MOTHER 4 announced...

[Regulus Tera]

...as a fangame (http://www.vg247.com/2010/10/19/fan-made-mother-4-in-development/).

If Mother won’t come to the mountain, the people will move the mountain to Mother. Or something.

Some Mother fans has taken it upon themselves to make Mother 4, as you can see on TheKartel.

To cut a very long story short, the third game in the RPG series was never released outside Japan, although it did get a fan translation. Mother 2 was released as Earthbound in the west.

Obviously, the game has nothing to do with Nintendo or series creator Shigesato Itoi. Which means it’ll probably be closed down by Nintendo next week, but what the hey.Mother 4, if it ever gets that far, is likely to be released on PC for free. There’s no date.Via Kotaku and GoNintendo.Posted in: Nintendo, RPG

Fucking MOTHER fans, why would you do this?

[Kim]

Because they're fucking idiots.

I mean, there's a lot of hubris or stupidity coming from these people if they think they can put together something that is even halfway decent enough to be called Mother 4.

[Regulus Tera]

Obviously this is all a clever ploy by the Starmen.net people. Their plan is to get taken to court. Some representative of Nintendo will be at that trial. They will use their time in the courtroom to present to Nintendo a comprehensive case for why they should make Mother 4. They will bring hardback professionally bound books, vinyl albums of fan remixed Mother music, and hundreds of Mr. Saturn plushes.

In their mind there is no way Nintendo could ignore such a pitch.

[Satan's Onion]

This sounds awful. Nothing good can come of this.
Regulus, your link's wonky; it has an extra http in it which screws it up.
Also, you want me to slap a thread tag on this mofo? I can think of one or two possibly appropriate ones.
I reiterate: This sounds awful on every level.

[Regulus Tera]

Yes please. Goddamn my brain actually hurts after this.

[Satan's Onion]

Done! I used Warbot because we don't yet have a specific tag for "sad things which inflict trepidation and despair".

[Roland]

I remember reading an interview with Itoi sometime back where he said that while he personally wasn't going to work on any more Mother games, he encouraged pretty much anyone who wanted to do so... to do so.

So I don't have any particular problems with fans making Mother 4. So long as it doesn't turn out to be a clusterfuck of contextless Mother references it could... oh who am I kidding? That's probably what it's going to be.

On a more serious note, this is something I just asked myself: Why a Mother fan game instead of an original work? The term "spiritual successor" comes to mind.

[Regulus Tera]

Even Nintendo isn't arrogant enough to try to do a Mother sequel without Itoi.

Yes, that is literally the first time in human history the words 'Even', 'Nintendo', 'isn't', 'arrogant', and 'enough' have ever followed each other in sequence. That should tell you how heavy this is.

[Donomni]

Obviously this is all a clever ploy by the Starmen.net people. Their plan is to get taken to court. Some representative of Nintendo will be at that trial. They will use their time in the courtroom to present to Nintendo a comprehensive case for why they should make Mother 4. They will bring hardback professionally bound books, vinyl albums of fan remixed Mother music, and hundreds of Mr. Saturn plushes.

In their mind there is no way Nintendo could ignore such a pitch.

The thing is, I can actually see this happening. Either that or yet another desperate attempt to bring over an official US release of Mother 3 or something like that.

Again, not really a sound plan, but these guys are... dedicated enough to pull such a stunt.

But yeah, I wouldn't really mind if they actually made a fan-game(Or just a similar, but not fan-game game), but calling it Mother 4 is arrogant as hell.

[Kim]

The Underside (http://www.superfundungeonrun.com/insignificantstudios/preview.php)

It's heavily inspired by Earthbound and Cave Story, to the point that it even uses some sound files from the games, but it's still clearly its own thing, doesn't claim to be the next Cave Story/Earthbound, and best of all is from a person who has made fan games before that were actually good.

As far as I know, these arrogant Mother 4 people haven't made anything before. At least, they haven't made anything I've heard of. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Jagos]

Jonbound is still a good hack. *shrug*

[bluestarultor]

I think everyone knows what I could be saying here well enough at this point that I don't have to say it.


Also, Mother 3 is never going to come over officially because Japanese copyright law is to American copyright law what water is to rock. As such, the music in particular is blatantly ripped off part and parcel from many famous pieces such as the "Alleluia Chorus" and has other pieces which bear uncomfortable resemblances to music from series as popular as Mega Man.

They simply don't have the rights to large portions of the music they used and since they refused to change it to preserve their artistic vision, we just aren't getting it.

[Geoffron X]

Done! I used Warbot because we don't yet have a specific tag for "sad things which inflict trepidation and despair".

Yes we do, and you just used it?

