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 release of EarthBound Beginnings - an English version of the original 1989 Mother game on NES.

Following these developments, fans of the series were hopeful the 2006 Game Boy Advance title Mother 3 would be localised. The demand for this game was so extreme, it led to a petition for a western release and some committed fans even went as far as releasing their own translation. So, the question is, will we ever get a chance to experience the third game in the series?

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According to Game Informer senior Editor Imran Khan via a recent thread on ResetEra, Nintendo was supposedly quite eager to release this GBA classic on modern hardware, but felt the risks were too great:

"It was full steam ahead for a while but upon re-evaluation there were aspects of the game that weren't going to go without controversy."

Khan didn't add any details but did say the project was a dead end. It sounds as if there would have needed to be some serious adjustments, linked to censorship, if the game was to be made available to western audiences. For now, though, this third entry in the charming and humorous role-playing series remains a Japanese exclusive.

Would you like to see Mother 3 released locally on modern Nintendo hardware? Have you had the chance to play this game previously? What about the two EarthBound titles that were released here in the west? Tell us below.

[source resetera.com]