Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings are coming to Switch Online today
Both games will be available later today
![Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings are coming to Switch Online today](/files/2021/07/earthbound-screen-320x170.jpg)
Nintendo has confirmed that both Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings will be coming to Switch Online today.
Earthbound is a cult favourite among Nintendo fans, and has previously been released on past Virtual Console services.
Earthbound Beginnings is a western translation of Mother, the Famicom predecessor to Earthbound.
Although the game was originally Japan-only, the English language translation was released on the Wii U.
Mother (now known in the west as Earthbound Beginnings) was originally released on the Famicom in 1989 and tells the story of Ninten, a 12-year-old who uses psyhich powers to fight inanimate objects.
Its sequel, Earthbound, follows a new protagonist called Ness who teams up with his friends to travel the world collecting melodies to defeat a cosmic destroyer called Giygas.
A third game, Mother 3, was released on the Game Boy Advance in Japan, but has never received an official western release to date.
It had previously been reported that Nintendo was planning to run maintenance on the NES and SNES apps shortly after today’s Nintendo Direct presentation ended.
It’s now clear that this maintenance was scheduled so that Nintendo could add Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound to their respective Switch Online services.