What EarthBound On Switch Means For A Mother 3 Release Date

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EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings are now available on Nintendo Switch Online as downloadable games. This means that two of the three entries in the EarthBound/Mother series are available on Nintendo Switch, but what about the third? If there are two EarthBound titles on Nintendo Switch, then does this mean that Mother 3 will finally make its way overseas and appear on the system?

Mother 3 was originally meant to be released on the Nintendo 64, but that version of the game was canceled and reworked into a Game Boy Advance game. The Game Boy Advance version of Mother 3 was released in Japan in 2006, yet Mother 3 never received an official English localization. There is an incredibly well-done fan translation of Mother 3 available online and Nintendo has never attempted to shut it down, which means the only way to play the game is through illegal means. Those who have played Mother 3 often sing its praises, calling it one of the best JRPGs of its era.

Related: Everything Revealed During Nintendo Direct (February 2022)

Nintendo has shown a general disinterest in the EarthBound series, outside of Ness and Lucas' appearances in the Super Smash Bros. franchise. That all changed when EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings joined Nintendo Switch Online in February 2022. This has raised hopes that Mother 3 will also come to the Switch, but are those hopes warranted?

Fans thought it was suspicious that EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings were limited to the previous generation of systems. This was more obvious in the case of EarthBound Beginnings, which was released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015, but not the 3DS' Virtual Console. This was deemed odd, as the 3DS had a far bigger audience than the Wii U and it had many NES