Ok, call me uninformed, but I don't know the legalities that prevent Mother 3 from being released stateside.... anyone care to inform me?

I have played part of Earthbound, but I haven't finished it... I need to one day.

AFAIK, most of it is unlicensed use of certain likenesses and materials (such as music).

Of course, I could just be thinking of Earthbound and not-so-much Mother 3.

It was musical references and other things. I believe you had it right.

On a side note, I never understood what AFAIK meant before this post, and I've seen it many times. I don't know what it was that made this time different, but it just clicked for me when I saw you say it. "As far as I know," right?

The bigger news here is Nintendo keeps referencing the internet forum goers.

This means that forums user comments are being analyzed and probably so a proper metric can be used to squash the anti-nintendo stigma?

Internet warfare?

It actually means "I'm too lazy to type 'I'm not sure'" but no one will actually admit to that on the internet so let's go with "As far as I know" instead.

As a side note, I need to stop watching House.

You should! It's a great game!

You should!  You fight hippies.

Bonus points if you know where the developers stole the music in this fight from.

...And you fight cups of coffee, records, guitars, and all sorts of other crazy inanimate things. The game is a real trip I tell ya.

Mother 3 isn't the one impeded by legalities (that we know of), that's just Mother 2, and even then we're not sure about that, since its just a Starmen.net rumor.

The only person to 'blame' for Mother 3 not coming over here is Iwata and whomever he is relying upon, in Japan, to tell him it can't/won't sell and/or that it isn't worth porting to DS/WiiWare, etc.