Mother 3 Is Coming To Nintendo Switch Online, But There's A Catch

That’s just cruel

Lol my heart skipped a beat for a second there

Why do japan get all the good stuff?

Booo! Give it a Western release already!

I have the English fan translation, on my GBA flashcart.
I'm good.

@Greatluigi Japanese Nintendo Direct was absolute bs. You haven't missed anything. Also, Mother 3 is available through NSO+ only, so, you haven't missed much with this one too...

Ugh! You had me!

Goodness I almost died when I saw that

Even if it did release here the servers for Switch Online will only last so long in the future before they end and you lose the game and your save file, so just buy a bootleg copy off eBay.

Well, that's probably a bullet in that ever getting an official translation. Really I've never thought it was terribly likely anyway so whatever. If you want to play Mother 3 it's really not hard to play it.

@LadyCharlie Same. And it's glorious 😈

Idc if I can't play it because of the language barrier, I'm just glad the OG game is more accessible now.

Watch as this utterly overshadows the Partner Showcase. Nintendo could probably sell quite a few expansion passes on the back of this one game.

Common Western Fanbase L

At this rate Nintendo could just remove Lucas from all future Super Smash Bros. games and I would not miss him at all. Don't know jack about the kid. They could replaced him with Lip, Mike, Ashley, or Ninten.

Of course, did anyone think they were going to translate the game for "free"?
Want to ask for the unlocalized Fire Emblem games while we're at it?

The game is scheduled to drop on Nintendo's subscription service in 2024. We'll keep you updated as to the exact date as soon as we know.

What do you mean in 2024? They said it would be available today. They're getting this one but not the Rare games.

I hope they're just saving it as an "available now" title later on when they have an official translation ready. It probably won't happen, but you never know.

Switch isn't region locked so.....

@LXP8
yeah if the game ever did get an official localization im praying its not just through NSO.

Having what is pretty much the holy grail of unlocalized Nintendo games (at least going by what ive seen) only available officially in a form which you cannot even buy would feel like a massive monkeys paw moment.

its kind of like how the original fire emblem got an official localization which was then delisted months later but at least those who bought that when it was still available get to keep the game and from what i gather there's no online checks needed if its on your primary system.

There's a game translation guide over at GameFAQs that one could use to follow the game in Japanese while they play. It's actually the only way I've experienced the game so far. (I have a legit Japanese copy for my GBA!) It translates all of the text you'll encounter and helps you navigate the battle menu (Which you'll know by heart eventually.) The translation is solid and with a little dedication, you can play the game and get the full impact.

If I were the US president, I would personally ask the Japanese prime minister to request Nintendo to localize Mother 3 during a personal meeting, no joke.

I'm really sick of Nintendos BS with how they downright IGNORE the west. We have been very vocal about our love for this series. Yes, ignore out cries for more Mother/Earthbound - Go pump out another awful Paper Mario sequel. Origami King was SUCH a great idea-- NOT. I'm seriously thinking of skipping Nintendos next generation console.

Hello darkness my old friend...

For those who don't understand Japanese, the Mother 3 online release already happened. The final slide says "added to NSO expansion pack TODAY."

Now THIS is hilarious will you be here all week

@Zulzar To be fair Nintendo seems to be listening to people since TTYD is getting a remaster on switch and people have been begging for that game to get a remaster for years.

There's not much to translate
Mother = Earthbound
3 = 2

And here I thought I would actually get to play the game for once.

To be fair, it would be tricky to port the western release of Mother 3 when you know...there was no official western release for it...

'Well, they could have used fan translation for...'
smack

Stop right there. The NSO versions of 1080 and Wave Race 64 are the actual N64 versions, not the VC ones. I know you would love it to be on there but the NSO has the original versions of these games and there's no original English language of Mother 3. Go play the unofficial translation. It's free.

We got robbed again, but I’d rather have a remake anyway.

And to @Zulzar, you seem to overlook that Itoi has no interest in continuing the Mother series. It's done with. You could say 'Nintendo could just do a new one'. Well, no because that would go against the creators vision. Everyone wants to respect the creators vision until it doesn't suit thier own vision.
In regards to Nintendo ignoring the west, you may have a point if you ignore making the Switch not region locked, putting Ridley, K Rool, Dark Samus, Simon, Banjo, Steve and Sora in Smash, 'give us a new Metroid/Prime, localising and publishing numerous JRPGs in the rest of the world, acknowledge F-Zero or put Rare games on NSO and numerous other factors. I think Nintendo are just ignoring you personally.

