If you've ever played or seen Super Smash Bros. Brawl, you've probably noticed the wide array of characters both familiar and foreign. Among them, you may have seen a short kid with a striped shirt and blond hair, by the name of Lucas. Well, have you ever wondered about the game he comes from? What it's all about? What his story is? Why his game has never been seen on American shores? Well, here are the answers to your questions.

During the Nintendo 64's life, a sequel to the cult classic RPG Earthbound was proposed. This game, Mother 3, would be the first 3D installment of the Mother series of Role-playing games. It was first shown in 1999 at Nintendo's Spaceworld event, and that would be the last anyone would ever see of it's N64 incarnation. The team encountered several development hitches, and were forced to abandon the project. Fortunately, Mother 3 found new life on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance platform. Released in 2006, the game's new incarnation boasted the same wacky style, juvenile humor, outlandish enemies, and accessible gameplay of it's predecessors. However, it also added a new combo system that increased the damage of players attacks by timing button presses to the beat of the battle music, and it was somewhat altered from the N64 build.

Unfortunately, Mother was never a series known for it's popularity outside of Japan. The localized version of Mother 2, Earthbound, failed to reap enough profit to satisfy Nintendo. The timing for Mother 3's release was also terrible, because by this time, Nintendo's attention shifted from the Game Boy Advance to it's new baby, the DS. These factors essentially destroyed any chance of Mother 3 being released beyond the land of the rising sun. The fans have begged and cried numerous times for Nintendo to release Mother 3 to the North American and European markets. In fact, Starmen.net, the most famous Mother fansite on the web, pushes to get Mother 3 released in America through an effort known as "PK Siege." But Nintendo has blatantly refused over and over again to concede to their requests, even going so far as to put spoilers of Mother 3 within Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

With their requests denied, a few devoted fans of the Mother series has taken it upon themselves to translate the entire game from start to finish. Even as we speak, they are hard at work, preparing drafts for a solid English translation. Even better, they are fixing the game to be translated in other languages as well. Although no other translations are scheduled besides the English one, they want to give the ability to translate the game in other languages.

Here's the translation site: http://mother3.fobby.net/

They offer several ways to help show your support of Mother 3, one of which is purchasing the two Mother 3 soundtracks on iTunes: Mother 3i and Mother 3+. They are both very good, and I highly recommend them. They also host a mailing list; simply give them your email address, and they will tell you when the translation is finished.

For more information on Mother 3, go here: http://starmen.net/mother3/

Oooh!! I love Lucas! I have to go now but when I have time I will take a look.

Holy crap! I just looked at the translation site's main page, and they report that the translation is 90% complete. No joke. Eeeeee! This is so AWESOME! Just a little more! ^_^

*cheers*

What a coincidence! I was just on that site a few days ago. xD

I would love to play that game... Quite unique and interesting.

Aight, I dug some videos up for you guys, in case you might be interested in what Mother 3 looks like and how it plays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQKe3M6T98M - Mother 3 promotional video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVqwnunkxn0&feature=related - Combo demonstration.

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