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?

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]
Comments 154
More controversial than aborting baby space hitler after having your soul plucked from your lifeless corpse and having to deal with all the PTSD that brought you there for the final boss of Earthbound?
Devastated, such a powerful and emotional game 😩
No more rumors, please...I can't take it anymore.
Yeah, probably... There's the Magypsies, for one thing.
But at the end of the day, EarthBound and Mother 1/EarthBound Beginnings were just lower risk to release digitally because they already had localized versions to draw from. As nice as it was for Clyde "Mato" Mandelin to offer his fan translation, Ninty would never seriously accept that offer, since he had conducted it outside of their oversight.
The dream to play as Lucas in his own game is gone. Rest In Peace.
Why are the Magypsies considered controversial?
Is it about negative stereotypes or something? I thought the characters were handled really well when I played.
@Joeynator3000 I decided to drop the tag.
I don't know much about the source for this rumour but it sounds very click bait to me...
@EarthboundBenjy @Illusion
Having played the game, there's a major portion where you go to an island, get high on suspect mushrooms, and have a really bad trip that preys on the characters deep-seated fears and insecurities.
There's actually a lot of twisted subject matter in the game, it's not quite as cuddly and quirky as Earthbound was most of the time.
Oh boy here comes the dumpster fire in the comments section
I always wonder how the heck it came to be that the most emotionally repressed and most censored part of the world produces games that wouldn't be allowed or contain material frowned upon in the much more free and democratic Western society. By all rights, it should be the other way around.
Either way, nothing in such a simple looking 16 bit game would be able to shock me personally. That only works when not just the subject matter, but also the medium itself is highly realistic, and therefore actually has the potential to be truly shocking, which this cartoonesque game could never be.
Oh, well. I guess there'll be an unofficial language patch anyways, so people that really want to play it, will still be able to do so in time.
In a James Earle Jones voice NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!
Or they could just not change anything and slap a Teen ESRB rating on it, or M for mature if they really wanna be ridiculous about it. Their mascot Mario is constantly eating psychoactive mushrooms and birdo is transgender and those games get E ratings and no one bats an eye. Where’s the controversy that makes this not able to get a western release??The majority of people who want mother 3 localized are all adults so put the stupid M rating on it if you must. Just sounds like a bad excuse or a completely baseless leak. You all know how accurate these Nintendo leakers are...
Sadly given what the game has even a higher rating wouldn't help. Still has child abuse and animal abuse, and that's not even getting into the racism stuff.
@Sabrewing I don’t get the problem with the magypsies. For 1 they are not trans, they are a race that doesn’t have a gender. And 2 have you seen the construction guy from breath of the Wild?
@RupeeClock Touch fuzzy get dizzy ring any bells? Pretty much the same thing.
Bad Nintendo for censoring your own art.
@SimplyCinnamon53 You forgot 3: and they're all fantasy characters anyway, so no matter what happens to them, it's not real and should not be copy/pasted onto any actual group of living beings, so that they can act all offended and whine about it...
Just make the game rated M, that would fix the problem.
It's not a kids game. It's twisted, like every EarthBound game, you're either into it or you're not.
Some may find it controversial. Some. Just some.
Others, like 90% of us love this game. Just bring it over and make a lot of money.
The game is edgy, sure, but there's always reason, humour and/or emotion to it, so why deny us a game because of some people who don't even comprehend?
@SimplyCinnamon53
Not really, that was just a somewhat psychedelic experience with trippy visuals.
Mother 3's mushroom trip has you opening mailboxes that hold countless screams, the sound of yourself crying, guilt over a physical handicap, fear of paternal beatings, dread over Lucas' dead mother and missing brother, and more.
It’s all pixel art. Whatever implied child abuse, animal abuse, transgender/sexless race, or racism or whatever people are gonna whine about that scares them from releasing this game in its intended form is unfair. How can a 16 bit pixel game set in a fantasy world be offensive to anybody??
Why can't they just hire the guy who did the localization of Earthbound/Mother 2 to work on this game?
@Zach1122
In case you hadn’t noticed, people are offended by everything nowadays. A woman was literally jailed in the U.K. for calling a transgender man a man on twitter. And regardless of whether someone thinks it’s appropriate or inappropriate, the fact is retaliation to what some claim as offensive is getting deadly serious. The chronically offended will stop at nothing- harassment, persecution, violence... it’s all “justified” in the eyes of the offended.
It’s a different world we live in nowadays. Not saying I disagree about wanting the game though- personally I think this hyper-PC culture is beyond ridiculous. By all rights, your question is 100% logical. The problem is... people don’t react logically anymore.
If true, that really is a shame. It's a game every jrpg fan should play through. I ended up getting an English translated GBA reproduction cartridge. At least there's still a way for English speaking fans to enjoy this classic. I'm always ready to buy an official version if Nintendo changes their stance.
Guess I’ll just play the English rom I have instead of giving Nintendo any money.
I've heard it all before. Big if true.
@ThanosReXXX "I always wonder how the heck it came to be that the most emotionally repressed and most censored part of the world produces games that wouldn't be allowed or contain material frowned upon in the much more free and democratic Western society. By all rights, it should be the other way around."
