Mother 3 was originally announced in 1996 for the Nintendo 64. Development soon moved to the Nintendo 64DD, where it was to be a launch title. Developer Benimaru Itoh remarked at E3′s 1997 convention that the game would probably utilize the Rumble Pak in battle sequences, but worried that the controller would become too cumbersome for players given the time-consuming nature of role-playing games. Itoi also aimed to allow players to pick several character faces or create new visages with Mario Artist. Shigesato Itoi’s team ran into some trouble while developing this game, due to their inexperience with 3D games and the difficulty of developing for Nintendo 64 hardware. The Nintendo 64DD became a commercial failure, and on August 21, 2000, Itoi officially confirmed the game’s cancellation. The project was revived in 2003 on the Game Boy Advance, and it was eventually released on April 20, 2006. [Infos from Wikipedia]
For more info check the first video below, created by OKeijiDragon, or read our summary of the Mother 3 Project
Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano ▼
Images:
For more infos: www.starmen.net
Videos:
U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
35 Responses to Mother 3 – Earthbound 64 [N64 - Cancelled]
Terra
January 1st, 2009 at 2:29 am
Mother 3 for N64 would’ve been kick butt awesome!
64
January 16th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
this would have been a great game
SMASH MASTER 9000
February 17th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHY WASN’T IT REALEASED? WHY WHY WHY?!!!!!!! !!!!!!
GMoD1001
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
read the description to find out WHY? WHY? WHY?.. dipshit
c45
April 5th, 2009 at 11:31 am
wasnt released because the dev team sucked balls, and the game was shitty.
XGamer
June 14th, 2009 at 4:06 am
This game was not shitty!
Masterge77
June 29th, 2009 at 1:36 am
Also, the GBA version never saw the light of day in the US because of its prequel earthbounds ad campain, which made it fail big time, EARTHBOUND IS THE BEST GAME EVER MADE AND NINTENDO BASHES ON IT FOR A STUPID ELECTRIC RODENT!!!!!
mariofan
July 8th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
i want the demo cartridge
Biolizard13
August 27th, 2009 at 2:02 am
O_O Holy shite…..is it good that it wasn’t released for 64?
My favorite characters, Fassad, Duster, Kuma, and Lucas…
look like crap……
Mattman
November 5th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
mother 3 was a great game and it should have been released in the US
fatface
November 7th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Hey, why does the fan translation call YOKUBA “Fassad”? I don’t fucking get where that stupid name even came from. Yokuba is a much better name.
Anyway, the graphics are super sweet for an N64 game, I gotta say. In this version and in an early version of the GBA version, there were a total of 12 chapters. I wonder what got cut? It’d be awesome to see…
Skinnybody
December 8th, 2009 at 4:21 am
“Yokuba” is a fucking horrible name
CaptHayfever
December 24th, 2009 at 7:43 am
“Fassad” is based on a couple different things: It sounds like “facade” and it looks like it fits his costume.
…besidestechnicallyweshouldcallhimlocriaanyway. ;)
Pigmask
January 12th, 2010 at 8:57 am
*SPOILERS AHEAD!*
Wow, they really had everything in mind back then, If they were more experienced, then what a great game would that be!
As I’ve read, there was supposed to be twelves chapters and we were supposed to have the choice of the occuring events, in the end, I guess it’s would bring up a random team of hero to beat Porky out since the “Masked Man” wasn’t though up
…We can also see Ness and his Hometown being destroyed, so I guess It’s Porky who destroyed the world, creating the white ship event, and eventually brought Ness to the island so he can laught at him
It’s a real damn shame they didn’t finish the game through, the graphics are good for the N64, just look at Final Fantasy 7! …Not only that, but twelve chapters already 3/4 of them made, and supposely as they said, the events that occur can be changed and/or random, now that’s something I’d love to see!
They also kept alot of characters in the game, eventually, when Mother 3 was revived to get on the gba, I bet they finally came up with Fassad/Yokuba being as Locria just by looking at his character art XD
But I’d love to see what else they though up, I’ve read there’s a part were you can play as a Baby O.o
Then again, To Itoi, the game was only complete by 30% and Myamato said 60%
At least, we got Mother 3 perfectly Fan-Translated with more stuff, and not to forget the memories of Earthbound changed so It’s can’t be Unchanged XD
As for Fassad, Yokuba means Greedy in Japanese, Fassad is an indirect name for “Facade”, now which one do you prefers? Yokuba seem to stand out, but since Fassad is “Facade”, his cloths are fitting, so you can’t get to see his red hair XD
…Then again, I can already Imagine how he got Yokuba as his name XD
Now…If only someone out there is willing to steal that piece of art and bring it to the world of emulation…
…Now, to end It in a Sparrow way…Chirp! Chirp! …Wait, wrong job…Oik! Oik! *raise right arm*
*SPOILER END*
Motherfreak
May 21st, 2010 at 1:30 am
[...] Namen ist einmal genannt worden. Wer sich aber die gesamten Screenshots ansehen möchte, kann das hier [...]
