- "Here's a map. Onett isn't the only thing on the map. All the info is there, except for the info that isn't there. Pressing the X Button allows you to view the map at any time. How convenient! You know, the X Button... located near the top. Ha ha ha."
- — Onett Library Librarian
The Town map is a key item in EarthBound. It can be obtained the librarian in the Onett Library, and is used by either pressing the X button or selecting it in the inventory.
EarthBound[]
While it is called the Town map, it actually has information on six distinct locations: Onett, Twoson, Threed, Fourside, Summers (including Toto), and Scaraba. If it is used elsewhere, a message appears saying "This town is not shown on the map" (if the player presses the X button in a town that isn't visible on the Town map, the map will simply not be pulled up). Each town is shown with flashing indicators showing points of interest, such as the location of Hotels and Hospitals.
The librarian who gives the party the map states that kids are only allowed to borrow maps at the town library, and also notes that "a man without a map isn't popular with the girls." if the map is refused. She will constantly repeat the response if saying no to her, forcing Ness to receive the map if he talks to her. She also says that he should come back in the year 2001 to return it. However, as the console has no internal clock, returning the map is impossible; this means if the player doesn't want it in the inventory, they have to deposit it into the Escargo Express.
Mother 3[]
In Mother 3, there is no one map item and are instead multiple that each map out their own respective areas. Gift boxes containing maps usually have a blue ribbon. These include:
- Tazmily Map (Given by Mapson in Chapter 1: Night of the Funeral)
- Osohe Sketch (Kitchen, Second Floor Osohe Castle)
- Underground Map (Start of Candrum Underpass)
- Railway Map (Given by the man who stops and lectures Lucas just before he enters the railway in Chapter 4: Club Titiboo)
- Factory Sketch (Given by Pigmask employer)
- Area Map (Near ropeway to Club Titiboo)
- Attic Guide (Club Titiboo Attic, second room north next to Item Guy)
- Highway Map (Tunnel above crashed Pork Bean, intersection north of Factory)
- Tower Sketch (Left, beginning of Thunder Tower)
- Chimera Lab Map (Second floor, room after theater)
- Cricket Hole Map (Given by eastern Mole Cricket at the start of Mole Cricket Hole)
- Saturn Valley Map (Given by Mr. Saturn)
- Sea Floor Map (Early southeast path in Sea Floor Dungeon)
- Cave Map (Right of the start of Outland Dungeon [Cave] in Argilla Pass)
- City Map (Automatically given by the Chauffeur upon leaving the Limousine in New Pork City)
EarthBound Maps[]
Trivia[]
- During the process of rereleasing EarthBound on the Wii U Virtual Console, series creator Shigesato Itoi considered changing the return year of the map from 2001 to sometime more believable. Itoi also considered it when EarthBound was being emulated for the New 3DS and Super Nintendo Classic.
- In MOTHER 2, the librarian who lends Ness the Town map tells him to "press the blue button" to open the map. However, the original SNES controller in North America has no blue buttons, so in order to avoid confusion, the localizers simply renamed it to "the X button".
- EarthBound Beginnings's equivalent is the Map. It is a key item found by entering the basement of Ninten's House with the Basement Key where it can be found in one of the gift boxes. It functions similarly to the Town map, but shows the World of Mother in its entirety and not just the individual town the player is currently in. Mother 3 lacks an equivalent item, instead having separate map items for each location.