Mother 3 Fan Tribute Reimagines GBA Classic in Claymation-like Style

Wow! Ok, so normally when I see something like a “fan remake” project for a classic game and/or character, I frown. It’s usually like, “here are assets I ripped from another game, plopped it into Unreal Engine and doused it in bloom and shadow effects. But today, a new tribute animation video from YouTube channel Curiomatic made me reconsider this assumptive position. These creators have taken a classic, 2D Game Boy Advance JRPG, and turned it into a mockup of a hypothetical 3D remake. And it looks amazing.

First, just watch it:

While the 2D vs 3D argument has plenty of pros and cons, sometimes you see something with 3D work you didn’t expect. Curiomatic didn’t just translate sprites to basic 3D models. Instead, the creators designed and animated Mother 3’s world and characters with a style emulating claymation. It was even made with a level of fidelity designed with the Nintendo Switch’s specs in mind. You can see some making of from a smaller scene Curiomatic released last year:

As you can see, a lot of thought was put into this style. The creators looked not only at sprites, but also visuals from the canceled Nintendo 64 Mother 3, and even some concept art. The clay style used was also inspired by models made by artists FlintofMother3 and Camille Young, the latter of whom made art for the Fangamer Mother 3 Handbook. And those clay models themselves were inspired by official clay models used for Mother and Mother 2 (EarthBound) materials.

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This is cool stuff, especially since Nintendo just re-released EarthBound (and EarthBound Beginnings) for the Nintendo Switch. Mother 3 will probably never happen, but hey, we recently learned anything is possible. Never say never. In the meantime though, Mother 3 does have a fan translation written by a professional localizer. That came out… in 2008.