There’s a new scan for every MOTHER here today! There must be something cool happening this week, huh? More about that at the end!

For the first section below, I have scans of a guide to MOTHER published in the July 28, 1989 issue of Famicom that includes some neat art on the front and some cool maps inside of a few areas!

After that is two volumes of something that still needs more research: the MOTHER 2 Times. In a similar way to the MOTHER 3 Times, these articles were published in Famitsu to promote MOTHER 2. The same Famitsu issue that included Volume 4 even included a few questions with Itoi afterwards and some pictures of his gold digging adventures! At the very end of the interview, they ask him about MOTHER 3, to which he replies with some buildup to finally saying, “I want to get it out as soon as I can. Maybe in about 2 years.”

In the third and fourth sections, I’ve included new scans from 1997 issues of Game Shounen and Famimaga about MOTHER 3 on the N64! The Famimaga issue also includes some prerelease images of a few other N64 games.

In the last section below, there are brand new enemy concept designs uploaded less than a week ago on Twitter by MOTHER 3 Event and Battle Designer Akiyuki Suzuki! On May 20th, Suzuki uploaded a Chimera simply translated to “Blood Sucking Machine,” which is pictured first below. Just today, on May 25th, Suzuki even uploaded an Osohe Castle enemy called “Fuuzen-no-tomoshibi-kun,” pictured second. This name has less of a direct translation since it just seems to be a literal interpretation of the phrase “fuuzen no tomoshibi,” which means a dangerous situation metaphorically, but literally means “wind blown candle.” It’s tough to translate things like this, but I would probably go with a simple pun in this situation and call this enemy “Candlefright.” Both of these Chimera can be found on our MOTHER 3 Art & Sprites page.

Unrelated to any of the pictures, community member PineappleCarl discovered a chain of posts on Twitter from June 2020 where MOTHER 3 Composer Shogo Sakai and MOTHER 3 N64 Creature Designer Toshinao Aoki talked with each other about Hobonichi’s first Pollyanna book, where Aoki included some references in his comic to unused N64 designs from MOTHER 3. Sakai asked Aoki about the appearance of what may be an unused 64 enemy, “Bonnou Walker,” something that likely relates to an enemy found in the final version of the game, Love Walker. “Bonnou” is a word that can mean general worldly passions or desires, so “Greed Walker” may be one possible name for it, but to pair it with Love Walker, I would probably call it “Lust Walker.” Though Aoki didn’t show us Lust Walker in his Pollyanna comic, maybe we’ll see it from him somewhere else someday!

Oh yeah, that awesome thing happening this week: it’s coming on Friday. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to us on YouTube to see it! Anyways, take a look at everything I mentioned in each respective section below.

Famicom, July 28 1989

MOTHER 2 Times, Famitsu, September 30 (Vol. 4 + Interview) & October 14 (Vol. 6) 1994

Game Shounen, March 1997

Famimaga, August 1997