Mother 3

THE MOTHER SERIES (AS IT'S known in Japan – it's EarthBound here and in the States) was developed by Shigesato Itoi and Benimaru Itoh. Itoi was working for Nintendo's marketing machine when he suggested the idea for the original Mother game on the Super NES, and even now he is still doing some creative work for the Star Fox 64 TV commercial in Japan. Itoh is a well respected Manga artist in Japan and was commissioned to give the Mother series its distinctive look.

The original Mother was a cartoony adventure aimed more at children and it sold buckets in its native Japan, but never fully took off in the West. However Mother 2 received critical acclaim because of its innovative story which concerned a mysterious meteorite than lands in the central character's garden and turns all the surrounding populace into zombies.

Mother 3 is more subdued and uses a similar game engine to Mario 64 to create fully three-dimensional worlds in the same way Doraemon has managed to. Gone is the twee atmosphere and world of the second game and Mother 3 now has a more hard edged game environment, with hundreds of characters to interact with (sadly no speech, but Itoi is working on sampling various grunts and human noises made by his team), and the whole game has far more textures and detail than ever before.

But the big news is of course the media than Mother 3 will come on. Instead of the original cart, you can now expect it to be one of the first 64DD games which incorporates a re-writable disk drive system instead of a ROM cart. This means that as well as being able to save your progress, it will also keep track of who you have spoken to, what changes you have made to the scenery (blowing up bridges, pulling switches etc), and also how far through you are and whether it is night/day, winter/summer.

The potential of the 64DD is awesome, but when will it arrive in the UK? What it certainly means is that Mother 3 will be one of the biggest RPGs ever created – on a par with Squaresoft's Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation which runs on three CDs.

Mother 3 is certainly one of the Nintendo 64's heavyweight titles, but with its reliance on the unproven 64DD technology, is it destined to be delayed again and again?

One of the craziest RPGs I’ve played! It’s great!

Mother 3 is a great retro-style game made by Nintendo. The game is a turn-based RPG and is the third in the series of games. Outside of Japan it is known as Earthbound and the first game of the series was out in 1989 but if you’re a Super Smash Bros Ultimate fan you’ve probably seen Lucas who is from Mother 3.

Hold on too your hats is going to get slightly weird.

The game takes place after the events of Mother 2 but it is never explained how long. The game is set on different islands called the Nowhere Islands as you follow twins Lucas and Claus. The islands are invaded by a mysterious force called the Pigmask Army.

After the invasion, you’ve lost your twin brother Claus. The game kind of goes gradually crazier from there and I don’t want to add in any more detail as this game has a great story and gameplay shouldn’t be spoiled, it should be experienced!

The Retro feel doesn’t disappoint.

Mother 3 is retro games at its finest, it has a lot in common with the Pokémon games of old like Pokémon Fire Red and Pokémon Leaf Green graphically and mechanically, but Mother 3 was made 10 years after the original Pokémon games so this game is a lot more polished, refined and perfected. The Mother 3 graphics could inspire any indie game dev today on their game if they’re looking to add that retro feel to their game. If you’re an indie game player this has that indie game feel to it and that’s never a bad thing.

Simple turned based gameplay like the classics.

The gameplay is classic turn-based RPG where the enemy takes a turn then you do like the Pokémon games and like the Final Fantasy games. For example, Final Fantasy games like 1 and 2. This isn’t amazingly different, you’ve probably played mechanically. You level up like most turned-based RPGs and fight like most others, but it is the story, you come to play Mother 3 for, not the mechanics.

Crazy motherf*****

This game is either for the indie gamer or the turned-based RPG gamer if you are just looking for that kind of gameplay but if you not an indie gamer or a turned-based RPG gamer but love a great story told through your games, this is definitely the game for you, even though it is slightly crazy. It has a great story that you have to experience for yourself.