5/5 ★ – mayday_SR's review of Mother 3.

Platform: Gameboy Advance (via modded New Nintendo 3DS XL) Time first play through: 36 hours & 29 minutes (spoilers, TLDR this story is a masterpiece & if you haven’t already played it, I beg of you to seek out this game.) This week, this game turns 19 years old, & ever since its release on April 20th, 2006, this game has inspired millions of people from all over the world, tested fans ability & raw talent to perfectly localize & make it easily available for people here in North America, & it has changed the lives of so many people. One of the lives that this game changed.. is me. This game is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my entire life, it truly is a one of a kind game in atmosphere, themes, emotions, imagination, the works. Everything in the story is perfectly written & told in a way that I believe couldn’t work in any other medium other than an RPG on the Gameboy Advance. I feel like I have so much I want to say about this game, but the words aren’t coming out. That’s the one amazing thing as well with this game, is how much happens. When I first played it, I thought I had gotten spoiled on everything because I knew about Hinawa & Claus, but I was so wrong. There’s so much stuff I just wasn’t expecting, & it all is so integral to the story. For example, Chapter 3 was kind of a weird at first. It’s like “oh, I guess I’m in the desert now.. & I’m a monkey named salsa who’s being abused beyond words… oke” but like it just works in tandem with their plan to use Salsa as a way to corrupt the town of tazmilly. I just- everything in the story I’m at a loss of words. & that’s the other thing with this game, story. It’s more than just a video game, it’s a story. The moments hit you right in the gut, they aren’t kidding when they say this game is absolutely Gut wrenching. The tale of a happy family in an adorable little town being shred apart, separated. & the townspeople deceasing into madness, greed, & ending into dictatorship. Flint having so much sorrow for losing his wife & child, & the boy Lucas, who witnessed all of this happen with his own eyes. & don’t even get me started on the moment that (for me) is the best part of the game, chapter 6. the first time experiencing it, it caught me off guard so hard, but as it all played out, let’s just say I was bawling my eyes out by what had just happened to me However don’t get anything mixed up here. Many people say “oh Mother 3 is just so heartbreaking & sad, it’s so good because I cried & Hinawa :(“ when that isn’t even telling the full story. I feel like many people miss the point that the game is trying to make, that even if quite literally your world is in shambles, your going through extreme amounts of depression, even when your situation is as bad as it could possibly be, the sun is still shining. The world is still a beautiful, wacky place full of surprises. It teaches how to cope with pain, & loss, & how it’s okay to cry & feel sad, & how it can also be beneficial to get out of your little hole of sadness, & step outside & experience this beautiful world brimming with imagination. & after that, you can do anything, make new friends, fight against a Pigmask, take a green-train, open sesame Tofu! & this is one of the things about this game changed my life forever, was the theme that I just spoke of. It changed the way I saw the world, & now I see all the color that this world has, & I urge you to look a the beauty of the world (yea ik I’m corny as heck) but like seriously it can’t be underestimated how much this game changed my life. It also changed the way I thought of my family, & especially my own Mother. My mother has a rare mutation of cystic fibrosis, & so she has to go through a lot of physical challenges, such as oxygen, medicine, many surgeries, as well as sometimes needing to visit the hospital. I tried not to get to deep into my life, but when I was 9 I whitenessed my mom nearly pass away from a failed surgery. I was in the hospital room with my Mimi after her surgery & she was barely conscious. I remember just crying so much, the nurses trying to tell me there was nothing wrong. It was so difficult to even comprehend being so young. I’m so extremely grateful to be able to say that my mom is currently alive, & is doing just fine as of now. Nearly a decade has passed since that moment, & I can’t help but to look back on that memory thinking of what could have been. When I think of Chapter 6, I think of that night when I thought I had lost her. That’s part of why it hits me so hard, & it was also that how I was able to cope with all that, & more important than that, it’s helped me love my family so much more. I love my mom, she’s literally the best :,D I’ve been going on & on, & I got a lil personal with details, & maybe this isn’t a very well written review, & God knows that this doesn’t even scratch the surface of how I really feel about this story, but all I wanted to say is just that this game is a masterpiece, it is by far the greatest work of art this industry has ever seen.