Even though the majority know HAL for Kirby and Ness & Lucas for Super Smash Bros., those of us who have been around for a longer while know that Nintendo still "owes us" one with the release of Mother 3 that never happened outside its homeland. The petitions for a localisation of GBA's RPG oversees have been countless ever since it was released in 2006, and thus on many different platforms, with even Nintendo joking and teasing given the insistence. Now it arrives on the Switch, and irony reaches a new level.
It turns out that the Japanese version of today's Nintendo Direct: Partners Showcase has announced the immediate availability of Mother 3 on the NSO + Expansion Pack service for the Game Boy Advance platform... in Japan. Perhaps it was a bit too optimistic to expect that Nintendo would translate Earthbound's sequel and the closure to Shigesato Itoi's trilogy without a dedicated release (perhaps a full-release of a remake or remaster), as it'd be something unseen on the NSO, but fans can dream... and then laugh ironically.
Mother 3 remained stranded in the Japanese islands after dealing with delicate topics, which could have caused censorship. In fact, it was said that Nintendo even got to work on an adaptation that ended up canned, and as much as those controversial themes were never acknowledged publicly, it's worth noting that the game's plot is about loss and deals with topics such as animal abuse or drugs. Now, those fans will have to keep waiting (or play in Japanese).