We founded Mother Forever with a lot of passion, hope, and determination in January 2020. It wasn’t meant to become a big new thing for the community, just a new resource for fans to come back to once in a while. It’s been through its fair share of ups and downs since it began, but maybe it can mature into something really great. Thanks for being a part of the journey!

Here are some of our stories to help you learn what kinds of backgrounds this site was built on.

Kody NOKOLO

There’s always been one word I’ve had in mind when the idea of a MOTHER website came up: “Potential.” What started as a small addition to the MOTHER community has evolved into what it is now because of everyone that’s been a part of it; from the members of our Discord to members of our staff, everyone’s played a role in this launch with each of our “potential!” Thanks to each and every one of you for that. 

When I was a 4-year-old in daycare, I played Super Smash Bros. Melee for the first time and met Ness in Onett. I’d always been curious about MOTHER after that, but I never had the chance to try it because Nintendo never released any new games for it! It was only years later, in fourth grade circa 2009, when I learned about Starmen.net from a fifth grader who was a huge Nintendo buff. He taught me about a lot of Nintendo characters I’d never learned more about, only seen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, like R.O.B. and, of course, the MOTHER characters. Lucas’ attitude in the Subspace Emissary spoke directly to me because he initially seemed so scared and lost, feelings I related to as a lonely kind of kid, which made me way more invested in him than Ness. My friend taught me about emulators and how I could go about using them to play EarthBound and MOTHER 3, then, after barely fiddling with the EarthBound one enough, I impatiently gave up since I was way more curious about MOTHER 3. I managed to play the fan translation, and I was so interested in it that I played through it all within a few days. From there, I knew I needed to find out more about the games.

Tomato’s translation work on MOTHER 3 amazed me, and, ever since I played that fan translation, I’ve sought out learning more about both stories and games that never have been translated. Reading MOTHER 3 hooked me on Shigesato Itoi’s writing in general, too, not just with MOTHER. After learning enough Japanese, I began translating Itoi’s writing and fell even deeper in love with it, and it’s been my favorite work to translate. Not long after that, at Tokyo in Summer 2019, I even had the chance to meet (and mess up my spoken Japanese with) Mr. Imagawa, the artist for MOTHER 3, and I was able to buy Hobonichi’s Iwata-San book created and edited by their in-house MOTHER fan, Yasuhiro Nagata, when it released! MOTHER has given rise to so many of my passions now, from writing and translation to game development—it’s affected every aspect of my life.

Though I may be limited in my interactions with the community now because of my creative and career projects, one thing’s certain: I’ll always be able to come back to my friends here when I need it most. I’ll always support this site and the MOTHER community however possible, big or small. What started as my investigation of lost information about MOTHER 3 on the Nintendo 64 has grown to become a project I’ll be lending my “potential” to as long as a forever may be. I’ll always be here!

Thanks for reading these words. These words love you!

…Potential!

– Kody NOKOLO

Echoes

The year was 200X, in the small land of Vancou-

…Little too on the nose? You don’t think so…? Well, I do! So let’s start over again, shall we? 

As a four year-old child, I never would’ve expected how much MOTHER would impact me as a human being. My first exposure to it was not through the game itself, or even necessarily Super Smash Bros., but a cheesestring wrapper! A disposable piece of plastic which had the character Ness plastered over it, a character which at the time I was unfamiliar with…and immensely disappointed that I didn’t get Mario instead. Nonetheless, it still felt special to me, akin to the signed banana peel Mr. Fork receives with Venus’ autograph on it in MOTHER 2. I held on to that wrapper, even though Ness was a stranger to me, and unfortunately lost it soon after, being a careless young child. But, the memory of it forever lives on inside of me, beginning an everlasting, emotional journey. A journey that currently sits at the chapter of my life where Mother Forever opens its curtains to the world…but how did I get here, and what does the site mean to me personally?