I'm not sure what you are talking about. Do you know anything about Japan?
I know, youre absolutely right Jaxon...it’s just infuriating that these people who are offended at the drop of a hat are so persistent in their vision of having it all be politically correct that everything has to suffer, including art and fictional stories or we must feel the wrath of these enraged snowflakes.
@JaxonH Censorship is not a recent issue and has been pushed on the masses by Conservatives AND Liberals for decaded upon decades. Stop using all the fun soundbites you learned online in the past 5 years. I think Nintendo is a little paranoid in this circumstance, is all. We live in a society that airs South Park and releases plenty of disturbing/offensive video game content. Regarding this article, the choice is really simply on Nintendo, and really has been for over a decade, long before your afformentioned 'PC Marxist Takeover' happened, or whatever some shill wants you to believe. Chill out, we were talking about Mother 3 here, not political science.
@roboshort More than enough. No offense, but you seem to be assuming all the wrong things from my comment. And nothing that I said wasn't true.
EDIT:
On a side note: I was talking about a part of the world, as in Asia as a whole, not Japan specifically, and various kinds of censorship and emotional repression are most certainly a thing.
Oh well, I have this English patched on my SNES Mini. If Nintendo doesn't want my money, so be it!
So... you have a game you deem too controversial for a western release, and yet you have no issues with two characters, four stages, and weapons from those games being in Smash Bros.?
@DockEllisD Thanks for the info.
@arekdougy
What? Who said anything about conservatives or democrats? Sound bytes? You sound like an extremely partisan person who gets overly defensive about everything.
I have no idea what you’re talking about guy. I don’t care much about politics and I don’t watch the news, or “sound bytes”. But I know idiocy and lunacy when I see it. You are the one that needs to chill out. This is exactly the problem right here. People can’t even have opinions about things that happen anymore without other people attacking them for it, marginalizing them, slapping imaginary labels on them and making it about “politics” and “news” instead of one guy having a simple observational opinion about something going on in the world. Most here agree the world is way too PC and hyper sensitive to offense, but the minute someone gives a tangible example of precisely that, hostility ensues.
Everyone in America who genuinely wants to play this game has bought the translated GBA cart or d/L'd the translated ROM.
@JaxonH They were a transgender woman, not a transgender man. If they’d called a transgender man a man, they’d be perfectly correct and there wouldn’t be any problems!
Society has gone crazy so I don't blame Nintendo. Even so, release it you cowards! Who cares about the crazy part of the world? We deserve free speech and less censorship. The world can be a dark place, but we can't hide from it forever. Mother 3 can be a really sad, depressing game, but I think it was done wonderfully.
@nessisonett
Yes you’re probably right. I don’t follow that kind of stuff much so I don’t even know what it’s all about, but I do know it’s ridiculous to jail somebody for it. Right or wrong, it’s absurd to jail somebody for such a thing. I can walk down the street and call a stranger an eight legged octopus if I wanted. Doesn’t mean I should be sent to jail for it.
But yeah anyways, point being reactions to things that offend people are getting really extreme nowadays. I can kind of understand why Nintendo would be hesitant in this day and age.
I would absolutely buy an official Western release on the off-chance that one were to surface, but at this point I own a physical copy of the game and have the translated ROM, so I'm past the point of caring either way.
@JaxonH While it’s definitely dangerous to jail people just for what they say, I do think that hate crimes should be investigated thoroughly as snide comments turn into harassment and then that turns into full-scale violence. I can see why they’re trying to nip it in the bud but it definitely conflicts with free speech. It’s just very hard legally defining the difference between an off-colour comment and hateful speech said only to cause harm.
Thing is, we could've read the same exact article in 2010 and the "modern hardware" in question could've been the Wii.In other words, I wonder when this re-evaluation took place. I'd say Nintendo would be more open to localizing it these days considering they're a less worried about censoring stuff in games and are allowing more M rated games.
@JaxonH
Nintendo has been censoring their own games for a very, very long time. This is nothing new, the world isn’t different. Back in the 80’s Devil World wasn’t even released in the states because of the probable outcry from the Christian community.
I’d also like to add that as a queer person myself (and speaking for queer friends that also love Mother 3) I have no issues with the Magypsies, I actually love them. I’m always happy to see fun, campy characters in a JRPG. Don’t blame “snowflakes” or “sjws” for this censorship, this was and is completely up to Nintendo. They’re the ones with the power.
I honestly believe who cares about censorship! Pretty much anyone 10 and under won't be able to pass chapter 1 anyway! We have ESRB Ratings for a reason!
I usually defend this site but this is definite clickbait to get all the edgy views.
@JaxonH I’d also like to add that that news story you were referring to is sensationalist garbage. That woman wasn’t jailed, she was detained for a couple hours. And it wasn’t for misgendering someone once online but for levying a cyber bullying campaign against them via several twitter accounts. Most of the sites reporting on this story are also HIGHLY questionable at best and if I were you I’d find better news sources.
We're never getting Mother 3 because Nintendo's afraid they're gonna huwt sumwun's feewings. We're not getting Mother 3 or 4, thanks Ninty.
