Game merch site Fangamer is home to no shortage of high-quality game-themed paraphernalia, from shirts and mugs to books and figurines. One game in particular, EarthBound, has received extra special attention from the team. Fangamer grew out of Starmen.net, a shrine to EarthBound and the greater Mother series. When Mother 3 came out in Japan, not only did Starmen provide a fan translation, it also produced an incredible Mother 3 companion book. For the group's next big outpouring of love, I direct your attention to the You Are Now EarthBound Kickstarter.
Fangamer is prepping a multimedia onslaught, which includes a fake travel guide for EarthBound subtitled "Travel Eagleland the EarthBound Way," a documentary entitled EarthBound, USA, an arrangement album called Psychokinetic Album by cover band Bad Dudes, and a periodical called Psychokinetic Zine filled with fan-made articles and artwork. For all this, the team is asking for $100K, a goal which has already been reached with 24 days still left to go.
Anyone worried that Fangamer is skirting on legal grounds needn't be — sourced material has been properly licensed, and there will be no official art in the book or zine, only original work covered under fair use. All in all, this is an intensive labor of love for a franchise that Nintendo tries to pretend doesn't have an audience outside of Japan. For that, we should show our support.
Check out the humorous Kickstarter trailer above (catch the Twin Peaks reference?), as well as the documentary trailer below. The full documentary will include interviews with many notable game figures, such as Wired editor Chris Kohler, EarthBound localizer Marcus Lindblom, Double Fine founder Tim Schafer, and of course Mother series creator and writer Shigesato Itoi.