I was formally introduced to MOTHER in 2005, after successfully unlocking Ness in Super Smash Bros. It took many years of effort to reach a skill level to which I could survive the three lives gauntlet and recruit him to my player catalogue. After so long, I felt owed to acquaint myself with Ness’ background, seeing it strange he only had one game credited to his name in the character records! That’s when I discovered Starmen.net and immediately fell in love with the series before I even played the game…perhaps you could call it a premature love, but the essence of quality MOTHER exudes was seen through every image on the site. The familiar locales and characters emit a sense of nostalgia I think anyone can relate with regardless if they’ve played the game or not. Thus, soon after I was able to play it for myself, and quickly it became my favourite of all time, despite the fact it took me over a month to make it out of Onett! I truly was new to RPGs…

What really caught my sight, however, was MOTHER 3. Or, EarthBound 64 as we all know it as. The mystique behind its cancellation and lack of context always allured me, and I took it upon myself to fill in those holes. The GBA version of the game was not yet released at the time (although it was around the corner), so using all the reference material that was available at the time I would create my own stories, drawing comics and conjuring up something that was far, far more lighthearted than the MOTHER 3 we ended up getting! The Nintendo 64 is my favourite system, so naturally EarthBound 64 felt like my favourite game I never got to play. Being someone who likes to dissect every inch of information out of something he’s passionate about, I committed myself to squeezing out every last bit of material surrounding the game! It was something born out of passion and personal curiosity…but never would I expect it to blossom into something more.

That takes me to 2019, where the EarthBound 64 Discord was formed. Although it may no longer be a part of my life, the effect it has still lingers today in what was made possible because of it…and how it kept me going. As sad as it may be to hear, 2019 was the toughest time of my life, and every day felt like it was going to be my last on this planet. I lost many loved ones and friends, not out of personal conflict, but the circumstantial tragedies that befall many daily. It was a string of mishappenings, one after and another, and my heart couldn’t handle much more. I started to become disassociated, as everything that was once familiar became a shadow to me. I felt I had nothing left to accomplish as my dreams began to seem far out of reach…I couldn’t even process my contributions to the SMB Movie Archive at the time because I was so far gone. However, one thread kept me hanging on: My dearest friends who always welcomed me warmly each day in the EarthBound 64 Discord.

So long as they were there, I never truly felt alone and hopeless. Previously, I felt I was alone in my interest and research revolving around EarthBound 64. I couldn’t have been more wrong! These new relationships provided an outlet for me to pass on my knowledge to others, and seeing how that knowledge was spreading and positively inspiring others to keep digging for more…I felt ecstatic. The EarthBound 64 archive I created was always meant to be passed down and enjoyed by others, some way, somehow. Never was it made to be something out of personal gain or benefit, and for years I tried to share it over Reddit, among other places, unsuccessfully. With constant contributions from others such as Jonathan, SonicChao, Katie, and Kody, it no longer belonged to me, but the community who supported it and desired to see it grow. Amazingly, it’s still growing to this day…and it’s culminated into Mother Forever!

To me, Mother Forever is a love letter not only to Shigesato Itoi, Satoru Iwata, and all those who made these games a reality—it’s for all of you. Bryce, Jonathan, Kody, Katie, Sam. It’s for the entire community, returning what you gave to me. It’s an earnest gift crafted out of gratitude, because you kept me going each day, and helped lift me out of those trenches to see the sky once again. I hope it will live up to all your expectations, and if not…we’ll get it there, I promise. I hope to continue not only being friends, but collaborating together on this for the foreseeable future so long as our passion stays alive.

Mother Forever has a multitude of meanings behind the name. On one hand, it means preserving the MOTHER series itself…on the other hand, it’s keeping the community afloat. To me, it means the MOTHER series will forever be there for those who need it. People like me and you, who are either introduced or reintroduced to the series in a time in their lives when they really need it. A world full of good and bad friends, smiles and tears which remind us of what it means to be human and the qualities that come with along with that. An amalgamation of emotions that Itoi and Iwata themselves felt when creating these games. This site will hopefully be discovered and enjoyed by all those touched by their creation. Like how Starmen was for me growing up, that’s my greatest wish. 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know this has been a long memoir choked full of background and insight, but I believe it was important for how I feel in expressing how grateful I am this project exists. Wherever it may go, I will run with it! Forever, until the end of time. Tonda Gossa!

– Echoes