You deboed my topic! was going to make this the moment the patch came out.
Mother
Mother 2 = Earthbound
Mother 3
Mother was the first to be called Earthbound. NoA updated the gui (and added run I believe), tweaked some graphics, TRANSLATED, but never published it.... the beta cartridge of this being leaked and sold on ebay about a decade later (the beta ripped from this being "Earthbound Zero"). Fun fact: The version we made, thought of to be superior, was then retranslated to japanese and was used in the Mother 1 + 2 compilation on the GBA. Why wasn't it released despite having been finished? Too risky.
It was never released stateside though so they stuck the name Earthbound to Mother 2.. which had problems of it's own (This game Stinks!).
...
Mother 3 having it's own share of problems too. Like not getting looked at by NoA at all.
it looks like it aged pretty well too, just looking at the screens. this game looks as if they could throw this on the DS and you would think it was made today.
Well... it is only two years old afterally~