@arekdougy Here here 👏👏👏👏
@nessisonett @TaterTotinski
thank you both for being affirming 💖💖
I really want to play this game, and this coming from a guy who doesn’t play that many RPG games. I don’t want Nintendo to censor anything though.
@TaterTotinski
I'll co-sign that.
I kinda found the Magypsies to be a tiny little piece of representation.
even if their name is based on an ethnic slur.
@JaxonH Just in case anyone reads your post and wants to know more, the woman was arrested for harassing someone repeatedly on Twitter, across multiple accounts, and she was released promptly and not charged. The fact that she has some kooky views about gender was not the reason she was arrested.
@Charlie_Girl My pleasure! ☺️
Played the fan translation when it came out, and loved it of course, but really want to play it through official means!
@Charlie_Girl Exactly, a tiny lil piece of representation for us queer folk. Yes, their name leaves alot to be desired but hey, it’s a Japanese game after all and Japan is a very different country to America. They generally find pretty different things offensive/acceptable. coughBLACKFACEcough 🤷♂️
@JaxonH I agree with you more than I don't. I just don't think Nintendo's decision not release Mother 3 due to 'controversial reasons' is relevant to local news stories in the UK.
I find it fascinating that a country whose population is usually shy and reserved would be more okay with controversial content in their media than we in the West are.
Yes, there is a cultural barrier, but at the same time, how will we be able to learn about other cultures if we censor them to fit our own? Is that really fair to the other culture?
I was shocked myself when I got to the part of Mother 3 where Lucas gets in to hard drug use and you have to play that whole section where he was really out of it and not progressing much in his quest. It really does show a bad example for the children and I agree with the game not being localized.
@ViVi_Moon
"We're not getting Mother 3 or 4, thanks Ninty."
Uhhh, wasn't Mother 4 a fangame? Did Nintendo shoot it down or what?
@arekdougy
Perhaps not.
I know Nintendo has been gun shy, along with some other JP developers. I was merely providing some context for the type of PC culture we live in, not as a specific example of why the game isn’t coming. I think it’s partly Nintendo but I also think it’s partly that very culture as well. Its pretty bad.
@Kevember Nintendo's probably aware of people getting offended by just about everything these days, soooo......
@Zach1122 because in this day and age even the white Power Ranger is considered racist by some.
The problem is there is real racism and people calling stuff racism/offensive/over-sexualized, some people want a perfect friendly world but with their short temper they create a nightmare for all because everything is 1 of the 3 things I mentioned.
I mean remember a game like Dead or Alive Xtreme? 15 years ago nobody cared it had sexy girls but now it's "over-sexualised".
Or Mr. Popo from DragonBall, in Kai remaster they made him purple because people called him racism but before nobody care and now again nobody cares.
Yesterday DoA Xtreme and Mother 3 are fine, today it's not done and tomorrow it's again fine, true racism/offensive stuff/over-sexualisation will always exist but the 80% people create out of nothing and from everything is almost like some hypes, now it gets attention and tomorrow people ignore it.
Has anybody played the 4th fan game? Is it good?
My problem with such statement is,why would it be ok for japan,but not for us?
Some of the responses here are hilarious. I will ask this. How important are these controversial elements to the game and it’s enjoyment? Because some are suggesting its art style doesn’t necessarily help in taking these themes seriously. So what’s to stop Nintendo from localizing it and just rewriting some of those elements if that’s the case?
@Rayquaza2510 Being a huge Power Ranger fan and active in the community, I’ve only seen that jokingly in relation to the long held belief that the Yellow and Black ‘Mighty Morphin Rangers were a but problematic.
@Liam_Doolan ...But isn't it still a-...ugh, screw this.
goes back to Monster Hunter/some random Switch game
@UmbreonsPapa don't come in here with your logic and sensible behavior
Everyone’s saying Magypsies, but I think it has more to do with the magic mushrooms and the ending. Obviously it’s not a new game, but I’m still not going to spoil how the final boss fight ends. I think they just don’t want to release a cute game this dark because maybe parents would be mad. IDK. The game isn’t really offensive, just dark.
@Rayquaza2510 Well for Mr Po Po, I believe Toriyama actually did base him on a black face character from his childhood and wasn’t aware of the stigma it had with western audiences.
@JaxonH Actually you should look back to the 90s when preachers were giving televised speeches about the evils of Pokémon or the 60s when it’s was Rock music. Censorship has always been a huge topic of controversy. It’s just seen more commonly because with everything at our fingertips, there is more stuff to get offended over and more people to argue with. I do think that while their are all sorts of people offended over the weirdest things, Nintendo is probably underestimating people on this one.
I wonder if they didn't want parents getting this game for their kids thinking it was some sort of cute kids game. Mother 3 also came out around the time that the news and media was going crazy about GTA and COD corrupting children, so a seemingly kid friendly game to an outsider that is actually really messed up could be terrible press for Nintendo if some news outlet ran a story about it.
Nintendo seems to be more friendly to M-rated titles, with the Switch. They also have a lot of junk on the e-Shop, regardless of rating, but that's another story. I suppose they like to keep their series rated the same, or close to it; Main series Mario titles, for example, are never higher than E10. Zeldas can be E-T, etc. It would be inconsistent for this Mother/Earthbound title to have a sharper rating, than its predecessors.
