Earthbound 64 (Mother 3) Nintendo 64 Unreleased Beta

http://www.unseen64.net
http://www.starmen.net

In 1996, Nintendo and HAL Labs planned to release a sequel to the quirky RPG series known as the Mother series in Japan, and the Earthbound series to the US. It was well planned out, and the project was headed by Shigesato Itoi, the same person who was involved in Mother 1 and 2. The game continued in the quirky style of the past games of the Mother series, with various different elements all combined into one game.

[...]

However, while the story was well planned storyline-wise, the development team was not used to working with 3D graphics. They had trouble developing it, and the game suffered delay after delay. It ran into further delays when, around 1998, it was announced as one of the launch titles for the 64DD, a disk-drive attachment for the Nintendo 64 which planned to enhance games. As the 64DD met it's doom in Japan, Mother 3 moved off of its list of games. Mother 3 made an appearance of Spaceworld in 1999, showing screenshots, a movie, and a playable demo, and with this, it looked as if Mother 3 would finally come out.

All these signs of completion showed nothing. The game suffered further delays following spaceworld, when finally, in late summer of 2000, it was announced that Mother 3 was cancelled. The shock hit the Earthbound community hard, but Mother 3 simply had too many problems at the time. It was full of bugs and still not completed. It was also losing interest, as the new Gamecube system made the Nintendo 64 obsolete. More information about Mother 3's cancellation can be found here.

http://starmen.net/eb64/

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Earthbound
• 64
• Mother
• Nintendo
• Unreleased
• Beta
• N64
• Wii
• GBA
• DS
• 64DD
• Ultra
• NESS
• III
• proto
• demo

[pkstarstorm1up]

Actually no. The story was 100% finished yes as was the music but the levels, the graphics, and the bosses weren't. The game was about up to Chapter 5 in the GBA version but this version of the game was going to have 13 Chapters and an additional 2 main characters who were scapped for the GBA release. Claus was also going to have a bigger role outside of the Final Confrontation as he was going to be playable in a few of the earlier chapters. The game was just to big to finish in time.

[gamerblitz1]

Pshhh! Forget graphics! If this game came out right now, I'd be the first to buy it

[MultiLOLFilms]

It's a damn shame, Frank.

[alex29bass]

@ZillionBrain come on, that's just being biased. 3D does nothing but add up to the scope of an already great game. just play some FF12 and you'll know what i mean. an extremely immersive wolrld, great-looking mosnters and bosses, more effective ways to portray the characters and a wider array of gameplay variations. plus, it's funny to see how FF7, the first 3D FF ever, is also probably the most successful one, critically and commercially. pff, "tanked".

[ZillionBrain]

@MilwaukeeJAK You are completely correct. Final Fantasy is another series that tanked after going 3D. I'm glad Mother 3 was cancelled for the N64 and later released on the GBA. 3D is entirely uncalled for in games of this genre.

[KoolaidSamauri]

flint looks like chuck norris

[MasterNem]

@iloveclubpenguincp hate to break it to you, but it wasn't released in Japan even. Although as far as a Mother 3 release say on the DSi/3DS store......

[NintendoGuy128]

I wish they released this on Gamecube, It would look great! :(

[NintendoGuy128]

Why?

[android3481]

Why was this canceled again