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GBA
Mother 3 Review
©NCSX |
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NCS
Game Review
«©NCSX»
Lesser-known Nintendo games occupy a strange niche
indeed. Whereas franchises like Mario, Zelda,
Metroid and Pocket Monsters dominate the release
calendar (at times with questionable results), it is
the off-beat “experiments” that seem to represent
this hallowed company’s true area of expertise. In
an age where 3D rules all and graphics are more
important than gameplay, perhaps it is an oddity
that a simple product like Mother 3 can make its way
out the doors and into consumer’s hearts and homes.
Pedigree
While fans know the history of
Mother all too well, newcomers might be surprised to
learn what a dysfunctional life this particular game
has. After two highly successful installments on the
Famicom and Super Famicom respectively, Nintendo
announced the third installment during the early
days of the Nintendo 64's lifespan. Time passed and
some crude images appeared as well as an actual
playable demo; while hardly impressive by any means,
they did indicate the proverbial ball was moving.
Shortly before the N64 died, Nintendo announced that
work on Mother 3 had been scrapped and the company
remained silent on the game and franchise for a
number of years afterwards. That is, until it was
revealed that a GBA port of Mother 1+2 was in the
works along with a brand new game: Mother 3. It took
another 2 years however before the game finally
became available for purchase and, oddly enough, it
is a literal conversion/completion of the vaporware
N64 installment.
Fan Fervor
It is difficult to say exactly what
makes the Mother series so appealing to its
small-but-devoted international following. Perhaps
it's the unorthodox setting, off-the-wall
characters, immature nonsense, and alternative
scenarios that elevate it to a far different
pedestal than say, the latest Final Fantasy game.
Mother is more akin to an RPG version of LucasArt’s
Maniac Mansion series than it is any kind of
prim-and-proper console videogame. Still, oddity is
not without its own charm and hence gamers fell in
love. While Mother 3 fails to live up to
expectations (or even meet prior achievements, for
that matter) anyone who picks up this far-fetched
fantasy will no doubt find themselves in for an
entertaining romp.
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Graphics
Much like the overall package
itself, Mother 3’s visuals are hardly impressive,
yet paradoxically, quite remarkable. Perhaps they
cater to the obsessive demands of series fanatics or
are constrained by the hardware limitations of the
Gameboy. At first glance, Mother 3 looks like a
slightly enhanced build of the Mother 2 engine -
bland looking “Maniac Mansion” wannabes, simplistic
color schemes, and psychedelic battle screens. After
spending just a few minutes with the game it’s clear
that looks can be deceiving. Characters have a
commendable range of sprite animations, at times
offering far more detail than the GBA hardware
implied possible. The backgrounds are peppered with
detail and refinement. Monsters ooze personality.
Yet, things are seriously lacking nonetheless. Given that the GBA
hardware is purportedly superior to that of the
Super Famicom/SNES, why aren’t enemy attacks
animated as in say, Dragon Quest 6 (or the SFC DQ3
remake)? Why is the entire game washed out in such
drab colors when the GBA is capable or doing much
more? Why aren’t the character sprites MORE
detailed? While it’s not always fair to compare GBA
games, Mother 3’s visuals pale in comparison to
Capcom’s recent Rockman EXE games. One might even
claim that Nintendo’s own Wario Land 4 (released
years ago) looks far better. It’s one thing to keep
things simple for simplicity’s sake, but its another
to simply do a lax job with design, especially with
respect to Brownie Brown. How is it that the same
company responsible for the vibrant Magical Vacation
and resplendent Shinyaku Sword of Mana can churn out
this under-realized effort?
Perhaps the bottom line with respect to the visual department is
simply why the game is on the outdated Gameboy
Advance platform in the first place? With all the
benefits of a DS Game Cart, it seems quite apparent
that Nintendo, Shigesato Itoi (the “father” of
Mother), and all parties involved took the easy way
out of game design and opted to do less instead of
more. As it is, Mother 3's visuals are good, but
they could have been far greater.