It angers me that things that are considered "controversial" are not really controversial and everyone suffers for it. A small minority of whingers complain that their feelings are hurt and have to go running to mummy. We want the game and are more than willing to buy it. I could give two you-know-whats if people are offended. Chances are they wouldn't even play it anyway. They just want to ruin it for normal people. No wonder this world is so miserable.
News? Shouldn’t this be put under rumour?
@JaxonH Just did a bit of research, the lady was arrested and held in cells for 7 hours, but was not jailed. She was then released after being ordered by a judge not to refer to the person in question as a man or deadname them on the Internet.
It seems like there was a lot more than just a single tweet as well, that this issue seems to leak into outright harassment rather than a slur.
I think people go too far in PC behaviour but hate crimes are also no laughing matter. Anywho, just clarifying the story.
Just make it a M rating. Most fans have been waiting for more than 10 years so they are above 18 anyway.
It's one of the best games ever made but if they are going to cut content they shouldn't release it imo.
What's the big deal? There is no malice in Eartbound is there?
So that leaves only Roy's fate undecided regarding Smash characters' games being playable in the west. I really hope Binding Blade gets the Echoes treatment after Three Houses is released (whenever that happens).
What a load of bull. Nintendo should just release Mother 3 already. There is clearly a demand for it. Everyone knows it is a quirky game with material that is absolutely bonkers. That is a feature, not a bug. You can’t pull the “controversy” card on us if we already know what is in the game.
Release Mother 3, Reggie!
Just raise the rating to M and let people make a choice. They already have it translated thanks to starman
Thank you AMERICANS, for complaining about EVERYTHING, even about things that you don't understand.
If true, this, for me, is about as dumb, misguided and short-term thinking a decision as the time Nintendo didn't allow blood to be included in the SNES version of Mortal Kombat back in the day--and we all remember how that turned out. What a total and utter ******* waste if Nintendo doesn't eventually release an official English translation of this masterpiece.
@shonenjump86
Get the fan translation. I really can't recommend this game enough. It's one of my favourite RPG's ever.
@fafonio It's not finished yet so no one has played it. Still waiting for that too. . . .
@Illusion That is a good point you make. Though when I played Earthbound as a kid, I could tell that in the end was dark, it was also a very emotional way to end the game. I really liked it.
[Some spoiler-y stuff below]
Mother 3 has some mild to extreme twisted "offenses" to conservative people, from the funny YMCA Magpsies, to criticism against capitalism, and finally playing god with the lives of humans and animals into horrific body and mind experiments?
@impurekind ohh I thought it had already released. The last i heard is that they had to change the name.
@dleec8 Talk about getting things wrong: That's a section where he eats a wild mushroom (or whatever it is) and gets poisoned by it and then starts hallucinating. It doesn't advocate using drugs or anything like that. God, ignorant and misinformed people like you are the problem. There is actually very little stuff at all in Mother 3 that could be genuinely considered offensive, if anything, only stuff people create offense in out of pure ignorance.
@shonenjump86 Well, for you and all the people who want to play a basically perfect English version of the game:
https://inceptionalnews.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/mother-3-is-brilliant/
If Nintendo isn't going to do it then I have literally zero problem pointing people in the right direction.
@Spudtendo I couldn't get this to work on my hacked SNES Mini for some reason. Any thoughts on something I might have done wrong? For normal SNES games it's really easy, but for a hacked GBA game I know it's a little more complicated.
Controversial armor-piercing question I have for everyone here: where did all the anti-piracy moralists suddenly end up?
Because, you know, a ROM is still the only way to play this game in English at the moment.
@Sabrewing The Magypsies are just an alien race of beings that are neither male nor female. There is nothing about them that is controversial because they have nothing to do with anything in our human society. I mean, you could argue about their name, but that's just stretching. It's not the actual gypsy word, and I really doubt any gypsies are gonna come out of the woodwork and get upset about such a thing.
@RupeeClock But, again, there's nothing controversial about accidentally eating a mushroom that's poisonous and it having some weird effects on you. The game handles it brilliantly. And it certainly isn't glorifying drugs or anything like that. It's a bit creepy--but there's literally hundreds of horror games on Switch right now, so it being creepy isn't a good reason to even think about not releasing the game. And the same goes for almost every single other thing in the game that someone might claim is "controversial": Usually that claim comes from a place of ignorance of what is actually the true case of how it's done in the game. It's like the magypsies: They're not a bunch of transgender humans; they're literally an alien race that is neither male nor female. And they're also glorious and treated with total respect as characters too. All this "controversy" Nintendo is trying to avoid is just stupid. Release the game and let the people experience one of the most important and impacting--and sooo relevant today (more than ever)--stories in video game history.
@Tupin Eh, there is no "child abuse" in the game that I am aware of. What exactly are you talking about? Is this yet another case of someone seeing something that isn't actually there? For example: Mermaids giving a kid oxygen to breath under water via a "kiss" isn't actually "abuse", because it's a completely fictional scenario, and in such a case it would literally be them giving the kid (or person) the kiss of life. It's actually played a bit for laughs the way it's done in the game, and it isn't meant to be a bad thing at all. It's only "abuse" if people twist it in their heads. And maybe that's even part of what Itoi is trying to say in this amazing game: If you find something wrong in it, in certain things, then maybe you need to look to yourself to find where the real problem lies.
