Spaceworld 1997 CD-ROM trailer of cancelled Earthbound 64 sells for over $300, features new footage
Mother series fans in Japan eventually got to play Mother 3, while the west languished, never able to play the game in English, at least in an official capacity. However, there's a version of Mother 3 that neither region ever got to experience: the original Nintendo 64 version. Despite "Mother 3", or "Earthbound 64" being cancelled and resuming development in a new form on the Game Boy Advance, it's always fun to see how games came to be, whether it be through test footage or beta builds. Which is why an incredibly short trailer for some CD-ROM footage of the cancelled game ended up selling for over $300. Twiitter user Zen64 purchased the CD, which was from a Nintendo Company Report, and featured a Spaceworld 1997 for Mother 3 on the Nintendo 64. There's been footage of the game unearthed in the past, such as a teaser from Spaceworld 1996 that was only discovered in 2019, or the original IGN trailer for the game, so this isn't the first time gameplay has been seen, but a lot of the footage in Zen64's CD-ROM is new. Ripped as-is, without sound, you can see a full 25 seconds of what the game would have been like, had it ever been released.
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