A creative group of EarthBound fans has renamed its unofficial sequel game in light of recent legal threats aimed at similar fan projects like No Mario’s Sky, Pokémon Uranium, and AM2R: Another Metroid 2 Remake.
While a new title for the group’s project has not yet been revealed, the game will not be released under the name Mother 4 and will be edited to remove overt references to Nintendo’s long-running RPG franchise.
Announced in 2010, Mother 4 is a fan-made sequel to Mother 3, a Japan-only Game Boy Advance game developed by Nintendo and released in 2006. Mother 3 itself serves as a sequel to EarthBound, an unconventional Super NES role-playing game that emerged as a cult favorite in the decades after its release.
Though it was never released outside of Japan, Mother 3 was unofficially translated into English by a group of dedicated fans, who later released a translation patch to the public free of charge. The game’s translation later inspired fan creators to produce an independently developed sequel without the involvement of Nintendo or series creator Shigesato Itoi.
Built from the ground up using original sprites, backgrounds, and characters, Mother 4 features an art style and aesthetic that recalls past entries in the series and Mother 3, in particular. Despite that the majority of the project consists of original fan designs and writing, Mother 4‘s creators decided to sever all ties to Nintendo’s series following recent legal challenges to fan creators.
“This change is one part preventative measure, following several large fan project takedowns, and two parts acknowledging what we’ve actually been making — and what we’ve been making is a celebration of the games that meant a lot to us growing up, something familiar but also different,” developer Pastellian explained via Reddit this week. “The game has grown up with us. We want to share that.”
Pastellian continued: “This is still the story of Travis and his friends fighting the mysterious Modern Men. Leo still lights his smokes with paranormal fire. However, if something is associated with the official Mother games, it won’t be in this one. Mr. Saturn? Bon voyage, amigo. The title will also be changing.”
The project formerly known as Mother 4 will launch as a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms upon completion. A release date is not yet known.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.