Cool, hope it comes outside of Japan. I've never played the Dragon Quest games, and this would be the perfect way for me to enjoy them!

It looks good, but I'm not gonna get too excited. Hate to be a pessimist, but NoA has let so many promising-looking Japanese games come and go that I have little faith in them to localize any game that doesn't have Mario, Link, Kirby, Pikachu, or Samus Aran in it...

I agree whole-hearted with everything in this article, all the games therein SHOULD be on VC by now.

It'll probably be a Level 5 or Square Enix game, seeing as their games already use the largest DS cards.

Wow, it really sucks that Euro gamers have to play gimped versions of classic games on the VC.

With problems like this, it's a wonder why Europe still uses PAL TVs.

I own the Japanese Version of this game and have been eagerly awaiting it's US Release ever since it was announced.

Well, it's about freakin' time!

I already own it on GCN, so I won't be downloading it right away, but I'm happy for everyone else!

Ugh! Taxes on Downloads?!

I'll tell ya... Uncle Sam reaches into out pockets and rings our wallets dry! And what do we get in return? Free National Healthcare? New Bridges? Repaired Streets? Perhaps a better funded Public School System?

Nope... In truth, none of that money will ever make it's was back to us.
It just fills the pockets of greedy politicians to fund their meaningless wars that they fight in the persuit of greater wealth, alsong with our Social Security...

@196. SmaMan

Correct, and even if by some odd chance Nintendo did toss the ROM for EarthBound Zero, they could easily find it again through a number of websites.

I'm convinced that the whole thing is a load of BS... Professional Companies like ESRB don't "accidentally" rate games from a company if said game was never submitted to them for review in the first place, that just isn't how it works...

NoA would have to approach ESRB and specifically ask them to Rate the game, it couldn't happen by accident.
This is just Starmen's way of rationalizing why their EB Siege & PK CALL'N Campaigns failed to persuade NoA to release the game on VC.

I think that NoA is just sitting on EarthBound and will most likely release it on VC next year on 6/01/10, EarthBound's 15th Anniversary.
If you need proof, consider Super Smash Bros 64, it was released in Japan on 1/21/99, and was released on VC 1/20/09, one day shy of it's 10 Year Anniversary. They couldn't release it on it's exact date due to the fact that Japanese VC games are always released on Fridays, but they got as close as they could. SSB64 still isn't on the American VC, which leads me to believe that it will be released on VC around 04/26/09, which would be SSB64's American 10th Anniversary.

If this theory is correct, then it will likely be the same case for EarthBound.

@Nintendork,

That's the exact same canned reply I got...
It's a meaningless reply that they give to anyone who askes anything about the EarthBound/MOTHER Series.

I just got through putting an SNES & GBA Emulator on my Modded Wii through Homebrew Channel.
I'll still download a legit copy if it ever comes out because I support the series, but I'm not gonna feel bad about using a ROM of a game that is entirely unavailable to me threw any other means.

Besides, I already own a legit copy of EarthBound, so I'm not doing anything illegal.

EarthBound & MOTHER 3 on Wii, here I come!

@Drake,

I e-mail NoA about it and they just gave me a canned reply about how they could understand my desire to see EarthBound on VC, but they have no plans to release it yet, and that I should check back at their website periodically to see if it's announced.

When Nintendo won't even disprove a nasty rumor about their games, you know something's wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOWf_T0jdgQ

Robo's Theme from Chrono Trigger...
Sound Familiar?

That game has been on SNES, PSone, and now DS.
And that sounds an awful lot more like Never Gonna Give You Up than New Age Retro Hippie's Theme sounds like Johnny Be Goode.

After taking a moment to calm down and think about it, I've come up with afew reasons why this rumor could be BS...

1.) Came from Starmen.net

2.) NoA willing to go through the trouble to painstakingly alter the music from a game that they never even bothered to rerelease on GBA due to their killer hatred of the series for losing them money.

3.) NoJ has never stopped NoA from Butchering their games before...
.
4.) Why would we get a game that NoJ hasn't even gotten the prequel of yet?

5.) Chrono Trigger got away with it, and so did Animal Crossing with Rockin' K.K.