Earthbound (titled "Mother 2" in Japan). Absolutely loving it. It's basically a Dragon Quest clone, but set in the present, and extremely charming and funny, as it was written by a well-known Japanese author, Shigesato Itoi.

If you don't know, Earthbound has one of the most loyal fanbases of any game ever released in America, partly because the game is so wonderful, and partly because American fans have been so horribly shafted by Nintendo of America over the years in trying to get the two other games in the series localized. It's the kind of thing I think a lot of originaltrilogy.com folks could relate to. There's a hard-luck story, a community coming together to raise funds to promote the games in the States in the hope of release, getting so tantalizingly close more than once only to have the rug yanked out at the last minute, and an if-they-won't-do-it-we-will spirit in the community that I just love. Fans even produced a player's guide for Mother 3 that is absolutely gorgeous. This is serious devotion for a game that totally deserves it.

Has anyone else here played Earthbound or any of the other Mother games? If you emulate on your PC or Nintendo DS, I highly urge you to give the series a try.