What is for sure though is that it's an unpopular opinion to have Mother 1 as your favorite Mother game, of which is an opinion that I do have which sounds absurd but I can explain exactly why and it would hopefully make sense.
I played Mother 1 for the first time a few weeks ago and I loved it. I dont know if it beats mother 3 in being my favorite of the series, but i liked it more than earthbound :_D
Yeah I like it over Earthbound 'cuz Earthbound has way less of a cohesive vibe than Mother 1. Like, Mother 1 knows exactly what it wants to be and what it wants to be doing but sometimes Earthbound really just feels like "we're just taking that thing we did in Mother 1 but making it weird for no reason really" and that's it.