[Regulus Tera]

Bluestaruktor nobody was talking about mother3

Also I'm pretty sure the Alelluiah chorus is public domain.

[BitVyper]

Jonbound is still a good hack. *shrug*

Yes! Jonbound is an excellent hack.

[bluestarultor]

Bluestaruktor nobody was talking about mother3

Also I'm pretty sure the Alelluiah chorus is public domain.

Donomni mentioned it.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if it somehow wasn't. As a religious person, I have to sing religious music on a weekly basis and bloody all of it is copyrighted.

Edit: Actually, a lot of it is double copyrighted. In cases where they stole the tune and changed the words, the tune's copyright goes to the original writer and the words' copyright goes to about five people who had way too much time on their hands in the mid-60s.

[Pip Boy]

In the future if we're posting a thread about a fangame sequel, rather than a canon sequel, can we put that in the thread title? Because I momentarily thought we had a fourth mother game coming and then had those hopes instantly dashed by 'fangame lol'. Am not amused *serious face*.

[Regulus Tera]

Donomni mentioned it.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if it somehow wasn't. As a religious person, I have to sing religious music on a weekly basis and bloody all of it is copyrighted.

Edit: Actually, a lot of it is double copyrighted. In cases where they stole the tune and changed the words, the tune's copyright goes to the original writer and the words' copyright goes to about five people who had way too much time on their hands in the mid-60s.


The reason MOTHER 3 never got released had more to do with bad timing (just at the moment NoA decided to kill the GBA) and less with copyrights.

Also Dodumbni is a dweeb.


In the future if we're posting a thread about a fangame sequel, rather than a canon sequel, can we put that in the thread title?

No.

[Kim]

Yeah, like Earthbound and Mother before it, it came out near the end of the console's lifespan, and then you add to that the time it'd take to localize it and there was just no way it would succeed like they wanted it to. I mean, I used to get all angry about it not being localized, but it just didn't make sense to. If it does get localized, it'll probably be released on that GBA virtual console thing the 3DS is supposedly getting.

[Regulus Tera]

Yeah, like Earthbound and Mother before it, it came out near the end of the console's lifespan, and then you add to that the time it'd take to localize it and there was just no way it would succeed like they wanted it to. I mean, I used to get all angry about it not being localized, but it just didn't make sense to. If it does get localized, it'll probably be released on that GBA virtual console thing the 3DS is supposedly getting.

It will never be localised, what with its heavy themes of fratricide and child abuse. Also, trannies.

Sure, they could censor it, but do we want that after the wonderful Tomato translation (who, wisely, does not have anything to do with this shit)?

[Pip Boy]

Are the fan translations of mother 3 any good? I never got around to playing it because I thought Mother 2 was kinda bad.

[Donomni]

Also Dodumbni is a dweeb.

It's the Robot Unicorn, isn't it? :wtf:

[Loyal]

Even Nintendo isn't arrogant enough to try to do a Mother sequel without Itoi.

Yes, that is literally the first time in human history the words 'Even', 'Nintendo', 'isn't', 'arrogant', and 'enough' have ever followed each other in sequence. That should tell you how heavy this is.I dunno. Nintendo might do it - the only thing I can see stopping them is that they'd want/have to release Mother 3 to the west first, to drum up sales, and of course they can't have that.

[PyrosNine]

The NOA could of course, make an Earthbound game (essentially a Mother 4) and release it as Earthbound 2 (or 3) and not have to muck about with Mother 3 at all. Similarly, this Mother 4 fan project could work if Mother as a Franchise is no more, if no more games are getting made then there's no point in protecting the license quite as hard.

Also, if it's getting made in America, where Mother has never been released as "Mother", while still being given out for free, then NOA would probably have to prove that they have an American license for the product name of "Mother"

Of course, that shouldn't be too hard to resolve, and if they did license the name in the US to squash the fanmake, then it would also be a sign of brand protection, IE that Nintendo feels threatened by the creation of one of it's trademarks when it could make said trademark for itself, and that there was some hope for another Mother game that this fanmake would draw away from.

[BitVyper]

I thought Mother 2 was kinda bad.

. . . . . . . . . .

I am going back in time to father you just so I can come back to the present and say this:

I HAVE NO SON!

[phil_]

Are the fan translations of mother 3 any good? I never got around to playing it because I thought Mother 2 was kinda bad.Yeah, the translation for 3 is "any" good. I'd say it's pretty good, even.

[Regulus Tera]

The fan translation of MOTHER 3 is better than most official translations. Probably because Tomato actually works at Treehouse, aka Nintendo's official localisation department.

[Magus]

These people are idiots.

I mean, remaking a sequel to Chrono Trigger is one thing, a crippled monkey missing one arm and both legs could type out a superior sequel than Chrono Cross using its tail on a typewriter missing its backspace key. That goes without saying.