@impurekind
Whilst it certainly doesn't glorify drugs and their use may not be intentional, it still counts as a drug reference and would result in an immediate change in ESRB rating. That's one of the issues Nintendo would face as a publisher.
As for the "child abuse", none is ever shown, but as I recall there's a hallucination of Flint saying "Daddy's going to beat you" or something.
There are localization challenges that stem from things that aren't a taboo in Japan, but are internationally, and it affects the publication process.
Okay, this "article" pisses me off. This is common knowledge if you know anything about Mother 3. The idea of this being presented as news is irritating
@RupeeClock
What are the taboos that won't work here then? The magypsies?
It's been a while since I played this beauty ^_^
@Mayor_Haggar The country USA is great, but the ordinary american is dumb, ignorant and clueless, and who said this was the beloved american David Foster Wallace.
I agree with him.
And America is the whole continent, not the United States.
@garfreek
Not sure, it's been a while since I played it as well.
Though the scene where one of the Magypsies awakens Lucas' PSI abilities in a hot spring come to mind.
However you explain the Magypsies, that scene still looks like a child taking a bath with a grown man in drag.
@Illusion
Lol and the blue KKK
Why don’t we just kick the dust off our feet and make an all-new Earthbound, Nintendo?
@Luffymcduck @impurekind, yeah I might have to check out that fan translation. Thanks.
@JaxonH Was basically going to say the say thing about those individuals looking for any chance to be offended. It's creeping into our entertainment, and this vocal minority is destroying it for the rest of us. We were better off before we had social media. It's just exacerbated the problem, and rapidly.
P.S. F*** PC/outrage culture.
Animal cruelty? In Super Mario World, Mario spends pretty much the whole game punching Yoshi in the head, yet that didn't stop Nintendo from re-releasing that game. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason Mother 3 isn't coming is simply because Nintendo doesn't care. Nintendo can be a selfish, lazy company, often refusing to give its fans what they want. Just look at the Switch online service.
@Mayor_Haggar "I didn’t say the Americas (which is actually two continents) nor did I say North or South America"
3.
North america.
Central America.
South America.
See, You are the perfect example of a clueless person that I gave in my previous post.
@fafonio Yeah, they had to change the name and a few other things. It's apparently still happening, but not heard much in a while though.
@RupeeClock Well I don't think having to put a rating on it or whatever should be a reason to not publish it in English in the west.I really hope that's not what Nintendo is thinking, because that's just crazy.
@shonenjump86 Definitely do. There's seriously nothing that's going to be better about an official version, honestly, and the only reason I want an official version is simply because it is official so many more people will hopefully get to experience this amazing game.
@impurekind
It's an entirely valid reason to decide against publishing something that might have non-Tentpole sales expectations.
A higher ESRB rating means a smaller audience you can legally sell the game to, thus reduced sales.
This is why Pokémon games had to drop the Game Corner with the slot machines starting with the European release of Pokémon Platinum, the gambling aspect would've brought the game up to an age rating above E for everyone.
The Virtual Console versions of Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crystal are actually ESRB E10+ / PEGI 12 for this reason, their Game Corners are intact.
@Tirza So you are generalizing a billion or so people...checks out
@RupeeClock Trust me, if Nintendo released this game properly and actually put some advertising behind it, it would more than justify the cost of putting it out there imo--especially if Nintendo also did some kind of special physical collectors edition (which this game absolutely deserves). Seriously, it's such a great game that I think the word of mouth and critical praise alone, once more people get to experience it in English officially, would get the sales numbers up where they need to be to make it all worth while. This in one of Nintendo's complete and utter seminal gems, and it's needs to be put into the hands of as many gamers as possible as far as I'm concerned, even more so in 2019 and where our society is at right now (the total mess it's in)--people will get what I mean when they actually play it.
@impurekind Do you know what sarcasm is? I've never played the game before nor read the plot. I was making a sarcastic and completely fictional comment about the first random thing that popped into my head that could be considered as being "controversial" in a game. I was making a joke about something offensive in a game, and look who became easily offended? You did. I find the ones who scream the most about "PC Culture" are the ones who are the most easily offended in society. You spend so much time worrying about what other people find distasteful or offensive that you don't see how easily offended and fragile you seem to others. Nintendo is a corporation that is in the business of making a profit, and all of their decisions have to do with maintaining that ability to generate that profit. If the company decides that they don't want to publish a game in a region of the world because they think that fans in that region won't understand the more "controversial" plots points or content in that game, then that is their decision. Remember that super extra mature gamers who can handle any video game story with super mature and strong minds like you are not the fans that they are necessarily worried about when they make decisions like this. They are worried about, quite literally, the little kids who will be playing their games. Your fake anger and rage should be directed at Nintendo, not the vague "PC" boogeyman who is scaring you from your closet. Stop with the fake outrage over a video game not being released and grow up. I am a huge Earthbound series fan by the way and would love to play the game, but the decision to localize is up to Nintendo. Individuals like you who lash out at society because it has become "PC" are the ones who seem the most easily offended in it. Funny how that works.
