Mother 3 stays in Japan

[wraggster]

Despite the desperate pleas from RPG lovers in the west, it would seem the highly regarded, Japan-only Mother 3 is not likely to ever be released outside of Japan, after a statement made by a member of Nintendo of America's Treehouse localisation team.

Mother 3, the third game in the Mother series is a hugely popular RPG in Japan, developed by HAL Laboratories for the GBA, and released in April this year. Fans of the previous game on the Super NES, Mother 2 (released in the US as Earthbound) had hoped to see a western release of the portable sequel.

But comments from an NOA localisation manager, Nate Bihldorf, in a recent interview with Planet GameCube, makes a western release seem unlikely. "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" says Bihldorf.

So it might still happen, but not any time soon it seems. And being as the GBA is slowly giving way to the might of the DS, the more time passes the bleaker the possibility, we reckon.

We also suspect that Bihldorf's efforts to console heartbroken gamers by suggesting they get their "Ness fix" by playing Smash Bros. will not go down too well.

[QazzaQY2K]

There is a fan group that's almost finished translating this superb game ;D

http://www.mother3.org/

[redsyrup]

I would suppose that Wii translations have been taking priority. Earthbound 3 is a victim of politics. I'd also blame the series creator for not transfering the project to the DS when Nintendo of Japan asked him to. Now the fruits of his labor will be confined to his territory only. It's like watching Icarus' wings melt in the sun.