Back in 2000 when EarthBound 64 was canceled, everyone on Starmen.Net was like, “OMG! Onett’s in EarthBound 64!”

But only now do I finally realize that this screenshot is of Tazmily when it gets modernized! Man, I’m slow, it took me twelve years to figure that out

Which got me to wondering, are there any things in the series that took you a really long time to finally figure out?

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This time we’re treated to an interview in the January 31, 1997 issue of Famitsu. In it, Shigesato Itoi and Satoru Iwata discuss stuff from the ill-fated Nintendo 64 version of MOTHER 3. Here’s an excerpt:

Nagata Moving on, what’s the deal with the battles that Itoi’s always raving about like a madman?

Itoi How rude! (laughs) I’d like to talk about what it is, but I can’t yet.

Iwata It’s still in the testing stages. For example, MOTHER 2 had the monsters visibly walking around the field map. And when you touched one of the monsters, you entered the battle. So first and foremost we wanted to expand on that. In short, we’d like to allow strategies against the monsters right on the field. Not so battles become obligations, but so it becomes more fun.

Definitely check out the full thing here! And be sure to visit Chewy’s site and cheer her on

EarthBound 64 Enemy Designer Interview (20) Read More >>>	64Dream Shigesato Itoi Interview (3) Read More >>>
Another Big Itoi Interview Translated (20) Read More >>>

Update: KeijiDragon has taken the video down, you can read why in the comments here.

(click to view video)

Basically, KeijiDragon’s been researching and documenting stuff about EarthBound 64 and MOTHER 3 (GBA)’s release and turning it into video form. For some reason embedding is off, so check it out here!

Really, you should check it out since it features a good amount of stuff no other EarthBound site has dug up before, like interviews with some of the N64 version developers. It also sounds like there’s going to be a second part released someday, maybe that’s why I didn’t update about it yet. Anyway, give it a watch!

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It’s nothing new if you’re a hardcore fan, but it’s still pretty neat!

If you haven’t seen many of the N64 screens and such before, I collected as many as possible a few years ago here. PoeTrader also organized a screenshot comparison page here long ago.

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Some MOTHER 3 Music Similarities (48) Read More >>>

This is basically (though not 100%) the same as what Nintendo had for the official site, which you can see here. I remember this page was also used as the in-store poster when I preordered the game in 2000.

Anyway, there are a few other tiny little mentions of the game in the booklet. If you’re interested in checking out the whole thing, see here.

It looks like the game was still slated for a May 2000 release (and 50% done) as of this event , which I think was somewhere around August or September of 1999. Little did we know the game would be completely canceled instead.

Thanks to Stevesesy for the tip!

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(click for full size)

Nothing much, but it’s always nice to see mentions in magazines. Even if they all use the same handful of screenshots every time (like this phenomenon) Is “fashion” really spelled like “fasion” in Australia, though?

Many thanks to Winifred for the tip and the scan

EB in Official Nintendo Magazine (47) Read More >>>	EarthBound in NGamer Brasil (46) Read More >>>
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Anyway, here’s what OmniM had to say:

Hello, I am OmniM and got a magazine scan about EarthBound 64. It is in a UK magazine called 64 Magazine and it is Volume 16, 1998. I got this magazine in a store a long time ago(don’t remember the store’s name) and I kept it as a weird souvenir because it is a British mag. Anyway, I noticed an interesting scanned magazine article on the site. The user “Pippo” posted some scans from a magazine called “N64 Magazine” and said it is a UK mag. After I read that, I got reminded of my UK magazine and wondered, “Are they made by the same people?” The name is TOO similar(N64 Magazine and 64 Magazine) so I decided to send the scan to you. The article is nothing special though(just the same pictures you seen already)but it mentioned that the game would be closer to an English translation and several comparisons to LoZ:OoT, Quest 64, and Final Fantasy.

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I’ve scanned an article from an old magazine I had, it’s Club Nintendo from latin america (official magazine, it’s like the Nintendo power here). it’s from october 1999, from the Space world 99 event. I’m from Argentina, by the way.

Thought it might be interesting for you to read what magazines over here said about Mother 3 at the time, I’m including a translation I’ve done myself.

Here’s the translation of the EB64 article:

We remember that one of the games that were being programmed to be released with the DD was Mother 3, or as we know it in our continent: Earthbound 3 (sic). This game series, although only having a few “chapters” (one of the games released on the NES and the next one for SNES, the last one made it to our continent) is very popular in that country (Japan). Okay, point is, we’ve been quite surprised to know that the game is now going to be released on a cartidge (512 Megabit) instead of how was originally planned. Thinking about it, this is good news, since it’s like a guarantee that this great title is going to be released in our continent.

Mother 3 or Earthbound 3 is an RPG with very interesting elements. The past installments were characterized by having a pretty good story but at the same time a little bit strange. Events developing in this games are full of humor and strange characters. This new version is no exception of the aforementioned elements, but also all this time as been used to enhance the story and make it deeper and interesting for all kind of gamers.

The game starts in a pacific village where a family of 4 lives (including the dog), one good day a strange flying object was sighted very close to the village and since that moment things started changing in a bad way in this place and, to make things worse, strange voices start being heard from the depths of a near forest.

Flint, father of this family, decides to go look what is it that’s causing all the trouble, without knowing this will lead him and his loved ones to a very long adventure.

