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 coming to the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan on 17th December. Released on GBA in 2006, its development had spanned more than a decade by the time it arrived; it was never localised for the West. Though there's a hefty fan translation in English, this is the only entry in the series not to be localised out of Japan.
Of course, Mother was in the same boat but was released on the Wii U eShop this year as EarthBound Beginnings. Here's hoping that Mother 3 will get the same belated localisation treatment to complete the series on Wii U.
Comments 57
Hopefully Nintendo remembers their own joke
They're also releasing a Lucas Amiibo too. I still think it'd be totally cool if they released this English in the West and dedicated it to the late great Satoru Iwata. What I mentioned in another post somewhere was that it'd be cool if Nintendo donated proceeds of releases Mr. Iwata worked on to Cancer awareness and research through the end of the year. He did help with the original Pokemon games too if I remember correctly.
@ThomasWhitehead Its being released the same day as the Lucas amiibo.
I misread these news on the main page just a moment ago. Think of how frustated I am now.
Just do it Nintendo. The sales would easily pay for translation costs...many times over.
And I believe that Tomato has said that they could use his translation for free.
@PigmaskFan : That would set a really bad precedent for Nintendo. SEGA is low enough to have used a fan-made emulation/hack and have the audacity to sell it at full retail price without any optimisation whatsoever. I hope I am not mistaken, but I do not believe that Nintendo would stoop to that.
Nintendo would have to create their own localisation from scratch so they know exactly what has been changed.
@Nintendofan64
That made my day
Had a mini heart attack after seeing "Mother 3" and E-Shop. Oh well, we might get it after Japan.
I would love to have Mother 3. I hope it gets released outside of Japan one day and this is coming from a guy who doesn't even play that many RPGs.
eeeeemmmuuuuulaaatttoooorrrrssss
Time for Mother 3 localization. Heck, they have a ready script for translation. All they have to do is to credit the fan-translation team.
yikes
Vetus, I mentioned that, and sillygostly went after me for it.
I have some great expectations of the release of the game here in the Americas. The problem is that Mother 1 already had an English translation available (in the 'Earthbound Zero' leak), while no such official translation came out to Mother 3...
...unless Nintendo- takes up Tomato's offer of taking Tomato's unofficial translation of the game.
It's very likely it is going to the West.
@sillygostly earthbound beginnings is almost nearly the exact same translation as the hacked translated ROM of Japan's Mother, so it wouldn't come off as a big surprise if they did use Tomato's translation. I'm sure more people would be thrilled to have the game than actually care how lazy they might have been to just do it themselves as it is obvious the Mother 3 being translated is somewhat a joke to them, regarding 2014's Nintendo Direct joke.
@Vetus Honestly doubt they would use that...lol
The question is, why are they even releasing this in Japan if not to release it westward later? Upon its initial release, it flopped horribly and a great majority of Japanese MOTHER fans hated it because it wasn't exactly like the other two games. There's plenty of other Japanese-exclusive GBA games they haven't released yet that would be an easier sell.
Hopefully soon, I'd love to play the first and third games.
I have this in english via a homebrew cart on my GBA.
If the most obscure Earthbound could come out, I have no doubt 3 will come. I got my salt ready.
@SebTheGuy : As far as I know, Earthbound Beginnings was not based on a hacked ROM. It was actually scheduled for release in North America but Nintendo changed their minds as they didn't think that the game would sell and so its release was shelved. I believe it leaked online in what would more or less become known as Earthbound Beginnings, but the localisation of Mother is an official one (with NoA's unnecessary censorship intact).
Like everyone else I read "Mother 3" and "eShop" and went "OMG what? I missed that part of the Direct!" But alas.
Please.
Im ready !
I hope they eventually get Mother 3 in the west. I'm so glad I played the fan translation, easily the best Mother game.
Once it's out in Japan, let's all invade the Miiverse community like there's no tomorrow! It worked for Mother 2, it can work here!
I think the translation will happen, they've already got the emulation down, even if they put a very small team on it and it takes a year.
I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but it would be so good to see it over here. The original Mother was translated back in the day if I'm not mistaken, they just decided it wasn't worth spending all that on production and distribution since sales were predicted to be so low.
Well, this is a start—but there's a genuinely brilliant (I'm talking official Nintendo quality) English fan translation of the game just waiting to be scooped up. Use it, Nintendo!
More people need to play this stunning and, imo, extremely important videogame.