Familiar Family
Mother 3 offers absolutely nothing
new when it comes to gameplay; truth be told, anyone
familiar with either of the prior installments (or
any other RPG ever made) will have no problems
understanding what to do. This time around, the game
scenario takes place over a series of chapters, each
centering around a different character/problem (but
all interconnected). It’s just like Enix’s Dragon
Quest 4 really, except said game did it much better.
The overall plot involves a group of interstellar
pig-people who land in the “Wild West” and the
mayhem that ensues.
Controlling the “hero” of each chapter, you wander around towns
conversing with denizens, looking for items,
gathering information, and discovering problems. You
then enter dungeons to essentially solve the
problems. Unfortunately, the random nature of this
episodic-based narrative prevents any kind of “grand
adventure” the likes of which Ness and company
enjoyed in Mother 2. However, it does reward gamers
with short attention spans since each Chapter lasts
only a few hours, and then only because of high
difficulty with respect to battles (translating to
lots of time spent leveling up). Is this really what
“fun” is? And why must players control an old cowboy
or a carpenter or a blasted monkey? Are these truly
likable characters?
If there is anything surprising about this game, it may very well
be the far more mature tone; few Nintendo games (if
any) can boast a scenario as gritty and devoid of
magic as Mother 3’s. Without spoiling anything (too
much), consider that by the end of Chapter 1, you
will have met an “estranged” family, experienced a
tragic death, and witnessed a character going
berserk with their emotions physically injuring
others in the process. You may actually stare at the
GBA in disbelief during this particular scene given
the level of depicted violence. It’s great that
Nintendo wants to grow up, but the sentiment is
totally lost on this particular game.
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Combat Criterion
While wandering around the game’s various map screens, you will
encounter on-screen enemies. Depending on how the
player character (PC) touches these creatures, the
battle may begin in their favor-or the enemy’s. Once
combat begins, a small offering of options are at
your disposal:
Attack - The game uses a “Musical Battle
System” where you are encouraged to tap the “A”
button with specific timing in order to score
multiple hits. In truth, this is little more than a
gimmick, as for the most part, “combo” attacks do
little more damage than a single blow. It is also
worth pointing out that the timing issue can be
quite tricky ensuring that most blows are, of
course, one-hit only.
Item - This option allows you to use an item
from your inventory.
Special Ability/PSI – Unlike Mother 1 and 2
where PSI (Psychic Powers, aka “Magic”) were a
cornerstone of battle, Mother 3 regulates the
ability to a “side thought”; you don’t even get to
use PSI until the end of Chapter 2. As a
replacement, more or less, characters have a set
number of special abilities that are mostly useless
but still available.
Guard – Defend for the turn (reduce damage
incurred).
Flee – Attempt to flee the battle.
Gamers who are familiar with Mother 2 will recall the “rolling
number” system with respect to HP in combat - when
an opponent attacks, the recipient will receive
damage but instead of an instant calculation, the
PC’s HP numbers will gradually “roll back”. The
advantage of this system was that by strategic
gaming and fast fingers, players could get
themselves out of a dicey situation (for example,
healing a character dealt a mortal blow before they
actually died). While Mother 3 retains this system,
it is scaled back in comparison and hence much
harder to take advantage of, primarily because of
the lack of an auto attack function.
Fractional Fun
Unfortunately Mother 3’s gameplay is not without its share of
faults as well, a rather puzzling matter given that
the prior installment offered better judgment and
planning with respect to these “broken” elements of
play:
1. Item Management - horrendous to say the
least. While Mother 2 allowed you to hold a limited
number of items in storage, the game also had
permanent party members, meaning that not only did
the item carrying capacity increase as new friends
joined the adventure, but you retained this fixture
throughout the game (with a brief exception when
character “Poo” temporarily leaves). In Mother 3,
you are frequently adventuring solo which means only
one character’s worth of holding capacity. For the
most part, when a character does join, she/he is
often a NPC which means no player-control
whatsoever. The rare times another player character
(PC) joins, you can dole out excess items and
overstock to them. However, said PC will inevitably
leave at some abrupt moment ensuring that the
rearranging of items is moot. It is also worth
noting that at least with respect to the first two
chapters, you may neither buy NOR sell items,
meaning that strict inventory management is a
necessity.
