Development of Mother 3

The two-part and nine-year development of Mother 3, a role-playing video game, took place between 1994 and 2006 with a three year gap in-between, and spanned four consoles and multiple delays. Following the commercial success of its predecessor, Mother 2 (EarthBound outside Japan), Mother series creator Shigesato Itoi was given the previous game's development team. Inspired by Super Mario 64, the team set out to create a 3D game that ultimately exceeded the capabilities of the platform and changed their console focus from the Super Famicom to the Nintendo 64 and its 64DD magneto-optical drive expansion peripheral, for which it was expected to be a 1998 launch title. Upon the commercial failure of the 64DD, it was converted to the cartridge-only format. Itoi thought of the game's concept during Mother 2's development and built a 12-chapter story with player-characters that rotated between chapters. Having been a producer during Mother 2, Itoi served as a scriptwriter during Mother 3's development. A North American version was announced as EarthBound 64, but did not materialize when the 60 percent-complete Japanese release was cancelled in August 2000 in reprioritization leading up to Project Dolphin (the code name of the GameCube). At the time, the game was estimated to need another two years of work.

After multiple years and failed petitions, Mother 3 was reannounced for the Game Boy Advance in 2003 within a Japanese television commercial for Mother 1+2, a port of Mother and Mother 2 to the Advance. The game kept its original story and received a graphical overhaul in a pixelated style similar to Mother 2. The game's themes included human physiology, renewal, and fungibility on the morality spectrum. Its music was composed by Shogo Sakai, and retained the quirky style of series composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka. Mother 3 was released on April 20, 2006 in Japan, whereupon it became a bestseller. It has not been released outside Japan.

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