I agree with Nintendo's position. I played through the entirety of the fan-made translation, and throughout the adventure I kept asking myself how they would censor or reconfigure certain characters and situations from this title. I still find Earthbound (Mother 2) to be vastly superior in every way, but it was interesting to play none-the-less.
I do think gamers nowdays are more grown up on what they want and what they don't want to play. If you don't like it then stop playing it. But as anything those screaming "Mother" the loudest are the one playing the game as well. So simple line : Don't like don't play.
@RupeeClock and don't forget the plotline with the Magypsies. That would be difficult to cut.
@dleec8 Dude, you really need to learn how to do "sarcasm" better, because you picked an actual moment in the game, and nothing you said made it sound like you were being anything other than genuine about what you were saying in regards to it. So, stop trying to reverse things and pretend my calling you out is an example of me overreacting, which it clearly isn't. If your comment had been true then my reply was totally spot on. The fact it wasn't simply means you really need to work on saying things the way you actually intend them. lol
And, you're trying waaay too hard to find a way to try and make the people calling out Nintendo look like they aren't justified in doing so, when they totally are. Just like they were back in the day when Nintendo did similarly with Mortal Kombat--look how bad a decision that was in retrospect--and just like they are now.
@Gravitron As I said, I'm just agreeing with the american David Foster Wallace.
@impurekind But you are overreacting. As evidenced by you taking the decisions of a Japanese video game company not localizing one of their games overseas as an opportunity to launch a tirade against PC culture and people being easily offended. Yet here you are, posting multiple comments featuring your outrage that Nintendo hasn't localised their game due to "ignorant" people and "PC/Outrage culture." If you like Mother 3, then I am happy you enjoyed the game. But nobody cares that it was an apparently life changing game for you to the point that you need to post a dozen comments about how the game is a work of art that changed your life and will heal the wounds of society. You revealed your emotional immaturity when you linked the non-localization of this game to "PC" culture, as if "PC" culture is some type of cultural shift that is preventing you from living your best life. You already got to play the pirated game and enjoy it, did you not? So you already played the game and enjoyed it, but you apparently feel the need to rant about outrage society and post a dozen comments on how everyone else needs to play the game too and how other people have ruined the game's chance for localization. The thing is, it isn't gamers that Nintendo is worried about, but non-gamer parents who would cry foul when they see their little children playing games with content they don't want their kids seeing. Your argument is with those parents, but more specifically, with Nintendo itself. If you want to rant, then direct your rant at the proper sources. Just as you cited in your example with MK, Nintendo based that decision off of parents not wanting little Johnny playing a game where he could rip someone's spine and head out of their body as a fatality. These are corporate decisions based on parents and children, not "outrage society" as you presumptiously cite in your post. Nobody cares that you feel offended that Nintendo hasn't released Mother 3.
@Tirza ok so a guy that died 11 years ago told you a fifth of the worlds population are idiots who like to complain and they are only in continents that include the word America...cool got it
@Illusion
It was a different time twenty five years ago...
@dleec8 It's really ironic that you can't even see it's you who's trying way harder than anyone else to make some counter-point here about PC/outrage culture not really being a real thing or whatever. lol
I simply want Mother 3 to get an official English translation. I think there's no genuinely good excuse for not giving gamers and fans this. And I'm saying so.
If the rumour is true and Nintendo isn't doing it for the reasons listed then my comments are 100% legit and warranted. If this is why we don't get an English version of Mother 3 then Nintendo is being just as utterly dumb about this game as it was back in the day when it wouldn't let the developers put blood in the SNES version of Mortal Kombat.
And, by the way, look how badly that moronic no blood in Mortal Kombat decision worked out for Nintendo: Even to this day it still carries that whole negative "kiddie" label/tag/connotation partly as a directly result of that one idiotic and short-sighted decision it made like 30 years ago. When we all know now that including the blood would have ultimately done no harm whatsoever, and actually would have likely worked out far, far, far better for Nintendo in so many ways, from sales to image and so on. Parent's get worked up for two minutes, if they even bother in the first place, but passionate gamers remember for a lot, lot longer than that. Remember when Nintendo used to rule the game industry, and then Sony--who had the exact opposite of a blinkered and restrictive kiddie image at the time--came along and blew it out the water (and has pretty much ruled the industry since).
And the fact I can give you an actual 100% legit and concrete example of how stupid and short-sighted Nintendo can be about such things is testament to the fact that it's not me who's overreacting about not getting the game but Nintendo who's overreacting in not giving fans this seminal game--yes, if the rumours are true, because it's stupidly reacting and pandering to the utterly idiotic, ignorant and misguided OTT PC culture of our times.
Basically, we all know fine well there's no legitimately good reason for Nintendo not releasing this game--its thinking is totally and utterly flawed and blinkered and short-sighted and misguide and just dumb--and that's all I'm really saying.
But your comments are just a twit going off on one for whatever reason.
