Namco and Nintendo were considering an Earthbound game for the GameCube

Yasuyuki Honne may work at Monolith Soft now, but back in the day he was part of Namco. News of the Iwata-san book coming from Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi gave Honne reason to take to Twitter and share a story involving both Itoi and Iwata from back in the day. According to Honne, the two companies had a pitch session about potentially creating an Earthbound game for the GameCube.

“Looking forward to the Iwata-san book. I met both Iwata-san and Itoi-san in 2003 when Namco and Nintendo were considering to make a GameCube version for Mother (Earthbound). I created a mockup which was showed to Iwata-san. I felt Ito-san wasn’t interested, and suspected so as the conversation continued…

Then Itoi-san said, ‘In any case, perhaps Iwata-kun should come up with the story?’ Everyone in the room gasped. Iwata looked shocked. In the end the conversation drifted, but Itoi-san amused himself with the idea of the ‘felt taste’ that resembled America in the 80s. So this is the picture that I thought would never see the day of light again. My memories of Summer 2003.”

Honne shared the images you see in this post, which were apparently part of the mock-up he put together for the pitch session. Man, what an amazing bit of history to see surface after all these years!