Earthbound Sequel Mother 3 Might Finally Be Coming to the West

Earthbound fans have agonized for the better part of a decade over the fact that the game's sequel, Mother 3, has never been officially released outside of Japan. That might finally be changing, according to multiple reports suggesting it will, at long last, be localized by Nintendo for international release.

Word of this recently spread on Reddit and Twitter, and now Eurogamer is independently reporting it as well. According to the report, Mother 3 will launch on Wii U's Virtual Console to celebrate the game's 10-year anniversary in Japan. (It was originally released there back in 2006 on Game Boy Advance.) We don't yet know whether it would only be coming to Europe, or North America as well.

Nintendo announced last year that it would be released on Virtual Console, but only in Japan. Fans remained hopeful it could also come to the rest of the world after the original Mother was released outside of Japan for the first time last year as Earthbound Beginnings. Previously, the only title to make it outside the country was Mother 2, known better to those in the West as Earthbound.

Despite only this single release prior to last year, the series has remained popular due to exposure through things like the Super Smash Bros. series. Meanwhile, a fan translation of Mother 3 has been available online for some time, with the team responsible for it even offering it to Nintendo for free.