For many fans, Earthbound is one of the most memorable and underrated JRPGs ever created. Sporting an extremely vivid and visual aesthetic, memorable characters, and a complex battle system, Earthbound has a lot to offer players, especially those who have yet to experience it. Although, apparently Earthbound was supposed to have an installment released on the Nintendo 64.
While the Mother series has been around since the days of the original Famicom, it's not as popular compared to some of the more well known Nintendo series, like Mario or the now 35 year old The Legend of Zelda franchise. However, that's not to say that the series is exempt from fans or demand for a return of the series. In fact, a recent development actually shows that Nintendo had big plans for the Mother series once 3D gaming started to catch on.
A Twitter user by the name of Zen recently won an auction for a Nintendo company report, which contained a CD-ROM that was related to Earthbound 64 or Mother 3, as it was formerly known. The disc contained 25 seconds of a Nintendo 64 port of Mother 3, which Zen later posted to YouTube. The footage is as bizarre and surreal as the finalized version of Mother 3 released on the Super Famicom.
For longtime fans of the Mother series, this is an exciting look at what could have been. It's hard to imagine that Mother 3 could have not only released on the N64, but also could have potentially released to a North American audience, given how much success the Nintendo 64 received overseas. It also could have brought the Mother series into mainstream popularity.
Considering how the only connection mainstream audiences have to the Mother series is by way of Ness and Lucas' appearances in Super Smash Bros., it makes sense that Nintendo hasn't brought the Mother series back in any capacity. From a financial perspective, it wouldn't make much sense for Nintendo to invest time in developing a game that the company doesn't think would perform as favorably compared to its more successful franchises.
Then again, there has been a fairly clear demand for new Earthbound or Mother games. The fact that celebrities like Terry Crews have demanded localization for Mother 3 goes to show that fans still want to experience these games. Not to mention that plenty of players would likely be interested in playing the games that Ness and Lucas are from. The same thing happened when Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles was announced for Super Smash Bros. All of a sudden, there as a high demand for Xenoblade Chronicles to come to other systems. Though, whether the same can be said of Mother 3 or Earthbound remains to be seen.