Strange, Funny, and Heartrending, 3 words that perfectly describe one of my favorite video games of all time. What's this game you ask? Pokemon? No, surprisingly. It's Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance. Mother 3 is the 3rd game in the Mother or Earthbound series as it is commonly known as outside of Asia.
This game actually has quite a bit of history behind it, while other sites like Starmen.net have documented it, I'll give you a brief rundown. It started off life as a game for the Nintendo 64, more specifically, it was made for the Disk Drive they planned on adding. However, when the N64DD was proven to be a failure, the decided to make Mother 3 a regular N64 game. Then came the fact that this game came in late during the N64's life cycle, and the developers were having trouble making a game with 3D graphics, as a result, the game was cancelled as the Nintendo Gamecube was launched. However, during an ad campaign for the release of the Mother 1+2 compliation on the GBA, an ad announced that they're making Mother 3. After years of news, Mother 3 was released for the GBA in Japan as the GBA's final game. Unfortunally, everyone else outside of Japan didn't get it, and were mostly likely exposed to events that happened in Mother 3 via Super Smash Bros Brawl, considering that Lucas' Trophy does mention certain parts of the game, two bosses from the Subspace Emissary, Porky Minch and the King P Statue are bosses in the game of Mother 3, and New Pork City, the game's final location, is one of the playable stages. There is a fantranslation done by devoted Mother fans, and as a result of their hardwork, people are able to play the game as they wish.
The story in Mother 3 is broken up into 8 chapters. While Lucas is the main protagonist throughout the game, the first 3 chapters of the game stars different characters. Chapter 1 stars his Father, Flint trying to save his family. Chapter 2 stars Duster, the town theif that walks around with a limp stealing the Humming Bird Egg from Osohe Castle, and Chapter 3 stars Salsa, a monkey that will do anything to protect his love, even if that means being with douchebag like Yokuba. When Chapter 4 kicks in, there is a 3 year timeskip from the events of the first 3 chapters and that's when you control Lucas for the rest of the game, as he tries to fight the power of the Pigmask Army, pull the Seven Needles before the Masked Man does and tries to save the world.. As far as the story in the game goes, I will admit, there were parts in the game where I found myself in tears over what happened in the game. Ranging from the reveal of Hinawa's death, to Duster leaving the DCMC, to the final boss fight in the game. There is also a good share of funny moments like in Chapter 2 where Wess opens a door through the most funniest dance you'll ever see in a sprite based game, and a part where Lucas and the gang ride in a Refridgerator to get down from a moutain. (Trust me, this will make sense when you get to that part.) This game can invoke practically every human emotion, and I like it when a game does that. Makes me feel human.
The character themselves are pretty memorable, ranging from my favorite character in the game, Duster, Lucas, Salsa, Kumatora, Boney, Flint, Hinawa, Claus, the Magypsies, the DCMC Issac, Yokuba/Fassad, and even the big bad of the game, I could go on and on, that's how good the characters in this game are. I actually care for what happens to them. For example, in the case of Salsa, who is the game weakest playable character, he doesn't have any special items of his own. his attack stats are weak, you have to rely on the NPC character to do damage for you and let's just say that the person he's team up with, treats him like crap to the point that he doesn't attack for some turns. You may want to hate him, but due to his backstory of being a tool used by the Pigmask Army, and the abuse he goes through during that chapter, I just can't help but feel sorry for Salsa, I just can't hate him. Along with Duster, in a weird way, he sort of reminds me of myself, having a disability, the world rejects him, but he was able to find a good amount of friends in the band of the DCMC, Lucas, Kumatora, Flint, and Boney. Sort of like my life in a weird twisted way. I also see fragments of myself in Lucas as well. This is what I like about the main cast, I can see parts of myself within them, and they also remind me of people that I know in real life.
As for the gameplay, it's a simplistic RPG. You beat up enemies, earn EXP, and learn new PSI moves along the way, thoug provided, only 2 party members learn PSI moves, Lucas and Kumatora, and everyone else is practically stuck with the abilities they have since the beginning of the game. Duster relies on theif tools, which are pretty helpful in various way, while Boney has a technique that can tell you the weakness of any enemy. Though a new feature for the series is an action command when you're doing melee attacks to rack up damage. To do this, your attacks must be in sync with the music that's playing in the background. Pretty innovated in that regard, and the graphics themselves are pretty good, especially the battle sprites for your opponents, and the overworld as well. Also, during my other playthrough, I tend to notice certain things a little bit more, which kind of shows you that the developers of this game thought of everything.
The music, dear god, the music, it's like crack. I love every bit of music in this song from His Highness' Theme, Isn't It Utopia, Flying Whatchamacallit, all the songs by the DCMC, Mom's Hometown. I could go on and on about it, but man, if I had to listen to every song on a CD in an endless loop, I would do it.
Overall, the game is pretty good adventure, and worth a playthrough, my only advice would be is to have a box of tissues handy during the final parts of the game, and talk to everyone and explore everything. This game thrives on that, and you'll enjoy it more.
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