For those that don’t get the pun, the place Lucus comes from is called “Nowhere Island.”

(Cue: Smashing Song of Praise/Unfounded Revenge)

Only £3.59!

@Background Pony #B441  
To be fair, Nintendo have had the unreleased NES version of “Mother 1” in their vaults for over 2 decades. (Originally, it was going to be rereleased as “Earth Bound” on the NES in 1991 I even had an old “Dr. Mario” issue of Nintendo Power that showed a preview of it, but after completing it’s localization, they cancelled it. Probably due to the SNES coming out, and due to RPGs not being very popular in America at the time.)
 
“Mother 3” is very very text heavy, (even the fan-translation took a long time to make) so it would take NOA a long time to localize it. (This is supposedly one of the reasons it didn’t get released here.) They also likely can’t use the fan-translation due to legal reasons. (Even though the makers of it said they’d gladly give it to NOA to give the game a legit release.)
 
I wouldn’t count on “Mother 3” to much, but you never know. Lucus is a popular SSB character. (Aside from those who whine about him being a “Ness clone,” even though he has more differences from Ness, then say Dr. Mario does from Mario.)

@MeshGearFox
 
@Gol D Colt
 
Well, we got Mother AKA EarthBound Beginnings on the Wii U Virtual Console. That means the only game in the Mother series we need now is Mother 3. Mother and Mother 2 have both averted No Export For You, now I wonder when it’s Mother 3’s turn.

@Jarkes  
Perhaps, though they did continue to support the NES/Famicom long after the SNES came out in ‘91. In fact, the last official NES game “Wario’s Woods” came out in 1995, a year before the N64 came out, and it was the only NES title to receive an ESRB game rating.
 
I assume a similar reason is why “Mother 3” didn’t get a USA release. ‘Cause it was one of the last GBA games made, and it was released after the DS & DS Lite came out. So NOA probably feared it would’ve been ignored due to the big DS games.

@Beau Skunky
 
Supposedly, it’s because the SNES was about to come out, and I guess they figured, “Is anyone really going to buy this since a brand-new console’s about to come out?”

@Jarkes  
Perhaps, but sadly I doubt NOA is ever going to translate the game, no matter how much Mother/EB fans beg for it.
 
Considering NOA actually did make the original “EarthBound Zero” english translation, (which was almost released back in 1990 or 1991) I’m curious why they never bothered to release it. The fact, “Mother 1+2” in Japan uses the USA changes to the game, tells me that Nintendo still has the original english translation, but it’s likely they’ll never release it either.
 
Same with other “unreleased” Nintendo games like the 8-bit NES version of “Sim City,” and the SNES “Star Fox 2.”

@Beau Skunky
 
As good as that fan translation was, it would be a bad idea for Nintendo to use the full script of that translation for an official release (same deal with the fan translation of the Mother 1 portion of the “Mother 1 + 2” GBA port, which is a much more accurate translation than the unreleased prototype “Earthbound Zero” translation, but has all the extra stuff that “Earthbound Zero” added to the game, like the extended ending).

@Gol D Colt  
A VC release would be unlikely outside of Japan, as they normally don’t translate games for VC. Some of the “import” VC games are left in Japanese, but already had some english text in them.  
Also, some like “SMB: Lost Levels” were already completely in english in Japan, with no translating required. “Sin & Punishment” already had completely english voices in Japan, as well.
 
It’d have to be a remake/port in order to get a rerelease, but even so the “Mother 3” game is extremely text-heavy, and would take a looong time to translate.
 
The fans who made the fan english translation of “Mother 3” did say they’d gladly give all rights to the translation to Nintendo, if it does result in the game getting an “official” release… However, it’s likely due to legal reasons, they couldn’t accept fan-generated content. (Though, Capcom did promote, and give out the fan-made “Megaman VS Street Fighter.” So you never know.)

@MeshGearFox  
or at less on virtual console :’(

WARGHARBLE PORT MOTHER 3 TO 3DS AND TRANSLATE
 
GGGGGGGGGGGG

Yeah, but that how he was revealed in Smash 4

Along with his tagteam partner, Mewtwo.

You could’ve also done this with the “Warning: Challenger Approaching” thing from the games…