GAC #3:Mother Series part 3:Mother 3 and conclusion

In 1995, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo 64, and one of the titles that was to come with it was a follow up to Earthbound.

However, this title, known as Earthbound 64, kept seeing delay, after delay, after delay, well into the years of the Gamecube...it almost seemed like it would never be released.

Then,a slight hope came in the form of Mother 1+2, a compilation of both Mother and Earthbound for Game Boy Advance. During the commercials, it stated that the third Mother game would finally be released for GBA.

And then, in April of 2006, it happened. Mother 3 was released...was it worth it?

The short answer...yes,if you like this sort of thing.

The long answer....it really all depends on your tastes as a player. At this point, games had evolved beyond a niche into a full social norm, a part of life that people took part in. This game's story, while exciting, fun and adventurous, also felt like a relic of an era gone by. The graphics were simple, nothing fancy or groundbreaking. The sound, however...

The music and sound pushed the GBA's sound chip to its limits, creating one of the most vibrant and wonderful soundtracks ever to come off a chiptune speaker. From the cheerful naming screen, to the military-minded PigMask anthem, to the flamboyant Magypsy theme, all of it was beautiful. And they even incorporated this beauty into the gameplay itself.

Taking another leaflet out of Dragon Quest's book (namely,DQIV), Mother 3 did not follow the same format as the last two did (gather heroes, collect melodies).Rather, it put you in control of different heroes at different times, all trying to accomplish different means that led to the same end. Each of these characters had a different skill set, that varied even more than Earthbound. For instance, Flint is the first character whose skills you have access to. He gets access to a broad-hitting attack that hits all enemies, a powerful attack with a low hit rate, and 2 buff abilities. PSI is still around, though it comes into play much later.

A new element to the Mother series (and RPGs for the most part) were "Sound Battles". By using a standard attack, and tapping the button in time with the music, you could perform combo attacks.

The story plays out by chapter, but goes like this;An island community is invaded by "PigMasks", strange invaders dressed like pigs. The Pigmasks take over the island and brainwash most of the villagers into adopting a capitalist society. As the story goes on, you find that the brainwashing is part of a more sinister plot,and that the world isn't as it seems.

Mother 3 was a game people thought would never come out, and in essence, it never did. Not in its intended format anyway. The creator of Mother,Shigesato Itoi, was so exhausted and aggrivated by Mother 3's development process, that he changed the ending and decided not to make another Mother game.

In a way, the Mother series left us hanging with a lot of "what-ifs" and "how-comes". Not a lot was explained,and very little ended up resolved. If Itoi ever does make another game,it'll probably spend half of its time cleaning up after Mother 3.

But at least we got a decent game after the wait.

GAC #2:Mother series Part 2/Earthbound

WHERE WE LAST LEFT OFF: Mother 1 is ok, but kinda washed out.
NOW, PART 2.

After Mother 1, a sequel was inevitable,so Nintendo released Mother 2, which would become Earthbound in the US. Earthbound, though a commercial flop at the time of its release, went on to gain a massive cult following.

The game half-picks up from Mother 1. The alien that was beaten by Ninten in the first game somehow comes back to Earth, and a new boy named Ness and 3 others are meant to defeat him once and for all.

Before I begin, I will say that this review may contain slight spoilers. Anyone who does not want to be spoiled please cease reading this at this point.

So,the first thing you'll notice in the game, is that the battles are no longer random-enemies walk around like NPCs. The only difference between NPCs and enemies is when you make contact with an enemy, the screen shows a swirl depending on how the enemy and your character made contact (this can give you or the enemy a surprise attack).

And speaking of enemies, this game takes the award for some of the most ODDBALL enemies to be featured in a game. Depending on where you are, you get attacked by either the local wildlife, crazed hippies and cultists( I kid you not), zombies, corrupt politicians (I still kid you not), beach bullies(still not kidding),mummies, the legendary Kraken, a giant vomit pile(Am I kidding? Nope), and aliens until you finally get to the final showdown.

Mother's battle system was essentially a blatant ripoff of Dragon Warrior/Quest at the time. In this game, they took it in a seperate direction. There are 4 main characters, each with their own set of skills and a unique skill to each of them. Ness takes the role of "brute force attack" and learns one of, if not the strongest set of PSI in the game, named after what you call your "coolest thing". Paula is the game's "mage", having access to lots of Offensive and defensive PSI, as well as a Pray command which causes random effects to occur (and comes in handy during the final battle). Jeff is the "item user",because while he has no PSI, he can create items out of broken parts while in hotels (you heard that right, hotels), and use them as powerful attack items. Poo is interesting because he vanishes for some of the game,but comes back with an intense attack called "Starstorm" which can hold one over until getting the Omega version of the Favorite spell.



As for out of battle PSI, the telepathy has been combined into the talk command, and a new command, Teleport, takes its place. Teleport is very useful because you can warp to almost any place in the game (barring certain exceptions),as long as you have a running start.

Earthbound took what Mother had and created a game experience that became celebrated for years. But, sadly, it would take until 2006, and the GBA's twilight until Nintendo would release what would seem to be the last link in the Mother Series...

NEXT:MOTHER SERIES PART 3:MOTHER 3!

GAC #1:Mother Series part 1

As I start my blog, I think about the earliest of video games. Believe it or not, though Pong was the first commercially available game, the true first game was a text based role-playing game (RPG). Since those early days, the RPG has grown to include many popular series such as Final Fantasy, the Tales series, and the star of this edition,the Mother Series.

Now, you may ask "Why choose Mother for a first review? Why not say, Super Mario or something?" Well, to put it simply, Mother is probably the most natural progression of the text based RPG,and it fits that I'd be reviewing the closest thing to the first game.

I'll start with the series' opening, Mother for the NES.

To put it simply, this one hasn't aged well.

It's by no means a bad game, with charming characters/setting, catchy music and fairly well balanced game flow. However, some of the elements of the game just don't hold up compared to its sequels and the rest of the RPG genre.

Let's start with the base gameplay. You play as "Ninten", a young man who is asked by his father (Who you never see until the ending) to go on an adventure to collect eight melodies which will save the world from an alien force. These eight melodies are extremely well hidden, either requiring a strategy guide or CHECKing everything you see. Which leads me to my next point-there are multiple interaction commands in the menu, and sometimes it's rather unwieldy to use them. There's TALK, for talking to humans (and oddly enough,animals), CHECK, which investigates objects, GOODS,which pulls an item from the inventory, and PSI, this game's version of magic skills.

Now, PSI has two uses. There are PSI skills that are used in battle,with different levels of intensity and PP usage. These are learned at different levels of growth. The other type of PSI is used in the field to interact with objects. Unfortunately, these are also sometimes learned at certain levels of growth,making this game a grind-fest.

Speaking of grinding, the enemy encounter rate is extremely high, and unless you're a high enough level, even the weaker enemies will kill you in a few hits,making grinding extremely frustrating.

What's worse, every character you get starts at LV.1, forcing you to grind when you get a new character.

Now, to be fair, this was made in the late 80's/early 90's, so it's not made to be easy.The actual quest itself is rather short, it took me 7-10 hours to complete. The difficulty level was likely made high so the quest would seem longer. But with today's standards, that excuse wouldn't hold up.

Mother started something great and really special. But, if it weren't for its sequel, and the timing of its release, this game would have faded into history.

Next up:Mother series part 2-Earthbound!

It's game time.

Hey gamers, this is B-Ace. Welcome to the blog, of which I will be reviewing video games both on my own and on request. If there's anything you want to see, please let me know either by e-mail, Facebook or simply post here.


Next review is:Mother series
Get your Weapons ready