Weekly Famitsu – September 16, 1994

This week’s issue covers the MOTHER 2 Pre-release Party attended by all staff involved in the game. This time the article is not an interview, but a description of the event.

A pre-release party for MOTHER 2 took place on August 24 in a hotel in downtown Tokyo. This, of course, was to celebrate the August 27th release of MOTHER 2: Giygas Strikes Back. Those involved with the production of MOTHER 2, including the scenario director, copywriter Shigesato Itoi, gathered at the hotel for the event.

Itoi was the first to speak. In front of the production staff of 40 he said, “Sorry for the wait, everyone. People have said a lot of things to me over the past five years, but the delay is all the staff’s fault. (laughs) Please show your appreciation today for all their hard work.” His speech was both funny and heartfelt.

Next was Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who holds the title of MOTHER 2 supervisor.

“These five years passed in the blink of an eye. (laughs) After all, my children were in preschool when we first started working on the game, and now they’re already old enough to understand it. I beat the game together with my daughter; it was the first time I’d ever finished an RPG on my own.”

The party was a standing dinner, so there was a friendly atmosphere the entire time. All kinds of people surrounded Itoi that night–even Chunsoft president Koichi Nakamura went to offer him some congratulatory words.

In any case, MOTHER 2 is finally on store shelves. Itoi should be breathing a sigh of relief right about now!

Pictures from the event

Shigesato Itoi talks about the joy of finishing MOTHER 2. Must have been one difficulty after the next.

HAL Laboratory President Satoru Iwata attended as the Programming Director. He commented that the staff kept a good attitude as production went on.

Shigeru Miyamoto from Nintendo was a supervisor this time around. Much like a remote control, he provided lots of advice to the production staff.

Itoi's wife Kanako Higuchi joined in as well. She stood out from the crowd as much as you'd expect. We're curious about their conversation that night. Wonder if she's played MOTHER 2?

Even Koichi Nakamura had a chat with Itoi. Maybe they'll be rivals in seeing which becomes more popular: MOTHER 2 or Kamaitachi no Yoru.

Miyamoto and Higuchi right after taking a commemorative photo together. Miyamoto looks so bashful.

Clay figurines of the MOTHER 2 characters were on display in one corner of the room. It seems the team really enjoyed producing the game if they took it so far as to make these.

Everyone in this picture had some kind of role developing MOTHER 2. It was a fairly big crowd of various people from Nintendo, APE, and HAL Laboratory.