The latest Earthbound game was released to Japan only. With no plans from Nintendo for an American release, the fans have united.

The English translation project for Mother 3, the most highly wanted GBA import game from Japan, is now in the final stages of completion.

Once ready, the translation will be made available as a "patch" for download. When applied to a Japanese Mother 3 ROM, it will update all of the game's Japanese text to English. It can then be played on a GBA emulator.

There are no "beta versions" available and the translation team has been tight lipped about when the final version will be released. Yet with only a only a couple of hacks remaining, the translation is expected to be available sometime before 2009.

The Mother 3 translation team has been posting regular progress updates to their blog. After reading their posts (and the hundreds of comments) you'll soon find out that this is an extremely detailed translation, with great pride taken by the translators to make the game polished & professional. A great sign for Earthbound fans.

This isn't the first time a Japanese only Earthbound game has undergone an unofficial English translation. Here's a look at "Earthbound Zero" and a brief history of the entire series...

 

NES - Earthbound Zero

The first Earthbound game (known as Mother in Japan) was released on the NES exclusively to Japan.

Mother became extremely popular because of it's unique style, excellent gameplay and touching story.

The game introduced a more lighthearted approach to traditional RPG's. Instead of battling goblins using swords and maces - you battled lamps with Yo yo's and frying pans.

A fully translated version would later find it's way to North America... Nintendo actually had an English version of Mother ready to ship, but later cancelled it's release due to the conflicting release schedule with the Super Nintendo.

In 1998 a group of ROM nerds calling themselves "Neo Demiforce" discovered a person living in Japan who had an authentic copy of this rare, unreleased cartridge of the english version. The copy was purchased for $400 and shipped to Neo Demiforce.

They dumped the cartridge to a ROM file and made a small hack to edit the game's title screen to read "EarthBound Zero".

 

SNES - Earthbound

In 1995 North America finally got to experience a totally new RPG like no other. Taking place in a quiet town called Eagleland, the main character Ness would awaken in the night to a startling meteor crash near his home.

Although critics slammed the simple graphics, the game was highly reviewed. It became known as one of the greatest RPGs on the SNES.

Despite a huge marketing campaign, Earthbound did not sell well in the US.

Yet the brilliant plot and dialogue eventually captured the hearts of thousands of American gamers. Earthbound would become a cult classic.

According to Nintendo Power: Earthbound is the #1 "Readers' Most Wanted" Virtual Console title for the Nintendo Wii, with Mother 3 close behind at #4.

To this day, American Earthbound fans have been on their knees anticipating the next english sequel to the game.

 

GBA - Mother 3

Originally announced in 1996 for the N64, Mother 3 would later make it's way to the Game Boy Advance in 2003 for the GameBoy Advance. Even though the Nintendo DS was already out, Mother 3 was a highly anticipated release.

Instead of Ness, the main character is Lucas. And the story line would be divided up into eight different chapters chronicling the adventures of Lucas and his family, switching character perspectives throughout each chapter.

In addition to new features, the game includes much of the same elements that made the previous Earthbounds so great, including turn based battles, hilarious comedy, awesome soundtrack and a ton of surprises.

Since the game was only released in Japan, english speaking Earthbound fanboys every else in the world have been wondering when the hell an English copy of Mother 3 will become available...

All indications are that day will soon be here.