In fact, Shigesato Ito (sic) (the game’s producer and writer) has always been characterized by making his games very detailed regarding their story. In Earthbound 3′s case, each character will have individual stories, although in various occassions they will fight together. Because of this, this game will be divided into “chapters” in which the main character will change, to know the story deeply.

The battle system in EB is another thing that we thought was very interesting. In previous versions of the game, characters were walking and could see the enemies they were going to fight (unlike the majority of RPGs in which the battles are random) to decide if you were going to battle them, or do something else. The same happens here, but some action/adventure elements were added, since you can fight an enemy hand to hand (more or less like in Zelda 64) without having to enter the normal command screen of an RPG game. But be careful! it’s not that simple, you can make different strategies to inflict more damage, like “hitting with the rhythm”.

In the command battles, use of magic is something that can’t be absent and you can use it in this game. There are various types of magic and this can vary because of the elements; your character can take adventage since energy from the place you’re fighting in (forest, sea, valleys) can be absorbed to make an even stronger spell than normal. However you should be careful not to abuse this kind of powers, the character could absorb more energy than he can control and could be dangerous for him. Graphics are excellent.

One of the resources Ito San uses to tell his story are the real time cinematics. We can say this game features a good quantity of them and they’re very well done (better than the ones in Zelda 64). The music is excellent and there’s music typical for this kind of games and very strange music, but always very well done.

Our personal opinion on this game is that is one that not only RPG fans, but anyone who loves a good game should be waiting for. Definitely this was a very pleasant surprise for us.

The music in Earthbound is really good. To make emphasis in this aspect, the Nintendo staff decided to include earphones so those who were playing Earthbound could appreciate it without all the noise in the event interfering. We think this is a good idea to introduce a game.

Note in red letters under the picture 1:
The story in the game gets more and more interesting. The real time cinematics are really good.

Note in red letters under the picture 2:
As in every RPG, you need to talk to other people to get hints.

There’s also a scan of a brief blurb about the Nintendo 64 version of Shigesato Itoi’s fishing game and some stuff about the special fishing rod controller made for the game. I’ve never played it myself, I wonder how it is.

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Anyway, he kindly answered some of Chewy’s questions, but after a while they just sort of fell out of contact. Sadly, his answers didn’t give much info that we didn’t already know. It almost sounded like it was “just another job” that’s long forgotten now.

Here’s the short interview, translated into English:

Have you played through the GBA version of MOTHER 3? I’m interested in how much of the 64 version made it into the GBA version. If you did play it, what did you think? And how similar is the final product to the original 64 version?

I haven’t played the GBA version, so I’m not sure, but I heard that the story is almost identical. I think the music director in the GBA version is the same as that of the 64 version, too.

The graphics are completely different though, as you know. The GBA version is much closer to the style of MOTHER 2.

When you designed the monsters, were you told to make them specifically similar—or different—in style to those of MOTHER 1 and 2, or were you given completely free reign in their design? Also, were there any plans for monsters from previous games to appear in MOTHER 3?

I had complete freedom. There were no plans to use monsters from previous games.

There’s a limited amount of media released from the 64 version, so I’m especially curious about it, but what was that blue round monster with the big mouth? He didn’t show up in the GBA version.

That’s one of the monsters. He moves by rolling forward, so his tentative name was “Rolly”. (In Japanese: Korogari-kun)

Other than that one, were there any other monsters that did not appear in the GBA version? If there were, what kind of monsters were they? (I’m really interested in how many of the 64 version monsters made it into the final GBA version!)

I haven’t played the GBA version, so I’m not sure. I’m sorry.

Since the game had the subtitle “Fall of the Pig King,” I assume that Pokey was set to appear in the 64 version, too. Were you involved in any of Pokey’s design in the game? Was the spider mech he’s laying in also part of the 64 version?

Since Pokey was to appear in the 64 version, too, I designed Pokey, his team, and the place he lived in. The spider mech was in the 64 version, too, but since I haven’t played the GBA version, I’m not sure if the design was the same in the end.

When you design monsters, where do you generally get your inspiration from? Do you always aim for a certain kind of style?

Not really. I just come up with them off the top of my head.

What is your favorite monster out of the ones you designed for MOTHER 3?

Hmm, that’s a hard question (laughs). It was such a long time ago that I don’t really remember anything, but I liked the Kraken.

Did the Ultimate Chimera show up in the 64 version, too? If it did, were you the one that designed it?

I don’t remember if there was an Ultimate Chimera in the game, but I did design several chimeras.

Shigesato Itoi in Jan. 1997 Famitsu (5) Read More >>>	64Dream Shigesato Itoi Interview (3) Read More >>>
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Hi, Mister Tomato!

Here are 12 scans from N64 Magazine, which was a UK mag from the late 90s/early 00s. They’re all previews and gossip for Mother 3, naturally, except for a scan of a competition where readers had to send in US-related items to win an N64. Note the Mach Pizza air freshener!

You can see all the scans here:

Some of the details are interesting, though the one about EB64′s cancellation is a bit wrong – Itoi never promised that the work would be used for GameCube stuff. I also don’t know why they say Ness and Jeff were going to be in the game, and I definitely don’t know who these “Great Inobaba” and “Carby” characters are. They’re sure not familiar faces to me!

Still, it’s neat seeing what they had to say about the game over the years, it’s like seeing things from a different perspective. I wonder, if EarthBound 64 had been released in North America, how likely would a European release have been?

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EarthBound 64 in German Magazine (21) Read More >>>