But to think you can make a Mother game? To match the superb and hilarious writing? The imaginative and quirky universe? The utterly fantastic music? You must have balls as big as rocks and rocks in your head the size of Gibraltar.

Prepare to fail, Starmen. Thy Tower of Babel shall surely collapse beneath the weight of thine unworthiness ere it reaches the heavenly plane Itoi resides upon.

[Aeria]

These people are idiots.

I mean, remaking a sequel to Chrono Trigger is one thing, a crippled monkey missing one arm and both legs could type out a superior sequel than Chrono Cross using its tail on a typewriter missing its backspace key. That goes without saying.

But to think you can make a Mother game? To match the superb and hilarious writing? The imaginative and quirky universe? The utterly fantastic music? You must have balls as big as rocks and rocks in your head the size of Gibraltar.

Prepare to fail, Starmen. Thy Tower of Babel shall surely collapse beneath the weight of thine unworthiness ere it reaches the heavenly plane Itoi resides upon.

You are everything that is wrong with the world.

Chrono Cross was good, and if you didn't like it then you didn't get it. There is no room for leniency here.

If people want to make a fan Mother game, let them. Either it will be terrible and no one will care, it will be mediocre and some people will care, or it will be good and lots of people will care. There is no need to doom them to failure prematurely, or call them names for attempting something great. So far they're shooting high, and that deserves praise.

Quoting the bible in your doomsaying seals your fate as a part of the dregs of society. Go out on the street and start yelling that the world is going to end, so only the people who live around you have to ignore you, and not the whole world via the internet.

Your only saving grace is that you like Mother, and well, a one-armed no-legged monkey does that.

[Fifthfiend]

Chrono Cross was good
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt148/fifthfiend/reactions/w2blzl.gif

[bluestarultor]

You are everything that is wrong with the world.

Chrono Cross was good, and if you didn't like it then you didn't get it. There is no room for leniency here.

If people want to make a fan Mother game, let them. Either it will be terrible and no one will care, it will be mediocre and some people will care, or it will be good and lots of people will care. There is no need to doom them to failure prematurely, or call them names for attempting something great. So far they're shooting high, and that deserves praise.

Quoting the bible in your doomsaying seals your fate as a part of the dregs of society. Go out on the street and start yelling that the world is going to end, so only the people who live around you have to ignore you, and not the whole world via the internet.

Your only saving grace is that you like Mother, and well, a one-armed no-legged monkey does that.

Calm down, there. I happen to absolutely adore CC myself, but it had some glaring flaws, like how unfinished the story was. I love the game, but just was not written well and the flow got dropped off a cliff pretty much from the get-go. Then it drove off a cliff with the Six Dragon Gods.

I mean if there is any game I hope they ever remake, it's CC, because it had so much potential that was just never fully nurtured and realized and it needed a third disc. I think if it got polished up the way it deserves, it would easily shine just as brightly as CT and maybe the fans would forgive it.

It's a nice game as it stands, but its lack of completion really kept it from being the truly amazing game it had the potential to be.

[Kim]

If people want to make a fan Mother game, let them.

I'm not stopping them. I'm just saying it's a stupid fucking idea. They can make a game and call it Mother 4, unless Nintendo tells them otherwise. I don't give a damn about copyright or any of that. They're just doing something really fucking stupid.

There is no need to doom them to failure prematurely, or call them names for attempting something great. So far they're shooting high, and that deserves praise.No, it really doesn't. This is hubris, plain and simple. If a scrawny guy who can barely do a single pushup claims that he can bench two hundred pounds and sets out to prove it, you call him a fucking idiot, because there's nothing noble in getting your neck snapped under the weight of the bar. The game will most likely be mediocre at best. Even if it is good, of course I'm going to judge it more harshly for calling itself Mother 4. You claim that something is worthy of being a sequel to a fantastic game and you deserve the burden that goes with that claim.

Anyone fan who thinks themselves qualified to make a sequel to Mother 3 is most assuredly not qualified simply for thinking so.

[bluestarultor]

I'm not stopping them. I'm just saying it's a stupid fucking idea. They can make a game and call it Mother 4, unless Nintendo tells them otherwise. I don't give a damn about copyright or any of that. They're just doing something really fucking stupid.

No, it really doesn't. This is hubris, plain and simple. If a scrawny guy who can barely do a single pushup claims that he can bench two hundred pounds and sets out to prove it, you call him a fucking idiot, because there's nothing noble in getting your neck snapped under the weight of the bar. The game will most likely be mediocre at best. Even if it is good, of course I'm going to judge it more harshly for calling itself Mother 4. You claim that something is worthy of being a sequel to a fantastic game and you deserve the burden that goes with that claim.

