Famously never localized for an English-speaking audience, HAL Laboratory and Brownie Brown's Mother 3 has almost become a meme at this point. So much so that I wondered if it could live up the inflated expectations that I unwittingly put on games that are unavailable or difficult to find, a kind of forbidden fruit syndrome. So I made sure to put Mother 3 on my Backlog Resolutions list for 2024 and hey! It's pretty good! It's a lot like Earthbound in good and bad ways, and I like the story of Mother 3 for different reasons than I liked Earthbound's story. Looks like I'm gonna need an all-star guest to dig into this one... Joining me for the discussion about Mother 3 is Rebekah Valentine! Reb is an award winning investigative reporter for IGN, reporting on the inner workings of the industry, how the games we love get made, and giving a voice to workers who are laid off or otherwise mistreated. You can find her work by following this link! TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories with Mother 3/Opening Thoughts 2:03 Story Setup 14:58 Questionable/Offensive Content 32:32 Visuals/Music 42:00 Gameplay/Combat 53:14 Combat, continued 1:03:14 Closing Thoughts/Plugs/Housekeeping 1:11:01 SPOILER WALL 1:19:06 Music used in the episode is credited to Shogo Sakai. Tracks used: Fun Naming, Welcome!, Alec's Log House, Mag**** Party, Homely Yado Inn, Mr. Batty Twist, Fate, Mr. Saturn Theme Z, Mom's Hometown, Happy Town, Sorrowful Tazmily, Mother 3 Love Theme (Arr.), Mother 3 Love Theme, You Won! Find Dave's TWO guest appearances on the Retro Hangover podcast on your favorite podcast app or by clicking here! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!