The third act in the series, known as Earthbound in the West, Mother, came out in Japan in a completely incomprehensible way, even though there would have been demand for it in English in 2006 as well.

It’s a long story, but we’ll summarise. Shigesato Itoi’s game, Mother, was released in Japan on 27 July 1989 for the Famicom. It was a JRPG unlike any other: the main character was a 12-year-old boy, Ninten, who had psychic powers and saved the world from Gyiyg (which is how you can spell alien in Latin). We won’t go into the story; Nintendo had planned a US release, but the game, called Earth Bound, ultimately never received an official NES release. A ROM of the prototype was leaked, and then Earthbound Beginnings was made available on the Nintendo Wii U officially, meaning that after the second part, the first got an official English release, albeit digitally.

The sequel was released for Super Famicom in August 1994 in Japan, but Ape, Itoi’s studio, needed help. That’s where HAL Laboratory stepped in, where the genius of one Satoru Iwata, later president of Nintendo, was required to turn what had been a troublesome development into a hard-hitting game. In Japan, it sold over half a million copies (and the alien arch-villain, now known as Giygas, returned to make life miserable for Ness and his team…). Still, the August 1995 localisation, Earthbound, only managed 140,000 sales on the SNES in North America. The marketing was a bit out-of-this-world too. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t lie. A fan base did develop over time, though.

Mother 3 was then first planned for the Nintendo 64, but the project eventually fell in the trash. But Itoi didn’t give up on the game and confirmed that he was working on it in a rather humorous way: at the end of the first advertisement for Mother 1+2, the GBA port of the two previous instalments, he revealed that his game is heading to Nintendo’s handheld! Mother 3 was finally released on GBA in April 2006. By that time, the Nintendo DS was already on a roll (and Iwata was Nintendo’s president!), so the RPG was released on somewhat outdated technology, which kept the psychic powers, but there were still some differences from the previous games.

This background is essential for context, so let’s get to the present. On Nintendo Switch Online, the big N has expanded with Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound. So the Japanese company hasn’t forgotten about Itoi’s work, and Mother 3 producer Shinichi Kameoka has been encouraged by it. He told Nintendo Everything that, as with the first instalment, the third should be localised (or translated!).

Like the fans, he would be happy if Mother 3 was released in Europe and North America. And in the video embedded in the tweet linked above, Itoi said, “Honestly, I’ve been waiting for this day as eagerly as you,” he said. “I’m thrilled. Whenever I meet someone who tells me they played these games when they were young, or even still do, it’s like meeting a friend. I love it. Now everyone can play them. And you know, now I can make friends young enough to be my great-grandchildren. It makes me very happy.”

We wonder: how long Nintendo will leave Mother 3 untouched? Now it’s not them censoring the western versions of their games (it used to be Earthbound!); it’s Sony who does such a thing (we just wrote about this yesterday!).

Source: VGC