HAL Laboratory / Ape Inc. / Nintendo · Nintendo 64 · 2000 · Cancelled — Later Released on GBA
Mother 3 spent nearly six years in development as a Nintendo 64 title before Nintendo cancelled it in 2000 after the game's scope had expanded to unmaintainable scale, eventually shipping on Game Boy Advance in 2006 in a scaled-down form that was never officially localised for Western markets.
Mother 3's N64 development began in 1994, shortly after EarthBound (Mother 2) shipped in Japan to modest commercial but strong critical reception. Creator Shigesato Itoi conceived the N64 version as a 3D RPG, an unprecedented format for a series whose identity was tied to late-1980s Japanese suburbs rendered in 2D sprite art. Early plans described a game significantly more expansive than either predecessor: multiple chapters, a complex narrative about the consequences of industrial development on a small community, and a visual style that would translate the series' warm, ironic aesthetic to 3D environments. Nintendo showed early footage of the game — officially called EarthBound 64 in the West and known in Japan as Mother 3 — at Shoshinkai 1996 and Space World 1997, drawing intense fan interest from the community that had grown around EarthBound. The development became increasingly troubled as the N64's lifespan progressed. HAL Laboratory, the primary development studio, found the 3D construction of the Mother series' world significantly more difficult than the 2D original, and the game's episodic structure — divided into multiple chapters covering different perspectives on the central narrative — complicated planning and scoping. Itoi was deeply involved in the game's writing, which required his sustained attention on top of his other professional commitments as one of Japan's most prominent advertising copywriters. By 1999, the game had been in active development for five years with no confirmed release date, and Nintendo was privately concerned about the budget and timeline. Nintendo cancelled the N64 version in August 2000, shortly after the Game Boy Advance was announced. Itoi made the announcement publicly on his personal website in characteristically measured, emotional language, explaining that the team had been unable to complete the game to his standards on the N64 hardware within any timeline that made commercial sense. The cancellation prompted an enormous outpouring from the EarthBound community online, which had been anticipating the game for years based on screenshots and Space World footage. Nintendo's decision attracted criticism for the abruptness of the cancellation after six years of development and multiple public demonstrations. The story did not end there. Itoi, the game's writer and creative director, retained his conviction that the Mother 3 story deserved to be told. Rather than abandoning the project entirely, he collaborated with Nintendo to scope the game down for the Game Boy Advance — a 2D handheld that did not require the 3D engine work that had stymied the N64 version. Mother 3 shipped in Japan in April 2006 to critical acclaim, widely regarded as one of the GBA's finest games and one of the most emotionally affecting RPGs of its generation. Nintendo never released an official English localisation. In 2008, a fan translation by Tomato (Clyde Mandelin) and a small team was completed and released online — the most significant fan translation project in gaming history, produced to professional standards and widely used to introduce the game to Western players.