At the end of 2012 a subreddit was created for a fan-made game calledMother 4, which would have been an unofficial sequel in the canon of Nintendo’s long-dormant flagship RPG series of the same name (orEarthBoundseries, as international fans of the 1994Super NEStitle would know it by). Today that project officially shifted to its new name,Oddity, with a reveal teaser trailer posted to the game’s YouTube page.
Oddity’s trailer features the quartet of Travis, Meryl, Floyd, and Leo traversing an urbanized, fantastical land called Pleiades in the 1970s to find out why people are mysteriously disappearing. They battle enemies like hippies and three-eyed green reindeer using pop guns and ESP — all in beautiful 32-bit pixel art.
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The game’s aesthetic and turn-based combat system take inspiration from the 2006 GBA titleMother 3, which has long since become a meme due to Nintendo not localizing it for an international audience. Questions about its localization have been lobbed atformer Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Amiéfor a long time, to the point where he got in on the joke — most notable through a stop-motion animated sketch during E3 2014 in which an audience member was burned by a Fire Flower-wielding Fils-Amié for asking him to “give usMother 3.”
That GBA game also sawa prominent fan-driven translationby members of the Starman.net Internet forum, so it is not unusual to see fans of theMotherseries take its absence into their own hands.
The shift fromMother 4toOddityhas long been in the works, as in March 2017 Reddit user Pastellian posted an AMA talking about how the game would be rebranding in-line with its more unique direction. During that AMA Pastellian also mentioned the change was partially “preventative;” an attempt to avoid the kind of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown which had hit other Nintendo fan projects likePokémon Uranium and AM2Rthe year prior.
Though the game’s shift in identity was made official today on theMother 4subreddit with a post titled “Thanks for the memories, /r/Mother4. We’re continuing the journey on /r/OddityRPG!,” there are still remnants of its origins as a fan project.Mother 4’s website describes the game as one championing “truancy, adventure, and an aversion to business suits,” and features a number of screenshots as well as clay models of its four main characters in the same style as that iconicEarthBoundmarketing material.
Even if there are clear elements present ofOddity’s inspiration fromcult-classic RPGMother 3in its reveal trailer (notably with the protagonists being kids accompanied by one somewhat out-of-place adult), its art direction and gameplay elements like characters chatting amongst themselves around a campfire suggestOdditywill probably stand out on its own merits.
However, there’s currently no telling when it will get the chance to try. With regards to a release date,Oddity’s trailer simply says, “It’ll be out when it’s ready. Relax til then.” Followers of the game have been relaxing for nearly a decade now, so what’s a little more time?
