Mother 3

Mother 3
Developer	HAL Laboratory, Brownie Brown
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Gameboy Advance
Release Date	Gameboy Advance JP April 20, 2006
Gallery	None
Rating	CERO: All Ages

Mother 3 is a RPG only released in Japan. The demand for the game was large in Japan, remaining on Famitsu's Top Ten for it's entire development. Much of the scenario work originated from the ill-fated Earthbound 64.

Story

A group called the Pig Mask Army is invading the Nowhere Islands. The group begins performing experiments on local plants and animals, making them monsters. The islands become a police state, with new technology and infrastucture.

The game follows Lucas. With his mother dead and his brother missing, he starts his journey to destroy the Pig Mask Army.

Gameplay

Unlike previous games in the series, Mother 3 does focus completely on a single group of characters. Instead, the game is broken into eight chapters with various characters being the chapter's main character.

The battle system remains largely the same as in previous games. The biggest difference is the combo system. By pressing buttons in time with the game's music, players can score combos of up to sixteen for more damage.The HP meter rolls slower than it did in Earthbound. Players can no longer instantly defeat enemies, but can run into them to stun them before entering battle.

The previous system of using phones to save has been abandoned in favor of using frogs to save. The frogs also take the place of ATM machines. In addition, this games currency is dragon points (DP) rather than dollars.