Mother 3

The new vision for the game was to release it for the Nintendo 64 using a newer 32MB (256Mbit) cartridge, like what The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was being developed on.  Nintendo showcased a playable demo of Mother 3 at the 1999 Nintendo Space World trade show in August.  The demo was estimated to be a 50% completed version of the game which had a projected release date of mid 2000 in Japan.  The game was also being promoted as EarthBound 64 for release outside of Japan and became a highly anticipated title for the Nintendo 64.

In August 2000, Shigesato Itoi announced that development of Mother 3 was cancelled following several further delays.  Nintendo was in the process of migrating away from the Nintendo 64 with their new GameCube console set to launch in 2001 and shifting the game to the GameCube would have been an enormous effort.  Nintendo felt that the focus on 3D graphics made the project overly complex and they did not want to fully abandon the project as they were still interested in bringing the game to fruition.

After a few years of the project being placed on hold, Shigeru Miyamoto approached Shigesato Itoi with the idea of developing the game for the Game Boy Advance using pixel art.  Developing the game using 2D graphics opposed to 3D would remove a lot of the complexity that the development team faced during the game’s initial development.  Ioto revisited the idea of starting the project over from scratch for the Game Boy Advance and agreed to proceed forward.  When the decision was made to restart development for Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance, Brownie Brown was selected as the lead development studio for the project. 

All development material from the N64 version of the game was provided by HAL Laboratory to Brownie Brown in late 2002 for reference and inspiration.  When the decided to restart development in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance a lot of faith was put in Brownie Brown to lead the development with input from Itoi.  Co-developed with HAL Laboratory the team was able to finally complete the last installment in the Mother series, a game that’s development would span twelve years and four consoles before its completion.

Nintendo released a compilation game consisting of Mother 1 and Mother 2 for the Game Boy Advance in June 2003, which they used as an opportunity to announce the development of Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance.   When Mother 1+2 released Nintendo aired a television commercial for the game and as part of the commercial announced that the development of Mother 3 had restarted for the Game Boy Advance.

Brownie Brown led the development of the game with input from Itoi.  While the game was completely overhauled from an open world 3D environment to a 2D top-down perspective, the story was not altered.  Taking place after the events of Mother 2 in the Nowhere Islands, the story is told over eight chapters, including a short prologue.  The game follows Lucas, a young boy with psychic abilities, and a party of characters as they attempt to prevent a mysterious invading army from corrupting and destroying the world.

Development of the game finally completed and was released on April 20, 2006, in Japan.   The game was a critical and commercial success upon its release in Japan.  Mother 3 received critical praise for its character development, stylized graphics, music, story, and mature theme.   Even though the game was a commercial success in Japan and has since generated a cult following the game was never localized for release outside of Japan.