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:

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:

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.

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. See the below links for videos and pics:

• MOTHER 2 Commercial #1
• MOTHER 2 Commercial #2
• MOTHER 2 Commercial #3
• MOTHER 2 Promotional Thing
• MOTHER 2 Promotional Poster

Check out this stuff to add to your EarthBound collection!