You've clearly got a bee in your bonnet when it comes to outspoken, brutally honest and blunt, but still actually correct people like me. lol
The real irony here, however, is that after such debates about political correctness and the likes, whether you're arguing against it or for it or whatever, Mother 3's entire story and premise, with all its little messages and wisdoms and life lessons, just makes even more sense and is even more profound and apt right now than ever--such is its genius.
And that's why gamers deserve this masterpiece--rather than cowardice on Nintendo's part.
@impurekind Nintendo gambled wrongly with the MK 1 release, as evidenced by the fact that they reversed course and allowed blood in the second version of the game on the SNES. But as a kiddie-centered company, they did what they thought was necessary at the time to protect their brand. Like I said before, I have never played Mother 3, and had no idea of the actual plot points in the game that Nintendo might be worried about. But once again, it isn't cowardice that drives Nintendo's decision making, it is corporate branding and marketing suits who believe that Mother 3 won't reflect Nintendo's brand in the West. I would happily play Mother 3 if released, but I won't be losing any sleep over it if it never comes over.
"it is corporate branding and marketing suits who believe that Mother 3 won't reflect Nintendo's brand in the West"
Yes, and they are a bunch of misguided cowards, imo, making certain decisions based on some very misguided logic as far as I'm concerned.
For the handful of completely ignorant and sheepish plonkers that would undoubtedly complain about how damaging Mother 3 is to our kids and offensive to transgenders and so on--completely ignorantly and misguidedly so (because it's actually not at all)--there would literally be tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions at a push, of Nintendo fans and gamers in general who would be singing the company's praise if it just got around to releasing the official English version of Mother 3. And the game would receive widespread critical acclaim and praise too, which is always a good thing for Nintendo, even taking into account the inevitable negative press it would get from some corners too (probably polygon). But Nintendo is more concerned with appeasing a small group of ignorant and misguided morons and/or saving the youth from basically nothing--stupid.
It was the same thing with Mortal Kombat: For the handful of people it appeased, it could have left millions of gamers singing its absolute praise, and likely made even mooore money too.
If the rumours are true, it's ultimately another bad decision all round as far as I'm concerned.
[removed]
JUST LET ME GIVE YOU MY MONEY MAN!!!!!!!!11
JUST LET ME GIVE YOU MY MONEY cryingf and pissing mypnts
@Oharo Mind your language! And please, no needs for all the caps.
@Octane I am sorry
I'm not the biggest Earthbound fan (interesting/creative idea, boring gameplay), so this means nothing to me. I don't like when they refuse to release games because of content though. Just bump up the rating so the people who aren't offended can play. I don't even mind minor censorship if it avoids controversy and doesn't totally changed the game (eg. Lin's bikini in Xenoblade Chronicles X).
@dleec8
It's like Nintendo can't do anything wrong in your eyes.
@dleec8 I want to upvote your comments 100 times
Everytime somebody says that fetus bull, Itoi-san cries.
@impurekind Discussing homebrew and emulators is fine, but please don't post links to third party sites offering not-very-legal copyrighted content.
Spoiler: Mother turns out to be Father.
@Gravitron He was right afterall. And I really dislike his literature.
@Octane Just trying to give people some way to play the only available English version of Mother 3.
@Tupin They're are more controversial stuff in Mother 3 than in our Happy Happy Go Lucky Earthbound. For one, People actually die! The animal abuse is real. Among other issues... At least I can still read the summary on Its Fandom Website!
@dleec8 Kids Legit Die (Or Appear to)
Animal abuse
Drug refrence
And that's why emulation exists
We even got a french translation, so if Nintendo does not want to release it, fair enough. I'm still able to play it. I'll take it when they will release it.
@impurekind That's fair, I understand that. We do allow the discussion of homebrew, but please avoid any links because it's a bit of a grey area. People will know where to find it anyway
Wouldn't surprise me. Nintendo has become very soft. A game like Earthbound or Mother 3 wouldn't be made today, at least not for western audiences. That said, Bayonetta 2 is a very strange thing compared to their other output from recent years.
To be fair, controversial for Nintendo is much different than other companies. Bravely Default had bare skin in it and was censored when brought to American audiences. Which is fair because Chibi's are not very adult looking by design. Nintendo tries to avoid any controversy.
I thought this was rather obvious. A straight localization would've resulted in a M rating due to differing social norms (for example, the transvestite village), and there's no way an M-rated Earthbound game would sell decently to what is already a niche audience. It's the same reason that one graveure chapter of "Tokyo Mirage Sessions" was censored, but they wouldn't be able to do the same thing with "Mother 3" without butchering the story in the process.
@ThanosReXXX Yeah, it's odd, but Japanese society is somehow much more relaxed concerning certain forms of sexual content and a few other things. On the other hand, Japan is much more conservative about violent content than we are in the West.
However, don't forget that despite their relatively more insular culture, Japan is also a free society that is mostly democratic aside from their Emperor. I'm not sure, but since WWII I don't think the Japanese Emperor has that much more power than most of the remaining European monarchs.
@Zach1122 @handsoffmybread @R_Champ They could release it with an M rating, but it would never sell enough that way to cover the costs of localization. Nintendo is still a business, so they're not going to just throw away money just to please a small group of fans.
give it the appropriate rating, and who cares.
