is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the third and final entry in the Mother series. The game follows Lucas, a young boy with psychic abilities, and a party of characters as they attempt to prevent a mysterious invading army from corrupting and destroying the world.
Like previous entries, Mother 3 focuses on exploring the game world from a top-down perspective and engaging in turn-based combat with enemies. Its development spanned twelve years and four consoles, beginning in 1994 for the Super Famicom and then transitioning to the Nintendo 64 and its 64DD add-on, when it was known as EarthBound 64. It was initially canceled in 2000, but development was restarted in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance. The game is noted for its significantly more mature and dramatic tone than its predecessors, exploring themes such as environmentalism, capitalism, consumerism, loss and grief, and rebellion against tyranny. However, it still retains much of the series' characteristic witty, idiosyncratic aesthetics and humor.
Mother 3 was never localized or released outside Japan, due to its release near the end of the Game Boy Advance's lifespan and the company focusing on the Nintendo DS. Their early specifications exceeded the capabilities and memory limits of Nintendo 64; halfway through development, the team scaled back its large scope and changed the platform to the 64DD, a Nintendo 64 expansion peripheral that was later released only in Japan in 1999. Development eventually shifted back to the Nintendo 64 after the 64DD's commercial failure. and half complete. Following a period of media silence, the announcement of its conversion from 64DD disk to cartridge plus mission expansion disk was taken by IGN as a sign of further delay or cancellation of the 64DD altogether. The game was considered enough of a departure from the series that the development team questioned whether fans would consider it part of the series. This revolving player-character mechanic was first attempted in Mother 2. Itoi compared the way in which the characters realize their psychic powers with menstruation and added that human physiology was "one of his themes".
Release
thumb|Mother 3 development spanned four consoles. The game was eventually released for the handheld Game Boy Advance.
Mother 3 was released in Japan on April 20, 2006, where it became a bestseller.
Fan translation
Mother 3 did not receive an official release outside Japan. On October 17, 2008, Starmen.net released a fan translation patch that, when applied on a copy of the Mother 3 ROM image, converts all the game's text into English.
| EuroG = 7/10