Mother 1+2 includes a port of EarthBound, known as Mother 2 in Japan. Therefore, all Mario references from EarthBound/Mother 2 appear here as well.

The arcade (located in Onett) contains a couple of Donkey Kong arcade machines. There are no real titles on the machines, but the tell-tale red girder pattern of the first level shows on the first machine in the front row, and on the second-to-last machine in the back row.

In Mother 2, the Japanese version of EarthBound, the things you must name when starting a new game have seven default names apiece. The sixth default name choice for each one comes from the Mario universe. Down the left column it reads: Mario, Peach, Luigi, Toad. Down the right column: "Yoshi" for the dog, "Mushroom meal" for favorite food, and "Goal" for favorite thing.