Things Are Looking Up For Mother 3 Western Release

Ninten and Ness have had their adventures appear on Virtual Console. Will Lucas get the same chance?

Ever since Mother and Mother 2 appeared on the Wii U Virtual Console (in the form of Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound, respectively), fans have been wondering when the third installment in the saga of Giygas and quirky children with baseball bats would appear in the west. Mother 3 has never had a western release, and news was quiet on the possibility until yesterday, when a series of tweets started rumors resulting in (almost) a confirmation.

A thread on neoGAF collects all the Tweets into a neat and useful pile, but Emily Rogers (whose Twitter account has been deleted since) and Liam Robertson, both known for inside info on Nintendo happenings in the past, confirmed the release of Mother 3 on the Virtual Console. Normally, the reports of two unofficial Twitter accounts wouldn’t be enough, but EuroGamer has independently heard the same news, apparently from a solid enough source to report it.

Mother 3 was released on April 20, 2006 in Japan, meaning that its 10th anniversary is coming up soon. Will Nintendo celebrate this milestone with a worldwide release? We still don’t have official word yet. But given the success of Ness and Lucas as amiibo and Smash characters, and how Earthbound apparently “sold out” of digital copies on Club Nintendo last year, it’s easy to see how Mother 3 would succeed in the west. We’ve only had fan translations of the game up to now. So, please, Nintendo?