While Nintendo has an incredible amount of popular IP's, one of its more niche series is EarthBound, also known as the Mother series in Japan. Mother 2, or EarthBound in the West, has cemented itself in RPG history with its quirky and humorous, yet dark nature. Over time the series has developed quite the cult following, but much of that revolves around Mother 3.
It's no secret that fans don't always get what they want when it comes to video games, and the third installment in the Mother series is a prime example. While the game had a troubled development cycle to begin with, it has never left Japan despite many in the West asking Nintendo for an official release. Now, thanks to fans, the classic Game Boy Advance game is trending on Twitter.
In line with fans celebrating the Game Boy Advance's 20th anniversary on Twitter, Mother 3 fans have gotten the game trending by sharing memes, fan art, and other memories. It also seems many are tweeting about the game because they are playing it for the first time. As shown by user Nick_Lalone, even though the game was never officially released outside of Japan, non-Japanese fans can play an unofficially localized version via an emulator.
One popular meme being shared compares Lucas from Mother 3 to Harold from the Captain Underpants series. Other fans have shared their pixel art featuring various characters from the game. Many outside of Japan were first introduced to Mother 3 by way of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which added Lucas to the game as a playable character, being a pseudo-clone of Ness from EarthBound. Since then, Lucas has appeared in every Super Smash Bros. game, cementing his spot on the coveted Smash roster. Since Mother 3's release in 2006, it has become known among fans for having a touching and sad story falling in line with other games in the series, which all deal with mature topics.
It's worth noting that Nintendo acknowledged Western fans' love for the series by localizing and releasing the original NES Mother game as EarthBound Beginnings on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015, nearly 26 years after its original release in Japan. While this surprised many, fans still clamored for an official localization of Mother 3, and continue to do so to this day.
Over the years, there have been rumors that Mother 3 would be localized and released on a variety of Nintendo's platforms. However, nothing has come to fruition yet. Nintendo is a company that loves anniversaries and surprising its fans, and with Mother 3's 15th anniversary taking place this year, fans seem hopeful they may officially see the game localized soon.
Mother 3 is available on Game Boy Advance exclusively in Japan.