News Articles
Wednesday24th Jul 2019
News This Week's Smash Bros. Ultimate Spirit Event Celebrates Mother's 30th Annivesary
Starts this Friday
The Mother (EarthBound) series is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. As part of the celebration, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be hosting an appropriately-themed spirit event later this week. This event will begin on 26th July and will run for the entire weekend. During this time, you'll be able to get your hands on...
Monday15th Jul 2019
News Monolith Soft Developer Recalls Pitching Earthbound Sequel To Shigesato Itoi
“Iwata-san was there as well.”
Video games can inspire some pretty fervent passions in their fan bases, and few are as passionate as that of the Mother games. Set in modern times, this RPG series follows the exploits of Ness and his friends and is known as EarthBound in the west, but we only ever got the second game on its intended console. The...
Saturday1st Jun 2019
News Previously Unseen Footage Of EarthBound 64 Emerges Online
Take a trip back to 1996
One Nintendo 64 game that never saw the light of day, in the end, was EarthBound 64 – also known as Mother 3. The project started out life as a Super Nintendo release before being moved across to the Nintendo 64 and was eventually axed in August 2000. It ended up arriving on the Game Boy Advance in 2006 and since then, all...
Tuesday12th Feb 2019
News Nintendo Allegedly Cancelled Localisation Of Mother 3 Due To Its Controversial Aspects
Project halted
The Mother series, better known as EarthBound outside of Japan, was beginning to grow in popularity back during the Wii U generation when the 1994 Super Nintendo entry was for the first time ever, released in Europe and certain other territories in 2013 on the Virtual Console. Nintendo followed this up in 2015 with the Virtual Console...
Thursday21st Jun 2018
News Reggie Knows You Want Nintendo To Localise Mother 3 And Make Another Animal Crossing
"All I could say is we’re aware"
The Mother series—Nintendo’s odd, modern day RPG—is one that’s had a weird relationship the West. After the first game failed to leave Japan (despite getting a full translation), the second game was eventually released here under the name Earthbound, to little fanfare. Though the game didn’t receive all...
Wednesday23rd May 2018
News One Of The Devs Behind Mother 3 And The Mana Series Is Working On A New Game For Switch
And it's due to be revealed this summer
Nintendo Switch continues to attract more and more developers to the platform, and that includes veterans who have helped create some of Nintendo's most beloved titles. Enter one Shinichi Kameoka, the man who served as a producer on Mother 3 on the Game Boy Advance, who has revealed he and his studio Brownies...
Friday6th Jan 2017
News Hopes for Mother 3 On Nintendo Switch Boosted by 1-UP Studio Facebook Post
Or it could be something new
1-UP Studio - formerly Brownie Brown - has been relatively quiet in recent times, though it has been contributing to some Wii U and 3DS releases, including The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes; in fact, its social media posts for much of last year were mostly focused on graduate seminars and recruitment. A Facebook...
Tuesday3rd Jan 2017
Rumour Mother 3 Will Be Unveiled for the Switch VC at the Switch Reveal Next Week
Due out sometime in Q2
Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day, eh? Many of you no doubt will recall rumours from last February in which Mother 3 was reported to be coming to the Wii U VC sometime in the then coming months. Several sources ended up backing this claim, yet 2016 has come and gone without so much as a whisper from Nintendo on...
Monday6th Jun 2016
Video Take A Tour Of Earthbound Creator Shigesato Itoi's Offices
Welcome to Hobonichi
Shigesato Itoi may not be as active as other Japanese developers, but his impact on the gaming world is immense. Itoi created the Mother series - better known in the west as Earthbound - and across a handful of titles touched the lives of countless gamers all over the globe. These days, he runs Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun - better...
Thursday4th Feb 2016
Rumour Nintendo Has Plans to Localise Mother 3 This Year
UPDATE: More sources step foward
UPDATE: We've since had more confirmation from Nintendo Life contributor Liam Robertson, who has posted the following on Twitter. It seems that Emily wasn't the only person who knew about this, but she might have let the cat out of the bag prematurely: UPDATE #2: Eurogamer has also confirmed that it was previously...
Thursday17th Dec 2015
Video Mother 3 Hits Japanese Virtual Console With Impressive Trailer In Tow
Will we ever see this classic in the west?
The Game Boy Advance title Mother 3 hits the Japanese Virtual Console service today, and to mark the event Nintendo has released a surprisingly comprehensive trailer. Mother 3 is the sequel to EarthBound - which was known in Japan as Mother 2. Originally intended for release on the N64's 64DD drive, it...
Friday13th Nov 2015
News Mother 3 Heading to the Wii U eShop in Japan on 17th December
Will it ever be officially localised for the West?
Though we've been following the Nintendo Direct festivities in North America and Europe, the equivalent broadcast in Japan has thrown up its own unique surprise; unfortunately it's an announcement that can perhaps be considered a bit of a long shot for the West. It's been confirmed that Mother 3 is...
Wednesday8th Oct 2014
Video Check Out this Adorable Tribute to the Mother Series
That's 'Earthbound' to us
Regardless of who wrote them, fans are the ones who can really tell the story of a game better than anyone, and that statement is no truer than in this video which pays homage to the Mother series, which sadly still only exists as a single game outside of Japan. All of the peculiarity, all of the charm, and all of the...
Friday30th Aug 2013
News Nintendo Has "Nothing To Announce" Regarding Mother 3 Localisation
Earthbound Wii U release won't pave the way for future ports
Earthbound coming to the Wii U Virtual Console was quite an event — fans had been asking for the game since the days of the original Wii. Given the tremendous exposure surrounding the launch of the game, you might assume that Nintendo would want to explore the possibly of bringing other...
Monday19th Aug 2013
News Translated EarthBound 64 Interview Gives Insight Into Struggles of Development and Cancellation
Satoru Iwata, Shigesato Itoi and Shigeru Miyamoto pull no punches
Despite the loyal following generated by the first two games in the series, EarthBound 64 — or MOTHER 3 as it actually was — never saw the light of day. It didn't in that form, in any case, as MOTHER 3 eventually arrived on the Game Boy Advance in 2006, but only in Japan; the...
Monday22nd Apr 2013
News Mother 3 Fan Offers Nintendo Free Translation of the GBA Title
Nintendo's offered an olive branch, fans will help to get the whole tree
So, last week Nintendo announced that it was finally planning to release one of the most requested Virtual Console titles we've known of here at Nintendo Life; Earthbound is coming to the Wii U Virtual Console. The fact that gamer reaction after its confirmation for the...
Monday14th Feb 2011
Podcast NLFM Episode 17: Love Fest 2011
Love is in the air for this Valentine's Day special
Ho ho ho! Happy Valentine's Day, citizens of Earth! Let Nintendo Life be your love muffin this year with a very special NLFM dedicated to all things lovey-dovey-goo-goo. If the music of this episode doesn't melt your ice-cold heart even a little then we'll only be hurt just a tad. 1. Shōgo Sakai...
