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For several months now, Western fans of the notorious and quirky Mother/EarthBound series of RPGs have been anxiously awaiting a diffinitive answer to one very agonizing question: Will Nintendo of America finally deliver the third installment to the franchise - only recently launched in Japan this past April - to North American GameBoy Advances? As far as localization is concerned, the official word suggests we shouldn't hold our breath.

Although lacking in great detail, NoA's localization manager Nate Bihldorff, as reported in an interview by Planet GameCube, explains what could perhaps be considered the nearest thing to a true conclusion: "I'm not working on Mother 3. I don't have all the writers under me, so there may be other people in discussions going on with it, but I wouldn't look forward to it in the immediate future, no. Sorry, I know! There's a big Mother fanbase, there is." Bihldorff further advises, "At least everyone can go back and play Melee to get your Ness on."

Certainly this all comes as little surprise to those familiar with Nintendo's track record attributed to handling the Mother series; even the GBA re-release of Mother and Mother 2 (EarthBound) was denied the slightest prospect toward a domestic launch. So does this mean we'll never again see a legally distributed Mother RPG within this hemisphere? If Nintendo of America, like Nate Bihldorff, has begun to contemplate the true depth of the game's fanbase, then the chances otherwise may in fact rise to more realistic proportions.

Source: EuroGamer

This post has been edited by SilverFork on 9th November 2006 08:11

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

oh well i guess the mother fans will just have to learn japanese and play the games that way. its not that hard you just have to put your mind to it.

anyway which game is mother i never heard of that.

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moetsuki
moetsuki
motoranai yakusoku no basho
jouzu ni habataku watashi wo mitsumete

This was pretty disappointing, but, like you said, not a huge surprise. When the Mother 1+2 cart didn't make it overseas, I kinda figured that they weren't going to bother with Mother 3, either.

It really seems to me like the Mother series has a pretty decent fanbase. I guess I'm either wrong about that or there are other considerations for localization projects. I guess something as petty as the guy in charge not liking the series and putting that before the profit motive could explain it.

Earthbound isn't my favourite game ever, but it was a fresh and funny twist on the traditional RPG...something I'd think Nintendo would really be capitalizing on with the Wii, since it seems that they're hitting the side markets and letting Sony have the ones that appeal to the truly hardcore gamers.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

Quote (chou @ 7th November 2006 11:29)

oh well i guess the mother fans will just have to learn japanese and play the games that way. its not that hard you just have to put your mind to it.

anyway which game is mother i never heard of that.

Mother is a series of games that are well-known for their very quirky plots, music, and settings as well as a very vivid, colorful art style. Otherwise, they play somewhat similarly to Dragon Quest games. The only Mother game released in the US was Mother 2, called Earthbound here, but the series has an extremely dedicated fanbase worldwide, which Silverfork alluded to.

This is pretty damn disappointing news to me. Evidently I'll have to not hold off on playing that Mother 3 rom.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

*sigh*

Well, rom time.

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OSonic Rave
/ \Last Arcanum
[ ]Strike Raid
XRagnarok

Why must Nintendo keep sticking knives in my back? They did this to me with the N64 too. ::cries::

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Elena Indurain

Currently Playing: Suikoden II

NoA, WHY?! Do you not love us? What have we done to you?

I wonder if starmen.net (the major website for Earthbound/Mother info/fanbase) knows of this. The higher-ups seem adament on the idea that it still has a very good chance of being released on the Wii's Virtual Console do to some of their "sources" but I am prepared for the worst.

/me points to the link in his sig.

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.