Rumor Earthbound anniversary coming up.

[Robert Newbie]

https://forum.starmen.net/forum/Games/Mother3/I-FOUND-AN-UNRELEASED-MOTHER-3-DEMO/first

This was an April Fools joke. To the best of my knowledge, Mother 3 was only developed for the 64DD/N64 by Ape, Inc./HAL Laboratory, Inc. before Brownie Brown did the GBA version.

 

[Luke94]

This was an April Fools joke. To the best of my knowledge, Mother 3 was only developed for the 64DD/N64 by Ape, Inc./HAL Laboratory, Inc. before Brownie Brown did the GBA version.

I heard that firstly they started it for SNES. Imagine as it not being April Fools Day Prima Aprilis Joke.
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/earthbound-creator-explains-nintendo-hasnt-translated-mother-3/

 

[Robert Newbie]

I heard that firstly they started it for SNES. Imagine as it not being April Fools Day Prima Aprilis Joke.
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/earthbound-creator-explains-nintendo-hasnt-translated-mother-3/

I looked it up, but the details are vague, to say the least. Based on the Wikipedia, TCRF, and this Reddit thread, development started on the Super Famicom CD, much like Secret of Mana. Wikipedia says that, "About halfway through development, the team attempted to scale back its large scope and changed its target from cartridge to the 64DD peripheral." So, there may be prototypes somewhere with the whole Detective angle. Unfortunately, I feel like the information isn't concrete, so it's hard to say where development on the Super Famicom CD halted to switch to the 64DD.

At the very least, I think any prototypes of Mother 3 from these eras of development would be really intriguing to dissect.