"Mother" was the sixth best-selling game of 1989 in Japan, where it sold about 400,000 copies. It received a "Silver Hall of Fame" score of 31/40 from Japanese magazine "Famitsu". Critics noted the game's similarities with the "Dragon Quest" series and its simultaneous "parody" of the genre's tropes. They thought the game's sequel, "EarthBound", to be very similar and a better implementation of "Mother" gameplay ideas, overall. Reviewers also noted the game's high difficulty level and balance issues. "USgamer" Jeremy Parish said that "Mother" script was "as sharp as "EarthBound"", but felt that the original's game mechanics were subpar, lacking the "rolling HP counter" and non-random encounters for which later entries in the series were known. Parish wrote earlier for "1UP.com" that in comparison to "EarthBound", "Mother" is "worse in just about every way", and important less for its actual game and more for the interest it generated in video game emulation and the preservation of unreleased games.