Alright. Not the responses I expected (which makes me very happy that I asked!). However, you guys do seem divided, so I don't know what to do.....

Order doesn't matter, but Earthbound is the better game

You should play Earthbound. Then, if you fell in love with the game, try begginings.

You probably shouldn't play it at all. Not saying it's a bad game but it's a NES rpg... it probably hasn't aged well.

I loved Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, despite their faults, and I played them both for the first time within the last 5 years. Do you think this means I might enjoy EB more than the average person? I'm on the fence about getting it.

I'd have to agree with most here and say go for Earthbound as Mother 1 (Earthbound Beginnings) is a grind fest with a high encounter rate and will turn most folks who aren't used to that away. The fan translation of Mother 1 includes an item called the "Easy Ring" which greatly evens the overall game out by giving you more exp per battle and reduces the encounter rate by a good margin. Makes the game much more enjoyable imo but i'd still say support the series by buying the official release no matter what.

No way bro. Mother 3 had a better story. Plus it had much better and more user friendly gameplay. Which makes it hard to go back to earthbound after.

Mother 3's story wasn't good, though. It just had a good prologue and a good final battle. Mother 3 isn't even close to an example of good story telling. It only had a "better story" in that it tried telling a story at all. The rhythm gimmick was stupid and didn't fit in with the franchise at all. It obviously had a better UI, but on the whole, Earthbound was a much better game. Much better paced. Much less pretentious. Way better world and level design. And, to say again, much, much better pacing.

The only reason I played Earthbound was because I wanted to play Mother 3, and I was suprised at how much better Earthbound was. And this is coming from someone who is critical of Earthbound. The whole series is overrated, but Mother 3 is, by far, the worst offender of that.

It's a very "un-Mother" game. The music doesn't fit with the franchise at all. The fan-localization completely lacks what made the Earthbound localization magical. Whoever thought having the prologue last half the game was a good idea needs to be put on trial. The game has absolutely terrible pacing. The game completely lacks the scale that EB did, level design-wise. And it comepletely lacks the magic or the creepiness of EB. That feeling of being in a child's dream/nightmare is completely gone. It doesn't even aesthetically resemble the first two Mother games. The game is looked at as the black sheep of franchise in Japan, and for good reason. It's not that good. Honestly, the only reason it's so big here is because of the contreversy around it. Very disappointing game.

The only reason I'm looking forward to Mother 4 is because I think they'll actually make the game Mother 3 failed to be.