You know, given the stuff later Nintendo games have dealt with, the themes in Mother 3 shouldn't have an issue over in the West.

This game will never be released outside of Japan. I need to get on that fan translation.

Good news to me because I can understand Japanese (hiragana's syllabary only makes it harder though), but this is sad news for other Western players.

Gonna be honest. . .it never looked interesting to me anyway. I'll stick with OG Earthbound.

@LXP8 tbf, the games live on your console. You can play them entirely offline. They'd only become inaccessible if you don't download them before the servers shut down, or if they make the unnecessarily vindictive move of revoking access to the games for all users on their own consoles. Which is within the realm of possibility i guess

I bought a translated copy on a flash cart and played through it late last year. I'd recommend anyone who likes RPGs do the same. Simply one of the best games I've ever played. I liked it more than Earthbound by a large margin.

I just had a discussion about Mother 3 with my friend a week ago. I told him it's only a matter of time before Japan gets it. Time for me to check it out. Really glad that Switch isn't region locked. I played Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade last year which was my first big game I played fully in Japanese. It was a fun experience.

@Lizuka I don't think this has any meaningful relation to the possibility of eventual official translation. Mother 3 was available for the Wii U in Japan so it's not the first time they re-release it. Japan also had the first Fire Emblem on Switch Online a year before the weird limited time official translation. The only thing that is certain is that we're not getting it before it's available in Japan. Not saying that western release is coming any time soon, just that the chance of one hasn't necessarily changed.

Honestly the fact that people are still begging and getting their hopes crushed when Nintendo very clearly isn't ever going to bring it to the U.S. is hilarious.

@demacho I was under the assumption that you pay for the right to access them like Netflix. I'm sure the console checks if you have Switch Online before entering into the app, so once they discontinue that service they should become inaccessible

@Mgalens Yeah exactly that. I'm really glad I downloaded Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light in time, even though I have a physical copy of Shadow Dragon on DS from when I was younger and will probs always play that version lol Glad Nintendo stopped with those times releases in general. What a horrendous way of trying to get people to buy them

You know what, Im done with this. If Nintendo aint got me, Anbernic got me

This is so dumb. Just release it for Christ's sake!

Dear Nintendo,

This is why people emulate. If I know you, this will have to happen 20 more times and in more expensive form before y'all actually extract a lesson.

Insincerely,
***** You

Damn it Japan.

@Fighting_Game_Loser yeah, fighting game losers usually have to find others suffering hilarious. That's the last bastion of "laugh or else you'll cry" before entering the territory where crying's all you got left.

Well...at least it's more accessible now?....

I need to get on that fan translation at some point.

Surely they know most everyone outside Japan interested in playing this already played with the long available fan translation. Can't blame them for not wanting to sink the resources into localizing such a big old game fraught with all sorts of tricky items, only to have people turn their noses up because it's not as good as what Mato's team did.

> We'll keep you updated as to the exact date as soon as we know.

It's today. That's what it says in the trailer in Japanese.

@Dizavid get a load of this guy.

Lmao that's pretty funny. Maybe I'll play through it anyway like I did with the Japanese Fire Emblem titles.

@LadyCharlie and those paying for Expansion Pack technically add legal access on top. I have the early SMT games ticked in my game collection app for the same reason.

I know it's won't happened until all the ocean in the world becomes lava, but Nintendo should allowed us to apply IPS patches on NSO games. Japonise NSO have a lot of games that I would play legit if I understand Japonise

@martynstuff The creator is lazy then. It's Nintendos property, and I could care less about his "wishes". I'd do it anyway and he would just have to suck it up because sure, he created it... but under contract for Nintendo. It is Nintendos IP, not his. His wish to only scratch the surface, deny the west of most of that, then abandon the IP. Just because they pump a bunch of characters into the bloated smash roster does not mean they give a crap about the west. The sheer amount of all they have denied the west since the 80's far outweighs any nonsense you listed.

@Greatluigi People have been begging for Earthbound for much longer. And Paper Mario has more games in it's series. And all of them have come to the west.

Honestly, there's something incredibly amusing about the 'Rare games coming to Switch online' announcement being a equivalent to "Mother 3 coming to NSO". I don't know what though.

@Anti-Matter name a couple

If Nintendo had any intention in localizing it, now would had been the time to match the Japanese release. So they don't and honestly that's for the better. A faithful fan translation exists and Nintendo Treehouse of today would butcher the heck out of it in localization.

It has lots of themes that are not okay with modern west like the portrayal of the Magypsies, human resembling beings whose traits include masculine bodies, facial hair, behave and dress incredibly feminine. They look trans without trying to fool you basically and pretty intergal to the story so they wouldn't be able to bypass it. Also there's a segment where Lucas & party eats mushrooms that they get drugged out having to traverse out of the forest while in their unusual state.

