Mother 3

Mother 3 (also unofficially referred to as EarthBound 2) is a 2006 role-playing video game in the Mother series, developed by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory, and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The game, which is the final entry in the series, was directed by Nobuyuki Inoue, written by series creator Shigesato Itoi, and scored by composer Shogo Sakai. The story 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. The game's development spanned twelve years and four consoles, beginning in 1994 for the Super Famicom console and then transitioning to the Nintendo 64 and its 64DD add-on before being cancelled in 2000. Mother 3 restarted development in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance and was finally released in Japan on April 20, 2006. Mother 3 was a critical and commercial success upon release. Critics generally praised the game's graphics, music, and story, but believed that the gameplay offered few innovations to the role-playing genre. The game was never released outside Japan, though an unofficial English fan translation was released by the Starmen.net internet community in October 2008. On December 17, 2015, the game was released for the Japanese Virtual Console on the Wii U. Since then, the game has achieved a recognition comparable to Earthbound, becoming a cult classic.