Anyone fan who thinks themselves qualified to make a sequel to Mother 3 is most assuredly not qualified simply for thinking so.

I think that last bit is a little harsh. There's a lot of untapped talent out there.

Not that I entirely disagree. Mother is a unique series and was very well-received. They have a lot to stand tall against. They have their work cut out for them.

That just doesn't mean it's impossible they might succeed. If they think they can do it, let them try (provided they're allowed). Maybe they have the goods to back it up. We don't know. You're assuming they're that scrawny guy without having seen them. For all we know, they might be Olympic weightlifters.

[Kim]

That just doesn't mean it's impossible they might succeed. If they think they can do it, let them try (provided they're allowed). Maybe they have the goods to back it up. We don't know. You're assuming they're that scrawny guy without having seen them. For all we know, they might be Olympic weightlifters.

I automatically assume all self-proclaimed game developers are the scrawny guy unless they actually back it up with something. Examples: A tech demo or another game they've made. Even a short story to show that they actually know how to write at all, let alone in the style that the Mother games are known for.

I repeat, they can make the game, but I'm going to assume it won't be remotely impressive until they give me reason to think otherwise. After all, a fan game is a fanfic, and fanfics aren't exactly known positively for their quality.

There's a lot of untapped talent out there.Correction: There's a lot of people who think they're untapped talent out there. Actual untapped talent is far less common.


Disclaimer: Not all fan games are bad. Merry Gear Solid was mediocre, but Merry Gear Solid 2 was awesometastic. Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden is also awesome. There are a couple Sonic games in the works that are on about the same level as Sonic 4, give or take. I just don't have much faith in the fan community's writing ability, and their actual ability to make decent gameplay is very hit or miss.

[Magus]

You are everything that is wrong with the world.

Chrono Cross was good, and if you didn't like it then you didn't get it. There is no room for leniency here.

If people want to make a fan Mother game, let them. Either it will be terrible and no one will care, it will be mediocre and some people will care, or it will be good and lots of people will care. There is no need to doom them to failure prematurely, or call them names for attempting something great. So far they're shooting high, and that deserves praise.

Quoting the bible in your doomsaying seals your fate as a part of the dregs of society. Go out on the street and start yelling that the world is going to end, so only the people who live around you have to ignore you, and not the whole world via the internet.

Your only saving grace is that you like Mother, and well, a one-armed no-legged monkey does that.

Itoi's not actually in the Bible...but he should be!

I only brought up CC because of the fangame Crimson Echoes getting a Cease and Desist from Squarenix, which was the only fangame I could think of in recent history. My comment on CC was kind of secondary, but it was the best example I could come up with of a sequel not actually being very good so maybe you could have a hope of equaling it or surpassing it. As for why Chrono Cross is horrible, CC fails because they couldn't even be bothered to have Magus'/Guile's story in it and it was way too convoluted, they had to cram so much nonsense into it. Like Blues said, you get to a point where you are fighting Dragon Gods from another dimension where Reptites from the past fought with Chronopolis from the future for the fate of the present, blah blah blah, and you kind of wonder why they couldn't have cut some of that out and gave us what we wanted, like DOUBLE TECHS that weren't impossible to find, or Magus (perhaps I'm a bit biased about wanting Magus to be in it, but even your average fan kind of wondered what happened to him after the ending of CT when he, y'know, went off in a time portal specifically to find Schala...) I mean, FATE creating the archipelago so it could mind control people through save points, before it merged with your dad and made him into a lynx-man hybrid...it's way too out there and random. Couple this with zero explanation, and you have a recipe for disaster.

As for this project, they should have said it was a side story or a parody or something related to Mother but not actually a full direct sequel, or something...not have the audacity to call it Mother 4.

[bluestarultor]

@Magus & Aeria: Don't get me wrong, CC's story could have worked if it had just been better developed. There's a lot left unexplained and a lot of it had to do with space limitations, specifically the whole Magus thing. Guile was supposed to be Magus, but they just did not have the resources to make it happen. That's why the fortune teller freaks out if you don't raid Viper Manor well enough and he has to take off his mask for losing the bet.

That's why I say its biggest flaw was being unfinished. It just wasn't. You had gorgeous graphics, great music, two interesting worlds, tons of characters, and a setup that was clearly intended to be epic, but the whole thing just kind of muddled through.

I really think they could have handled it all if it had just been nurtured a bit more.

[Ryong]

I agree with NonCon: I'd rather not make any assumptions of the potential goodness of games until I see a demo. No need to be so harsh, though. Also:

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK TICK TOCK HAIR TRIGGER ACHIEVEMENT IS TICKING.