Least to say is if Nintendo butchered them or not, they would get a lot of flak for the censoring or their image will be damaged if they remained faithful because people will cry out online and make a big deal out of nothing.

@Porky What would be not okay with Magypsies? It's nothing bad unless you want to look deep enough to find something offensive.

Also, in Earthbound you had to traverse a city drunk. They changed it in western release so that you are not drunk, you are drugged.

people crying out online account for nothing, and should be ignored. A wise saying, "dogs are barking, the caravan rides on"

@chiiizu same bro my soul left my body for a sec😬

@demacho The app checks if you have NSO membership weekly upon startup IIRC. Once the service concludes, people won't be able to access them unless they hack their system, incrypt the unlock key or whatever.

Nintendo, why are you like this? Why do you do this?

@Porky Nintendo deserves to get pirated

@Princess_Lilly They are like okama, sorta the Japanese version of drag queen. The attention seekers that wanna find offensive in everything will contrive it like that's Japan/Nintendo's depiction of trans and make a ruckus online, damaging Nintendo's image. And we know Nintendo cares a lot about their perceived image more nowadays. Case and point, Advanced Wars Reboot Camp delayed years due to ongoing U-know-what-rain war

If you're referring to Moonside, Ness & party wasn't drunk. It was a projection injected to their minds by the Mani Mani statue.

@Porky That's an assumption. What they could just as easily do is simply disable the need for that check.

I certainly won't assume they'll do that either, but to say they'll definitely prevent future access is indeed an assumption.

@demacho They could but that’s generally not something Nintendo tends to do. Likely scenario is they'll carry the service over while leaving the Switch to further incentivise people to buy their latest consoles.

They're literally games as a service. You don't own them. That's why people hate this.

@Porky sure but nobody cares about attention seekers.

Advance Wars is a totally different case, because there is an army there that is literally the depiction of the aggressor, down to the bearded guy summoning a winter. Nobody would want to release a game showing a genocide nation as friendly.

Yeah, exactly Moonside. I mean, yeah, the projection was the explanation, but let's face it, there are many subtle-as-a-truck allegories in Earthbound

@Dizavid Dude chill it's not like its that serious. Like if it comes it'll be awesome but I just don't expect it to happen ever. Plus I actually quite dislike people suffering in something like fighting games. I like to try and teach people the best I can so they can be more easily understood and enjoyed. My name is just a fact that I kinda suck at them

@Princess_Lilly Whatever. Ultimately, Nintendo does consider these things 'else they would had folded and translated it by now. They've had ample opportunities: originally release on GBA, anniversaries, rereleases coinciding with Japan, etc. It seems that Nintendo knew the fans would be devastated with no Mother 3 translation so they prepared a consolation prize of giving the west five heavily desired Microsoft/Rare games. Doesn't dispell the disappointment, but they tried I think.

Such Devastation.

@Porky Depends. Never assume corporations are logical, they're honestly really flawed when it comes to decision processes.

Maybe it was a consolation prize, maybe they thought it would be better for the west, they thought wrong

This was the first thing I discovered after the Direct! I updated the N64 app to play Blast Corps, but also checked for updates on all the other NSO apps. Curiously the Japanese GBA app updated, but not the U.S. GBA app. So I opened the Japanese GBA app to see what they'd added. When the blank rectangle flipped over and said Mother 3 I said holy *****! I love the music in it, and really wish it was translated for a global audience!

To compensate, Nintendo of America will let American audiences have exclusive access to Urban Champion and Donkey Kong Math.

Why has no one mentioned that ANYONE with NSO+ can easily change their Nintendo account country at https://accounts.nintendo.com/profile/edit to Japan, download the Japanese NSO apps, then revert their account country, and remain free to play the Japanese NSO apps ?

I mean HELLO it's SOOOO easy and I thought this was common knowledge ?

@NintendoLife - why don't you mention this !!?

Just get the english patched rom, and play on basically everything, that can use an emulator, or a GBA flashcart.

AHA! HAHAHA, YOU GOT US GOOD NINTENDO! TOTALLY NOT GOING INSANE OVER HERE!

@Zulzar Hate to break it to you but Itoi co-owns the series

@DiggleDog not really. It's a super niche title, one that only core gamers or mother fanboys would actually play. The mainstream don't care about this game. At all.

