Games for Mother (Earthbound) fans

Three youths travel back and forward in time to save the world. Chrono Trigger is one of the greatest gaming masterpieces.

I haven't played and can't recommend Chrono Cross or the Chrono Cross prequel Radical Dreamers.

If you enjoyed the sometimes very poignant and heartwarming story of Mother 3, you'll probably love this game.

In Psychonauts you play as Raz, a boy in a summer camp for psychics. Like the Mother games, Psychonauts is incredibly quirky, charming, and humorous. The world and its inhabitants are full of character. The level design is fabulously creative and each level is unique and well made. Psychonauts is a great experience and for 10 or so hours it's a great experience for even 'casual-gamers'. You might want to beat it in one sitting.

Apparently his previous game Grim Fandango is another masterpiece.

Dragon Warrior Series

The Dragon Quest games influenced the Mother trilogy and this is my favorite Dragon Quest game.

Like Earthbound, Toejam & Earl is a funny game with a distinctly 90's feel and plenty of weird bad guys. ToeJam & Earl is a dungeon crawl adventure game that might interest some Earthbound fans.

Dragon Quest IV has a similar narrative style to Mother 3. The characters are presented in separate chapters and come together in the last part to save the world. Maybe this influenced Mother 3.

Yume Nikki can be downloaded here.

An 8-bit area resembles the game Mother.

Developed by the creator of the Mother Trilogy.

The gameplay of the Mother Trilogy is heavily inspired by Dragon Quest.

Like in Earthbound, four youths travel back in time to save the world.

Sequel to Chrono Trigger, with an amazing story if you dig deep enough. It's not completely presented, but smart gamers should get it pretty well. Do not compare it to Chrono Trigger, and like it for it's own merits, and you'll LOVE it. You play as Serge, who is essential the Chrono Trigger, an entity that's life or death causes a split in the time continuity creating 2 different worlds, one where he is alive, another dead. It has allusions to CT everywhere, of course, being a sequel.

Creatures, Inc., formerly known as Ape developed Mother 1 and 2 with Nintendo before developing Pokemon Red.

Takes the time-traveling mechanics of Chrono Trigger and turns it on it's head. You're able to revisit any moment in history (with a little back tracking involved perhaps) It's not really reminiscent of Mother series, but it warrants a mention. At first I thought it was dull, then I really got into the characters.

Beautiful and epic. Much like the Mother series, despite it's cute exterior lies an immersive story. It's not nearly as thought provoking as the Mother series, but it definitely is a wonderful tale.

Earthbound influenced Costume Quest.

The doctor character looks like Dr. Andonuts but isn't him.

It has a similar art style and comedy to it...Never completed it (or Earthbound for that matter, I'm ashamed to say) but it really does feel almost like a spiritual sequel. It's not as solid as the Mother games are, but if you like Earthbound, I think you'll appreciate what Contact tries to be. - ape

In StarTropics you play as a boy with a yo-yo and a bat to fight monsters and rescue your uncle who was abducted by aliens.

Quirkiness overload! As with the Mario games, not deep but just bursting with characters and color!

A friend of mine said the reason he liked IoG so much was because it felt like an actual journey, and it really does. You play as Will, a telepathic/kinetic boy who goes on a journey to discover his power and stop impending doom to his planet. I haven't played much of Terranigma, but it plays like IoG, figured I should mention it.

While the load times are horrible, and the dungeons could use some work, this game is really a personal favorite of mine. It involves a boy that gets possessed by an evil shadow. He then has to beat all the other people in the world that are possessed. Through this, him and his shadow gain an unique friendship. It's funny and has a wonderful graphical style, reminiscent of Tim Burton or some other gothy-cute thing. This came out years before Blue Dragon and is in no way related.