EarthBound (known as Mother 2 in Japan[nb 1]) is a 1994 Japanese role-playing video game co-developed by Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. As Ness and his party of four, the player travels the world to collect eight melodies in order to defeat the evil alien force Giygas. It is the second game of the Mother series and the first and only to be released outside of Japan for two decades.