Ueno Station

ok so i havent seen literally anybody else online make this connection as far as i know. starting in super smash bros brawl, lucas from mother 3 was added as a playable fighter. along with his inclusion, they added a stage for him as well – new pork city. the stage looks like this:

the smash bros wikis, as well as the earthbound/mother wiki, all say something like this about the stage: “It is composed of dozens of buildings, giving the impression of a large city (hence the name), though the battle area consists of a series of platforms that seem to have no connection to the city itself.” however, none of them attempt to understand *why* the stage is designed like this.

ive had a theory about this stage for a while, and after reading one of the composer notes for porky’s theme from mother 3, im almost certain im right in thinking this. Shogo Sakai says in the MOTHER 3i liner notes for porky’s theme: “‘Mr. Sakai,” Mr. Itoi told me, ‘I want you to write a theme for Porky… It’s as if a dictator forced a genius composer to write his anthem. It sounds bold and brave, but somewhat distorted because it was contrived from duress.’” Shigesato Itoi himself is listed as one of the supervisors for super smash brothers brawl, so im sure that he probably gave similar instructions to Sakurai when designing the stage. something like: “make a stage for new pork city, designed the same way porky would have designed it himself.” however, beyond this theory that Itoi had direct involvement in the design of this stage, i believe this stage, regardless, DOES embody the main concept of new pork city itself. new pork city is meant to be a childish, rushed, conglomeration of ideas with no real connection, made into a “utopia.”

because porky has no idea what a real utopia looks like, he instead tries to make what he would consider a utopia. this, in the eyes of a child (especially porky) would indeed end up as a city full of random buildings, lights, and amusement park rides. not meant for structure, not meant for production, not meant for ideal living, purely made in the pursuit of fun.