Earthbound Prices Revisited One Year After eShop Release

Almost one year ago, Earthbound was released for Wii U eShop. When it came out, we predicted Earthbound cartridge prices would decrease but not as significantly as other titles in similar circumstances.

How did we do? Spot on.

From the date of our prediction, the loose price decreased from $179 to $137 (-20%).

Some gamer's decided to buy the eShop version instead of the cartridge. So demand decreased a bit. There are lots of collectors out there who are willing to pay a premium for the original, which explains why prices didn't collapse.

This 20% decrease compares to a 40% decrease for Marvel vs Capcom 2 a year after its virtual release.

Unreleased Mario Game for N64DD Surfaces; Collectors Panic, Die

[NEED TO KNOW MORE INTENSIFIES]

This is a copy of Super Mario 64 Disk Edition for the Nintendo 64DD, the ill-fated disk drive for the N64. This is important because this game is the game collecting equivalent of an albino unicorn. This is something that isn't supposed to exist. Super Mario 64 was never commercially released in this form. It was never announced, hinted at, teased, or anything. Now not only are there photos of this discovery, but there's even gameplay footage. Here, watch this and try not to question your beliefs.

WHAT!? UNRELEASED FIRST PARTY MARIO GAMES SURFACING FOR MY FAILED NINTENDO EXPERIMENT?! It's more likely than you think. So far the gameplay seems very similar, if not identical, to the normal cartridge version, but who knows what surprises might lurk in the code. Sadly, the exact story of how this abomination/holy grail came into this collector's hands is a mystery, and it's being kept a mystery by the cart's owner, Jimmy130. The origin may have something to do with this photo that surfaced in late 2013.

what filter should i use i want to look tan

OR WE CAN GO DEEPER. All the way back to Nintendo's Space World 1996, where this game was actually being shown played. I had no idea this was a thing, and it seems to have been developed as just a tech demo for showing off what the N64DD was capable of.

I would put money on this copy of the game originating from that expo, but I have no idea where it has been for the last eight years. Currently, Jimmy is doing his best to document the game and its interesting features here, on his blog.

Collectors are obviously freaking out. I wouldn't put a price on piece so unique, but I would love to see it put out on an open auction, just to see how many thousands of dollars it would sell for. The emergence of this game has elicited many cries of fake and fraud; even I am unconvinced that this is 100% the real deal. I would very much like to hear the whole story before I give in to the hype. This discovery should also give some other fandoms hope that maybe there are some other unreleased N64DD games out there waiting to be uncovered.

Two Rare EarthBound Keychains Located

EarthBound is one of the biggest cult classic video games in existence. Originally released in 1995, the game is a sequel to a Japanese-only game, MOTHER, but localization of MOTHER never made it past the prototype stage meaning that Nintendo was forced to launch a series in the middle of the story. They hoped a unique and unorthodox marketing strategy would help promote the game and so they came up with the "This Game Stinks" ad campaign targeted at grossing out and enticing boys and teens. They took a lot of inspiration from what was popular and on the air during the time like much of Nickelodeon's lineup (Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Ren & Stimpy, and Rocko's Modern Life). Their ads often employed scratch-n-sniff cards and some even included some pretty gross smells, like mushroom.

Someone was paid to design this.

Even the strategy guide smelled.

They pushed this game hard and even sent out special press releases in the form of pizza boxes based off the in-game pizzeria, Mach Pizza, because nothing is more radical and mid-90's than pizza. Inside these pizza releases were a few items: a copy of the game, the strategy guide, a fact sheet, an actual press release, a fake newspaper clipping, a ruler (this is an obscure reference to a rare in-game item), and a tiny keychain. You can read more about this at the EarthBound Central article on it but I'm more focused on one piece, the keychain.

The box itself has never been photographed or sold at auction but some of the items in it have been. The keychains were rumored to be included in the box but also just plain given away by Nintendo representatives to game store employees. Back in 2012, the first keychain went up for sale on eBay and sold for $535. The crazy thing was that the keychain itself was scratch-n-sniff and smelled like pizza.

It is also tiny.

More recently two other keychains have turned up in the hands of a private collector. The story behind them is that the original owner's mother owned a video game retail outlet and a Nintendo representative came by and gave her two keychains as promotional material. What is special about this is that only one of the keychains is scratch-n-sniff while the other one isn't. The owner claims that it came like that despite the back still stating "A Scratch & Sniff Game Take a Big Whiff".

Very interesting stuff and very rare memorabilia. Collectors have already shown that they are willing to shell out $500+ and I'm interested to see if any more of these keychains will come out the woodwork anytime soon. However, the keychains are just small fry compared to the pizza box. Lots of speculation takes place on that item and I have no idea what it would fetch on an open market but I'd assume it'd be upward of a grand. EarthBound is a good game with a rich and neglected history and I can't wait for these collectors to add more to it.