@Porky "that's not something Nintendo generally tends to do"

There isn't a precedent for this; Nintendo has never offered this specific style of service--games that exist offline on your console but are checked for access. The closest I can think of would be how it shut down the 3ds eshop, but even then, you can still download everything you've ever purchased. That actually requires much more server maintenance than just keeping the check system for NSO in place.

Again, it's not a crazy notion to think they would just cut off access like this, because yeah, money, but you're still speculating and making it sound like you're not.

This sucks i was actually excited the fact Mother 3 is coming just do translation give fans what we want already its so frustrating I thought F-Zero fans got it bad

I come from the future. Nintendo will release Mother 3 in the West in January 2026 to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Then, they will remove it from stores in April 2026 because the anniversary will be over.

Heya how u doing @Tempestryke ?

@ThatZeldaNerd Good and you?

@Dimjimmer Are you a monkey's paw?

@jco83 this is pure genius

@demacho Nintendo will not throw a bone to its stubborn fans clinging onto unsupported hardware out of the goodness of their heart so they can, say, play limited-licensed software infinitely at no cost, that's the precedent I meant. Heck, they didn't even bother to discount their own games on the 3DS and WiiU digital store of the last weeks or months, or a year for that matter as a last 'hoorah' to its customer base.

Nintendo Badge Arcade matches close to the precedent, besides. After April, we won't be able to access the hub to remove or add badges obtained because it has a mid start-up online check when you boot up the game. Lastly, I refer you to Nintendo's Account User Agreement, section Purchase and Subscription Terms. I've grown weary of this talk, later.

If the people actually wanted to play the game they would've downloaded the fan-translation instead of begging for a localization all these years.
Nintendo fans aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

@dustinprewitt those are masterpieces

@Tempestryke im goood thx

Only N could pull off a disappointment such as this. Had this been in the American direct, I would've actually enjoyed the show.

There's antecedent of any 1st party game getting "late" localization?

I literally went "Yeeeaa...awww". But for some reason I feel like this is a sign for a western release, but I haven't the faintest thought as to why...

@LadyCharlie That's the spirit.

@Zulzar Hey now, PM:OK may not have been the best, but it was definitely unique for what it gave us.

I’ve got the series on wiiu so I am good but congrats to those that wish to play it in its original format.

@JJtheTexan at least Mother 3 actually exists 😅

@_fatto_katto_ The only example of a game getting an official English localization decades later I can think of is "Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana," but that's not first party, it's from Square-Enix.

EDIT: Well, there were the two "Famicom Detective Club" remakes from a couple years back, too, but those weren't the original FDS games.

So, I don't buy that the content of Mother 3 is the problem here.
The two Famicom Detective Club remakes got localized two years ago and I can assure y'all those two games have CONSIDERABLE mature themes, up to and including a visual depiction of a dead body hanging from a noose.
It's pretty obvious Nintendo doesn't care about "mature themes" any more, and I can assure y'all the Magypsies are nowhere near as mature as the stuff in the Famicom Detective Club games.
Neither is the 'shroom trip, for that matter.

Kind of a confirmation it's not coming to Europe or NA IMO

@DrakeFeathers I disagree. Nintendo has a bad habit of changing the gameplay for the sake of changing it then call it "innovation", instead of expanding on the core gameplay the made people fall in love with it in the first place. And also, it's hardly innovation they simply borrow from other games and put some kind of nintendo theme over it. Tears of the Kingdom, for example, great game there but not "innovative".. Someone at Nintendo was obviously playing some Garrys Mod on steam and simply put that idea into a zelda game and presto... "innovation".

@dartmonkey There are no issues if you are the Admin of a Family Group which has no Child accounts (that is my circumstance)

As long as you don't have any eShop credit then there is no issue (must have NSO Auto-Renewal turned off, and NNID unlinked) 👍

*Just learned from your article that you also can't have any pre-orders.
Great article 💪 Really good job

Maybe our old friend Reggie can pull some strings and help us out here. Anyone tried asking him?

Honestly, just retcon the Magypsies as either super hot trans women, or as gender fluid femboy Genshin characters. Problem solved.

This may definitely be an opinion that frustrates people, and I acknowledge and apologize for that.
But based alone on the adult themes in the game and how the characters (Lucas, along with Ness in respect) are now often viewed by children and families as Smash Bros characters, ie: a Nintendo first party game; I highly doubt it will ever come to North American consoles. They want to keep the family friendly image, so Mother 3 is something they don’t want to even touch for Western audiences.

@shonenjump86 Of COURSE it'll be released in the West! It's 1000% inevitable! Encouraging playing the fan translation makes people criminals, as that's the illegal way of playing it!