One of the Producers behind Nintendo’s lost RPG classic, Mother 3, states that he wants to see the game released in the West following the surprise launch of Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings (Mother) on Nintendo Switch last week, Originally released on the Game Boy Advance in 2006, the third game in the Mother series – known as Earthbound in the West – has never been released outside of Japan.
In an interview with Nintendo Everything, Mother 3 producer Shinichi Kameoka stated he would “also love to see Mother 3 released in the US and Europe.” While the original Mother game launched in Japan in 1989, it wasn’t until 2015 that the game received a worldwide launch, courtesy of the Wii U Virtual console. No longer at Nintendo, it seems the decision is ultimately out of Kameoka’s hands, yet in the same Nintendo Everything, the producer goes on to say: “As a lover of games, I will continue to wait for Mother 3’s release worldwide release (in English).”
Mother 2, or Earthbound, released on SNES in the West in 1995, amassing a cult following. Since then, the surrealist role-playing franchise has largely been absent for players outside of Japan, with protagonists Ness and Lucas only notable for their continued presence in Nintendo’s beloved fighting game series, Super Smash Bros. The pair debuted in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64, and have remained a permanent fixture in the games ever since.
While Earthbound hasn’t been given the chance to flourish in the West, its influence is still keenly felt in gaming today. Serving as the main inspiration for the hugely successful indie RPG, Undertale, the seminal SNES RPG still manages to feel fresh and relevant today, largely thanks to its endearing and quirky writing.
It’s a fact that Kameoka himself acknowledges in the same interview, stating how the script transformed the game into something truly special: “I remember how Mr. (Shigesato) Itoi rewrote all the placeholder text that our staff had put in, and the atmosphere of the game changed completely. That was really eye-opening.”
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