
The best hope for Mother 3 coming to Nintendo Switch is as part of a solo release. As such, it could be a while before there's even a place to put Mother 3, and Nintendo is unlikely to disrupt its plans for Nintendo Switch Online for one game. It's possible that Nintendo could put all of the Game Boy systems into one update, but it would make more sense to space them out and save the Game Boy Advance addition for the future. The next time a console is likely to be added to Nintendo Switch Online will be in September 2022, as that is when annual subscriptions will start to end, and Nintendo will want new content to entice people to subscribe. Nintendo still has a ton of N64 and Sega Genesis games to add to the Expansion Pack, so it's likely in no rush to add more consoles to the service. There have been no rumors about Game Boy Advance titles at all. There were rumors circulating about Game Boy titles coming to Nintendo Switch Online, but these have yet to bear any fruit. Mother 3 was released on the Game Boy Advance, yet Nintendo Switch Online doesn't even have apps for the Game Boy or Game Boy Color. As of the time of writing, there are no apps related to the Game Boy line of systems. Nintendo Switch Online has apps for the NES, SNES, N64, and Sega Genesis, so it makes sense to add EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings to the service. One of the big issues with Mother 3 coming to Nintendo Switch is that there's nowhere to house it. This doesn't completely rule out the remake theory, but it seems a lot less likely when the originals are easy to access on the Nintendo Switch.

It seems that Nintendo was just waiting for the right time to put the games onto the service. An EarthBound Collection on Switch would also make sense. This theory has lost a lot of steam, as it was revealed during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct that EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings would soon arrive on Nintendo Switch Online. A remake of Mother 3 would remove the problematic elements in the game that may be keeping it in Japan, allowing it to be localized for the first time.

Related: New EarthBound 64 Footage Has Been DiscoveredĪ remake trilogy would make the EarthBound/ Mother games a lot more palatable to a modern audience, as EarthBound Beginnings is frustratingly difficult. If the game was a big hit on the Wii U, then this might have prompted Nintendo to quietly approve a remake, and keep the original restricted to the Wii U. The fact that EarthBound Beginnings was only present on one platform led some credence to this idea. Their absence on the service for the longest time led some to believe that an EarthBound trilogy remake was in the works. When the Nintendo Switch Online service was announced, fans thought that EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound would be natural fits for the service.
