This review contains spoilers
MOTHER 3 is a phenomenal game, but chances are you know that already, so much does its reputation proceed it. It's an arthouse game, that rare example of a major studio release with indie sensibilities. It presents a very eccentric world through the lens of loss and tragedy and tackles a wide array of heavy topics. When it's funny, it's really funny; when it's sad, it's incredibly powerful. It's one of those games every gaming critic owes it to themselves to play, and while I don't think we'll ever see an official localization (too much time has passed, and its reputation is now too legendary for Nintendo to ever meet), Tomato's professional-grade fan translation is a fine alternative.
I will say I don't love MOTHER 3, or at least, I don't hold it to the same regard that I do EarthBound. This is mostly down to personal taste, as I fully acknowledge MOTHER 3's strengths over its predecessor; its rhythm system keeps a very simple combat system extremely dynamic, its smaller world and slower build make a much more gripping induction into the adventure, its chapter system lets it tell both a larger sweeping narrative and many isolated character dramas, its playable cast has a lot of variety both thematic and mechanical, running does a lot to help navigation, etc etc etc. But I think the humor and drama are a little at odds here, moreso than in the previous games. EarthBound Beginnings' eccentricities read as a very dry, matter-of-fact sort of humor, mostly owing to the types of stories one could tell on NES being so limited, but that dryness gives it its personality and dovetails nicely with its story of tragic legend. EarthBound is an allegory for childhood told through zany adventure, so moments like Mu Training and the Devil's Machine read as grim counterpoints that supplement the experience. In my opinion, Shigesato Itoi does much better intercutting humor with drama than the inverse, and I sometimes find myself thrown by some of MOTHER 3's pacing decisions; I don't get the Jealous Bass or Mr. Genetor as end-of-chapter bosses, or the Natural Killer Cyborg as the last boss that poses a mechanical challenge (and I have no clue what to make of Heftyhead or Big Bro/Li'l Bro). I'm making this out to be a bigger issue than it is, but it's a big factor to why EarthBound resonates more with me, on top of my preferring comedy to tragedy.
I suspect I'm alone in this, but I also think it's overrated as a condemnation of Capitalism? At least as popular discourse would have of it. It is absolutely a commentary on Consumerism, and it's hard to argue that it doesn't effectively show the tragedy that comes with corrupting a utopia with the fruitless, unending pursuit of consumption - certainly a bold statement to come out of Nintendo's mouth. But I also don't know that this makes the game pro-Communism. Remember that humanity had to forget its memories of wealth and ownership in order for Tazmily Village to become what it is at the start of the adventure, more suggesting that Communism is something inherently unattainable by humanity as it exists now, and so long as the memory of ownership exists, the innate animalistic nature of Wanting and the power that comes from Having will always drift back into human consciousness. If anything, the game suggests good in the pursuit of Capital; it is through this mode after all that the shifty, formerly-reclusive Mole Crickets integrate into society, becoming sympathetic allies to Lucas and friends at a time when innocence has been lost and the communal village has turned its back on the human tragedy playing out with their neighbors.
I will say I don't love MOTHER 3, or at least, I don't hold it to the same regard that I do EarthBound. This is mostly down to personal taste, as I fully acknowledge MOTHER 3's strengths over its predecessor; its rhythm system keeps a very simple combat system extremely dynamic, its smaller world and slower build make a much more gripping induction into the adventure, its chapter system lets it tell both a larger sweeping narrative and many isolated character dramas, its playable cast has a lot of variety both thematic and mechanical, running does a lot to help navigation, etc etc etc. But I think the humor and drama are a little at odds here, moreso than in the previous games. EarthBound Beginnings' eccentricities read as a very dry, matter-of-fact sort of humor, mostly owing to the types of stories one could tell on NES being so limited, but that dryness gives it its personality and dovetails nicely with its story of tragic legend. EarthBound is an allegory for childhood told through zany adventure, so moments like Mu Training and the Devil's Machine read as grim counterpoints that supplement the experience. In my opinion, Shigesato Itoi does much better intercutting humor with drama than the inverse, and I sometimes find myself thrown by some of MOTHER 3's pacing decisions; I don't get the Jealous Bass or Mr. Genetor as end-of-chapter bosses, or the Natural Killer Cyborg as the last boss that poses a mechanical challenge (and I have no clue what to make of Heftyhead or Big Bro/Li'l Bro). I'm making this out to be a bigger issue than it is, but it's a big factor to why EarthBound resonates more with me, on top of my preferring comedy to tragedy.
I suspect I'm alone in this, but I also think it's overrated as a condemnation of Capitalism? At least as popular discourse would have of it. It is absolutely a commentary on Consumerism, and it's hard to argue that it doesn't effectively show the tragedy that comes with corrupting a utopia with the fruitless, unending pursuit of consumption - certainly a bold statement to come out of Nintendo's mouth. But I also don't know that this makes the game pro-Communism. Remember that humanity had to forget its memories of wealth and ownership in order for Tazmily Village to become what it is at the start of the adventure, more suggesting that Communism is something inherently unattainable by humanity as it exists now, and so long as the memory of ownership exists, the innate animalistic nature of Wanting and the power that comes from Having will always drift back into human consciousness. If anything, the game suggests good in the pursuit of Capital; it is through this mode after all that the shifty, formerly-reclusive Mole Crickets integrate into society, becoming sympathetic allies to Lucas and friends at a time when innocence has been lost and the communal village has turned its back on the human tragedy playing out with their neighbors.