2. Scope, Scale, and Security - “Nowhere
Island” is just too small, truly a pathetic notion
given how Nintendo ported both Mother 1 and Mother 2
onto one GBA cart and still had room for more; why
must a brand new game with THIS much development
time be so confined as if space was severely
limited? How can Itoh claim this installment is so
much larger when even the world map contradicts such
a notion? Additionally, it is high time that
Nintendo stops with its immature “babying” of
players with respect to literally pointing out the
next destination on a map. Both GBA Metroid games as
well as Zelda Minish Cap (to name but a few recent
examples) were ruined by this hand-holding gameplay
mistake and so too does Mother 3 follow suit; it’s
bad enough that RPGs are linear as they are, but
physically circling the next destination on a map?
3. Missing Magic - If one thinks back to
Mother 2, there are just so many fond moments to
recall - a color-crazed cult, sinister statues,
alternate reality towns, fruit-themed inventors,
time travel, dinosaurs, Magicant, tripping on food
(and winding up in Dalaaham), wading through sludge
with pig masks looking for truffles, a Dungeon Man
(complete with a Yellow Submarine)… there is SO much
namely because each and every area in the game was
timeless. Mother 3, alternatively, feels terribly
contrived and utterly unremarkable. It’s as if Itoh
wanted to make a generic RPG and did so - wacky
enemies and sinister spacepigs only go so far when
the actual game lacks “magic”.
Music
Mother 3 offers a truly sizable
number of musical compositions, all crammed into one
“low-tech” game cart. The tunes are both familiar
sounding enough to series fans and yet at the same
time, brand new creations. While not necessarily as
memorable as some of the music heard in the prior
installments, suffice to say that everything sounds
like it should, with respect to the sound effect
department as well. Enhanced clips of some bytes
from the earlier two games make their way back such
as the “Sleep Chime”, PSI casting, even after
entering character’s names. The game actually offers
a Sound Mode features that allows players to listen
to all the music and sounds at their leisure;
they're available from the sound player on the title
screen.
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Mother 3 Malaise
It is remarkable that nearly 12 years after Mother 2 was released,
Nintendo could still put forth a product that feels
like a true sequel. It is appalling, however, that
while the latest installment feels like Mother, it
is an artificial sentiment more than a genuine one.
Maybe this series is really a flash-in-the-pan: this
is the third installment yet in truth the second
original game; Mother 2, for all its fleshing-out
and expanding, was at its core a remake of Mother 1.
In seeking to create an entirely new story and
scenario, Shigesato Itoi let whatever nonsense that
floated into his head to accumulate on paper and,
even worse, morph into a full fledged game. It is a
bit disappointing to realize that the only real
difference between the N64 “concept” and the GBA
“realization” seems to be the visual aspect; surely
there could have been a major reconsideration in
terms of storytelling after all these years.
The problem with Mother 3 is not in what it does offer, but what it
does not - namely an experience that rivals that of
the prior series' installments. While it is safe to
say that fans may have had unrealistic expectations
of this game, Nintendo truly dropped the ball when
push came to shove. Over a decade’s worth of time
should have translated into something far more epic
and far less episodic, or at the very least
something that reflected all the hard work and
effort that inevitably went into making this
endlessly delayed, terribly troubled title. With
hope, there may be a Mother 4 forthcoming that
brings back the Mother magic and the scope of a
grand adventure. However, if Mother 3 is any
indication, perhaps the best lies in the past.
Disclaimer:
The
NCS Mother 3 review reflects the thoughts and
impressions of one of our reviewers. Follow-up
reviews and/or rebuttals may be posted by other
contributors from within our company in the
following days.
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This document is ©NCSX 2006. All rights reserved. No
reproduction in whole or in part of this document
may be made without express written consent of
National Console Support, Inc.
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