MPNagem89
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:28 am
hey DON’T YOU EVER DISS PIKACHU!
Brian
October 31st, 2010 at 2:20 am
Guys it was never released because of legal reasons.
Brian
October 31st, 2010 at 2:21 am
Also the angel in the picture seems to look like there were gonna have hospitals.
Brian
October 31st, 2010 at 2:32 am
I Mean Mother 3 (GBA) was never released in the US because of legal reasons most likely Nintendo did it.
t4ash08g
November 22nd, 2010 at 3:18 am
SMASH MASTER 9000 the team was scared of making Mother 4,which is f***ing dumb because in the end he said there wouldn’t be a Mother 4 so it was sadly it was a cancelation in vain,but if i ever figure how to go to the past and back and tell them which i doubt is possible
Zack
January 17th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
PLEASE NINTENDO IF YOU ARE READING THIS!!!!!
PLEASE MAKE ANOTHER EARTHBOUND!!!!!!!!
Vic
January 18th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
PLEASE NINTENDO IF YOU ARE READING THIS!!!!!
DONT LISTEN TO THE GUY ABOVE ME, MOTHER 3 HAD A GREAT ENDING!!!!
MPNagem89
April 14th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
the reason why mother 3 never came out in north america because the creator of earthbound has a giant stick up his ass and thinks only the japanese liked the mother/earthbound. how would pokemon fans feel if satoshi tajiri only released generation 1 in north america and decided to act like a douchebag by NOT release the later games, sure some retro fags would be happy but not the people who want to keep playing. or worst yet what if nintendo released only ONE mario game and not bother releasing the rest.
MPNagem89
April 14th, 2011 at 5:22 pm
i met to say releasing my bad :p
Myonmallow
May 4th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Some people are such crybabies ಠ_ಠ
Just be happy with what happened, and curious (or silently pissed-off) about what didn’t.
Nikki
June 25th, 2011 at 7:20 pm
I no crybaby. This game was not released! I’m just… sad. :(
KuronoToriga
July 1st, 2011 at 6:47 am
Listen, I’ve had dreams about things before I’ve seen them IRL, all the time. And I had a dream about Mother 3 Beta that I think may be of help.
I saw what the final cover and label would’ve looked like, had the game been released. It was red, it said “Mother 3″ on it, and it had a weird blue/green tinted crystal on it. The box had the same, and I swear it said something about “3-D RPG Action” on a sticker on the front. It looked pretty cool. The cart was normal sized, and gray.
KnowMe?
July 31st, 2011 at 2:06 am
@KuronoToriga
Weird but I also had a similar dream about holding the beta too.
But instead there was a sticker on the front cover said, “Best RPG of the Year”.
Lucas was to the left, Claus was to the right, cross-arms (not with each other, with their own arms) and facing different direction from each other. Flint cried inbetween Lucas and Claus but he was a bit further back from them. Boney’s pulling Lucas’ jeans. And Hinawa was transparent and was in the upper-right corner, praying. Mother 3 logo was under Hinawa and above for everybody else.
That’s what I remembered in my dream.
Icanberetardedtoo
December 30th, 2011 at 3:30 am
I had a dream about mother 3 as well played trough the entire thing on the 64 you guys should have seen it what a great game
Dumdodoor
February 20th, 2012 at 12:28 am
Earthbound 3 on the 64 looked impressive as far trailers show. It would’ve helped boost the sales for the 64DD too because it’s that awesome.
By the way, did they changed the plot from 64, or is it completely the same? I never experienced Mother 3 yet.
monokoma
February 20th, 2012 at 11:16 pm
The plot is almost the same, you can read an article about the similarities in here: http://www.unseen64.net/articles/a-look-on-the-mother-3-development/ :)
Terry
March 1st, 2012 at 11:47 pm
The real reason why earthbound 64 wasnt released is because the n64 was on its way out. The game was never finished and was canceled because the gamecube was on its way. They feared the game would not sell because the n64 was becoming outdated.
steph
February 2nd, 2013 at 3:42 am
Both videos are gone!
Also, I don’t think people realize how hard this game would have been to finish. It wasn’t from a bad team making it; hardly anyone could have made this into a playable game. One day they might try again but with such a hard topic….
monokoma
February 5th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
I changed the videos! Thanks Steph :D
William0918
February 27th, 2013 at 11:42 pm
It was cancelled in the US