You all remember when Iwata mentioned EarthBound during a global Nintendo Direct. He said it would be released sometime this year. I kind of anticipated some sort of build-up, an inevitable hype-train leading up to the release of the game. Apparently this…isn’t the case.

A little while ago, this photo began circulating around Twitter and other social media outlets. News quickly went from “EarthBound being listed on the European eShop update page” to…this listing appearing on Nintendo.com. We’ll get to the rest of the games offered on Nintendo Download this week a little later on when we actually receive the Press Release and further details, but…

Ladies and gentlemen, you’ll all be able to download EarthBound today via the North American Wii U eShop for $9.99, according to Nintendo’s official website. If there’s one retro-game deserving of its own article spun off from the regular Nintendo Download feature it’s this one—right?

Personally, I’ve never played anything from the MOTHER franchise. How many of you are in the same boat as me? I’m interested to hear what you have to say. I wonder how many people’s first experience with the game will be via the Wii U Virtual Console. At any rate, this is definitely something to be excited about.

With so many of the oprainfall Staff being so passionate about retro gaming, I’m sure you can expect more EarthBound-related coverage from us in the not-too-distant future. Until then, stay tuned!

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UPDATE: And so it goes. Moments after this news came about, Nintendo released a Nintendo Direct Mini that confirmed this news once and for all. Something we didn’t know that die-hard fans will be pleased to hear: Nintendo has optimized the official EarthBound Nintendo Player’s Guide for use on the Wii U GamePad. Unfortunately, they haven’t perfected scratch ‘n sniff technology on the Internet…yet.

Seems Nintendo did want to make a big deal out of EarthBound’s release, but Internet sleuthing beat them to the punch.

UPDATE #2: Below, you’ll find the official trailer, and below that, you’ll find a link to the official site.

OFFICIAL SITE