@sillygostly Well, I'll tell you this for free: This fan translation is as good as any first party English translation I've seen. In fact, it's better than most of them. The amount of love and attention to detail these guys put in the translation, even fixing and tweaking little elements of the GUI and stuff, to work better with the English text, is stunning.
I would, in no way, shape, or form, be disappointed if Nintendo used this fan translation. In fact, I wish it frikin would, and get the f'n English version of this game out already. Many more people need and deserve to play this genuinely amazing game—and one of the most powerful gaming experiences I've had in my 25ish years as a gamer (give or take a few).
It's also the best game in the series, by far, as far as I'm concerned—which if you know anything about the love that Earthbound gets, is really saying something.
Note: It's a shame—assuming that screenshot is anything to go by—that, right out the gate, they're ruined the stunning pixel-art visuals quite a bit by virtue of how totally and utterly dull the colours look in the game on Wii U. The whites really should be pure white, and the blacks really should be pure black. It looks amazing when emulated on my PC, which I'd also just suggest you all go and play it on, because the English fan translation is genuinely stunning. Nintendo is not going to do a better job, if it ever gets around to it, that I can promise you.
This,
Secret of Mana (1 + 2)
FFVI
Will these ever make it to the west.
@nacho_chicken Flopped? It topped the charts on release week by selling over 200,000 copies. Not sure where you're getting your facts from.
How I feel when Japan gets stuff they already have that we have been asking for decades
Plleeeaassse make it happen!!
Hopefully!!
Swell, since the original was localised, we can hope.
Ha,ha! Muito bom o comentário do @AshFoxX
I hope this come to west too.
Given that EarthBound (not to mention EarthBound Zero) finally saw the light of day on the Wuu, I figured this to be exactly where we were headed, as soon as Nintendo announced GBA Virtual Console being specifically on the home console.
I'm pretty sure it's coming here.
Mother 3 coming to Japan on the eshop... WE'RE NEXT!!! I DON'T HAVE TO PLAY THE FAN TRANSLATION ON A COMPUTER ANYMORE!!! I CAN PLAY IT ON MY WII U!!! ...If they confirm it for the west, that is...
Yeah still waiting for Super Mario RPG in the west. It's already in the JP Wii U eshop.
Remember the reason Nintendo gave for why they released EarthBound on the virtual console? It was all the posts on the JP Mother 2 section on Miiverse. We just gotta do it again! It's disappointing that we're not getting it just like that, but Mother fans have been given a chance again. Hope rides on!
Im not sure. NOA seems to really not enjoy supporting their VC as it is. We did get the other teo games in the series which was great, but they were already officially translated
Hmm I guess I'll finally give this game a shot then.
@SebTheGuy Huh, no. That translation was official, not a hack.
I haven't picked up the original yet tho when Earthbound came to WiiU I picked it up and played it, despite it being an old enough game. This coming to Europe will convince me to part with my money for the first one as well as this!
I mean, for cross-promotional purposes, it would make sense. Every other character in Smash is in at least one other game on the eShop - even Cloud, ROB, and Snake. Lucas is the only one out.
@DarkmarkUnited I suspect that that was deleted data from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga where characters of other IPs cameod in the cafe.
E3 2016 Western Release?
Yes indeed.
@DarkmarkUnited It is an unused animation from Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, where he was supposed to appear in the game's coffee house. Samus, Link and Olimar were also supposed to appear.
@nacho_chicken Yeah, it flopped horribly that Japan even got a beautifully crafted special edition gba micro that included the game and a gorgeous Franklin Badge. Get your facts right.
@FRANKLIN_BADGE
What does getting a LE console have to do with sales? Especially a console that tanked like the Micro. That said, the M3 Micro is a piece of art. I wish I would've bought one a few years ago when they were still reasonably priced.
The facts are that while MOTHER 3 did have a promising opening week for a game on a dying handheld, continued sales were not at all great. It took the whole rest of the year (after April) to sell another ~170k.
You may be sourcing the Wikipedia article for your stats. That article makes MOTHER 3's lifetime sales seem much better than they actually were. While it did make top 40 that year, you have to note some of the games that beat it that year in Japan:
M3 didn't even make top 500 the next year. It sold less than 19,749 units in '07.
Sources:
http://geimin.net/da/db/2006_ne_fa/index.php
http://geimin.net/da/db/2007_ne_fa/index.php
I would have no issue with paying Nintendo some good £s for this and I certainly would have no problem with the utilising the fan translation [although I am sure they would make some of their own alterations to that]
told you guys.
its coming to amurica
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