Mother 3 was originally slated for release on the Nintendo 64 and its 64DD disk drive accessory, but was cancelled in 2000. The American version sold poorly despite a multimillion-dollar marketing budget. EarthBound 's English localizers were given great liberties when translating the Japanese game's cultural allusions. When the project began to flounder, producer and later Nintendo president Satoru Iwata rescued the game. When approved for a sequel, Itoi increased his involvement in the design process over the five-year development of EarthBound. While visiting Nintendo for other business, Itoi approached Shigeru Miyamoto about making Mother. While the franchise is popular in Japan, in the Anglosphere it is best associated with the cult following behind EarthBound.

Signature elements of the series include a lighthearted approach to plot, battle sequences with psychedelic backgrounds, and the 'rolling HP meter': player health ticks down like an odometer rather than instantly being subtracted, allowing the player to take preventative action, such as healing or finishing the battle, before the damage is fully dealt. The player uses weapons and psychic powers to fight hostile enemies, which include animated everyday objects, aliens and brainwashed people. Written by Shigesato Itoi, published by Nintendo, and featuring game mechanics modeled on the Dragon Quest series, Mother is known for its sense of humor, originality, and parody. Mother (known as EarthBound outside Japan) is a video game series that consists of three role-playing video games: Mother (1989), known as EarthBound Beginnings outside Japan, for the Family Computer Mother 2 (1994), known as EarthBound outside Japan, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Mother 3 (2006) for the Game Boy Advance.

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