@BulbasaurusRex True, to some extent, but you do also often read about how emotionally reserved they are, how overstressed they are because of that, and because of them working so hard, some even living near or at work, and so on, and so on. In quite a few ways, it's also a very restricted society, regardless of the video and video game content that comes from that country.
And talking about video: censorship is definitely a thing there. They practically invented mosaic censoring...
It makes no sense to me, just give it a pegi 18 rating and release it already, it's not like kids would play it to begin with anyway...
Would a Mother 3 release be that controversial though? Gamers who know about it, including the websites that cover it, lavish it with praise regarding the gameplay, story, and dialogue. If the concern is that Nintendo will receive negative press in regards to Mother 3, keep in mind that they are slowly shaking their "kids-only" image over the decades, especially since this one while publishing Bayonetta 2 of all things, an M-rated game that they outright endorsed Kamiya to go all out on with regards to adult contents. A minority of disingenuous far-left political activists, rightfully called SJWs, who have proven that they don't buy contents that panders to their viewpoints should not have been enough to prevent a localization that was on its way until XXX "controversial" moment happened.
For people saying that politically correct culture is not a thing, please look at a window. Just from popular culture alone, the far left,
Damaged the Star Wars brand, one of the world's biggest IP
Accelerated the impending death of the American comic industry by making unwelcomed changes to heroes like Hulk, Thor and Ice Man
Tarnished the Ghostbuster franchise with an all-female cast that panders to the west of "progressive", which is actually regressive, culture
Stopped a foreign Chinese woman from publishing a young adult novel, thus silencing her free speech even though she came from a country that not only does not respect the concept but is literally implementing a social credit system where the government will track every movement a person makes within the country
Kowtowing to the SJWs was not a wise move on Nintendo's part. The argument that "everyone who wanted to play Mother 3 would have done so by now" does not take into account that people are willing to replay and support the games they loved playing and Earthbound fans are among the most dedicated fan base in gaming. That's like saying if people were interested in Mother 1 and 2, they would have played it before their Virtual Console releases but that did not stop them from being successful. The last thing we need is a return of mass censorship on Nintendo's consoles.
The outrage culture that the SJWs set up needs to die as we head into the new decade. If that means that the journalism industry collapses along with its tumorous leech on Western culture, so be it.
@ThanosReXXX I don’t take offense because you don’t know much about Japan apparently. In some ways Japan is more free than the US and in some ways less.... Asia is a huge place extending from Turkey to Japan/ the Philippines. There is a huge amount of diversity in politics and culture.
@roboshort Well, I know all that I need or want to know, contrary to what you seem to think. I am by no means an authority on the subject, but neither are you.
I did have to re-read my own comments again, to see what the discussion was actually about again...
I was already a bit further along in the conversation, where I also got into the nuances of what I said, and where I was able to explain myself a bit better.
I didn't mean to generalize, and it's true that Asian and/or Japanese people are, in some ways, more open/relaxed than us, but in emotional aspects, and to some extent in political/cultural respects, they are definitely more restricted (or maybe I should nuance that and say "different", because to Western eyes, it often seems restrictive, but perhaps they themselves don't view it as such), and the censorship of various kinds of media is definitely a thing. The simplest example of this is anime.
I'll just leave mine and Bulbasaur's previous comments here, to save you the trouble of having to scroll back up the list of comments:
BulbasaurusRex Thu, 8:43am
@ ThanosReXXX Yeah, it's odd, but Japanese society is somehow much more relaxed concerning certain forms of sexual content and a few other things. On the other hand, Japan is much more conservative about violent content than we are in the West.
However, don't forget that despite their relatively more insular culture, Japan is also a free society that is mostly democratic aside from their Emperor. I'm not sure, but since WWII I don't think the Japanese Emperor has that much more power than most of the remaining European monarchs.
ThanosReXXX Thu, 2:15pm
@ BulbasaurusRex True, to some extent, but you do also often read about how emotionally reserved they are, how overstressed they are because of that, and because of them working so hard, some even living near or at work, and so on, and so on. In quite a few ways, it's also a very restricted society, regardless of the video and video game content that comes from that country.
And talking about video: censorship is definitely a thing there. They practically invented mosaic censoring...
Let’s get real. In 2019 in the United States, this game is about as controversial as “The Brady Bunch” is. Not only are we receptive to Mother 3 and all its beautiful uniqueness, we hunger for diversity in our gaming experiences. Not to mention I’ve been waiting since Nintendo Power magazine teased screenshots of Earthbound 64 back in the day. Still waiting, Nintendo...
Thanks for nothing again Nintendo!🤬🤬🤬
Funny how Nintendo is OK with extreme T&A...
Games on Nintendo are rarely censored like PS4.
But when it comes to their own games, No! No! No! No!
Total cowardly hypocrisy Nintendo: localize/release Mother 3.
@Zach1122 Yeah. Down with the SJW's!
@johnjohn01 Lol now with earthbound and earthbound beginnings getting a release AND Omori not only getting a future release but having it featured on the last indie direct, there’s no reason Mother 3 can’t see the light of day over here.
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