Could we finally see Mother 3 in the West? Mother 2 celebrates 30 years in 2024

Nintendo is about to amp up Earthbound and Mother-related content this year, official Mother socials confirm.

Image: Hobonichi Mother Project / SHIGESATO ITOI/ Nintendo

Anyone who grew up in the golden age of Nintendo knows about Earthbound. Earthbound, known as the Mother franchise in Japan, has had a cult following for 30 years as of 2024. So, the official Mother social media account announced that they’re planning to celebrate.

Over the weekend, the official Mother post on X, the social media formerly known as Twitter, stated that they are “preparing various plans” for the celebration when translated. The website linked in their post elaborates on this as well.

Here is the post, translated from the original Japanese (seen above):

Happy new year! 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the release of MOTHER2. We are preparing various plans, so Let's enjoy this year together. Nice to meet you!

They kept the post vague and mysterious, which is pretty on-brand for Nintendo’s Japanese posts. But, what could it all mean?

Making for a great headline for early 2024, this news could be anything from Nintendo just putting out some Mother and Earthbound branded goodies on My Nintendo rewards to an official English translation and distribution of Mother 3. Or, anything in between.

The official website mentions collaborations in 2024, so it's possible that we could see a Mother 2-themed Tetris 99 stage or Splatoon Splatfest. But, it's possibly also collaborations with other companies, such as for clothing or stationary.

Back in 2022, Nintendo released both Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings, Mother 2 and the original Mother respectively, for the Nintendo Switch Online platform. 

Many people got their start in the Earthbound world through meeting the baseball bat-wielding, psychic Ness in the original Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64. Little did many people know, Earthbound was actually the sequel to an old Nintendo Entertainment System game, Mother (nowadays known as Earthbound Beginnings). 

However, it was the release of Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance in 2006 that gets a lot of attention to this day. The game never got an official release here in the West or an official English translation. It’s been lost to time. It’s very plausible, as part of a Mother-related celebration, that it could get the Star Fox 2 treatment, finally giving it the release it deserves.

Star Fox 2 was a game that was nearly complete and canceled for the SNES, never to be released… until it was. It finally found its way to the Super NES Classic Edition mini console in 2017 and Nintendo Switch Online in 2019. Mother 3 has precedent to work from!

While speculation is harmless, the festivities are likely minimal, and any news will probably be simple. Honestly, I hope to see a Mr. Saturn pencil topper. The official website mentions measuring sticks, so perhaps we’ll see an official Mother 2 ruler? The excitement for school supplies is boiling over!

We’ll find out sometime this year what we can expect, probably from a summer Nintendo Direct. The original release of Mother 2 was August 27th, 1994, so we have a bit of time to keep speculating. Maybe the Nintendo Switch 2 will be out by then.