The Strange True Story of EarthBound 64

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2026 marks the twentieth anniversary of Mother 3, which first launched on the Game Boy Advance back in April 2006. It’s hard to believe sometimes, as that era of gaming often feels like it was only a few weeks ago. In fact, Mama 3 is just one year shy of ordering her drink. Lucky.

The story of Mother 3 is an odd one, which is hardly surprising considering director Shigesato Itoi’s previous works and the franchise itself. It wouldn’t be a mom game without some kind of weird story, and while it was a little better than other games that went through frustrating development cycles, the story of how it fell to the finish line feels like Itoi’s story alone.

10 Best Games Like Deltarune

There are many great games to tide you over until the next chapter of Deltarune.

It’s a matter of patience and disappointment, and we also agree that it’s okay to let things go sometimes. Mother 3’s long, sometimes painful journey from concept to completion was filled with drama, console changes, cancellations, and dramatic rebirths. What started as a possibly ambitious game idea has taken several iterations to complete, and that surreal journey is a legend worth recounting.

Go to Hollywood

While Real Mom was a very successful game, it was only released in Japan. It couldn’t find its way to North America until 2015, but a sequel would be released in the US under the title EarthBound for the SNES in 1995. Although it was incredibly successful in Japan, US sales were less than stellar. No matter which way you cut it, Nintendo saw their decision not to release Mother 1 in the US as a good one, but still saw potential in a proposed third game succeeding in North America.

Shigeru Miyamoto gave Itoi something of a blank check, and skipped the usual prototyping stage. He told Itoi to do something good, and while he met a few team members from EarthBound, it was a very new team. It was time for Itoi to bring out the topic that had been brewing in his mind for a long time.

It was described by Itoi as a way to make a game that felt like a big Hollywood, blockbuster movie, which would later be known as EarthBound 64 that first entered development for the SNES. That period would not last long, however, as the 1990s were a time of great technological change.

2D and SNES sprites were on the way out, as 3D games grabbed the world by their collective throats. The SNES version of Mother 3 was eventually scrapped, and all of the team’s progress was transferred to the Nintendo 64. EarthBound 64 was poised to become one of the biggest, most wildly anticipated titles of the late 1990s.

An Ambitious Adventure

Itoi’s vision for EarthBound 64 was for a 12-chapter RPG focused on the dynamic, changing nature of our world. Sitting in a city that would change during each chapter, Itoi wasn’t just looking to repeat. He aimed to create one of the most ambitious games of the decade.

It was the 1990s again, which meant Nintendo’s unlimited playbook was open for business. They gave Itoi a small amount to work with, decorating his team with 3D software and increasing the size. This was a great RPG for the N64, which didn’t have enough, and never really had, so there was little expectation of what this game would be.

EarthBound 64 was poised to be one of the biggest, most wildly anticipated titles of the late 1990s.

As development progressed, Itoi’s vision began to solidify. The game is designed to be a cinematic adventure with multiple playable characters, high-octane action set pieces, and a fast-paced combat system built for rhythmic input. This wasn’t just a bunch of empty promises, either.

Back in the 1990s, Nintendo had its own dedicated media event every summer known as Space World. It was E3 before E3 was a thing, and Nintendo would eventually leave that to join those festivities every year. At the 1999 Space World event, Nintendo showed off the latest EarthBound 64.

It was an impressive display, and the mine cart scene is a highlight. This was a game that clearly had a lot of things going on, and those who were lucky enough to see it in detail in the show talked about how it looked. Nintendo had made it clear that EarthBound 64 would be released in 1999, but Itoi and the team failed to meet that date and the game was canceled just one year later.

Hand Held Reincarnation

The cancellation hit Itoi and the team so hard, that they got together one night to play the current version of the game through. Itoi described it as a wild night, as the members of the group were all crying and laughing at the same time. Something about this game and the way it affected people was truly amazing.

Despite the cancellation, Miyamoto and the late Satoru Iwata met with Itoi to figure out the next steps. All three received a version for the Nintendo GameCube, as the production of that console was part of why the game was canceled in the first place. Nintendo needed all hands on deck, pulling in members of the EarthBound 64 team to help, and felt that the money being poured into it was taking away from other projects.

Nintendo had made it clear that EarthBound 64 would be released in 1999, but Itoi and the team failed to meet that date and the game was canceled just one year later.

Although it was short, the GameCube version didn’t make it very far, and it seems that the game will remain lost forever. Although the N64 version would never see the light of day, Itoi and Nintendo weren’t the ones to give up. Seeing the potential in what the Game Boy Advance could do, Itoi decided to do it one last time.

Mother 3 would finally see the light of day, launching on the Game Boy Advance on April 20, 2006. Sadly, it came and went without a US release. That remains true twenty years later, and it has become one of the most requested areas of all time. It is played in English thanks to the amazing fan translation, and anyone who wanted to play it right now, but Mother 3 has not been officially released in North America.

Anywhere for that matter, as it has remained Japan-exclusive for two decades. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe, as this is a game that had a huge, lasting impact on me. About ten years ago, I played the fan translation for the first time. Like Itoi and his team, I laughed, cried, and felt like I had experienced one of the most important video game stories ever written.

I wasn’t familiar with the franchise during EarthBound 64’s troubled development, but I was still involved with the industry enough to see what was going on. Its strange journey from development to cancellation and rebirth was one of the most interesting things I’ve ever seen. In retrospect, it feels like the most motherly thing ever, and the emotional hook the canceled game had for everyone is still very endearing.