Several sources have revealed that Mother 3 is being localized and planned for release in the West, in time for its 10 year anniversary.
Many of these sources were fans, but one apparent insider confirmed the rumor to Eurogamer. According to another source, localization in Europe is already in the final stages.
Mother 3 is the one iteration in the series that has not made it to the West, including both North America and Europe. Originally released in April 20, 2006 for the Game Boy Advance, it tells the story of Lucas in an anachronistic version of Texas. Unlike the heartwarming tale of derring do by Ness and his friends, Lucas’ life takes some dark twists and turns.
Mother 3 is most known in the West thanks to a game localizer and fan named Clyde Mandelin. He spearheaded and worked on an unofficial fan translation of Mother 3. It is still available for download here. Upon its initial release, it was downloaded 100,000 times.
Mother 3 was also the subject of a very long fan campaign to localize and bring it to the West. This campaign has lasted longer than the famous Operation Rainfall, almost a decade itself. Fans made their final push for localization in January, in the form of a fan organized Miiverse campaign targeting the Japanese Mother 3 Miiverse community. You can read more about it here.
While Nintendo has repeatedly disappointed fans year after year by not bringing Mother 3 over, they clearly had not forgotten the game themselves. Lucas appeared as a playable character in Super Smash Bros Brawl and Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS (which meant he also has an amiibo). The recent releases of Earthbound games in recent years was hinting heavily on a Mother 3 release as well. They even made a joke about it in their first E3 Digital Event.
