Mother 3 (マザースリー, Mazā Surī) is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Nintendo, Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory and published for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console. The game has only been released in Japan, though it has a worldwide cult following. It was written by Shigesato Itoi, the creator of the series, and directed by Nobuyuki Inoue. The music was composed by Shōgo Sakai. While Mother 3 is the sequel to EarthBound and is the third game in the series, the story focuses on a new, unrelated cast of characters. Mother 3 is set on the "Nowhere Islands", a series of sparsely inhabited islands on Earth. The game switches perspectives between the main characters, who are all people (or animals) who live on the islands. The game focuses on twins named Lucas and Claus, their family, and the friends who join them to fight against the mysterious Pigmask Army. The game's story is a tragedy: its main themes involve coping with the loss of family members and the perils of consumerism. The game also has many comedic elements, such as its parody of other video games. The game was advertised as "strange, funny, [and] heartrending". Mother 3 had a very long development cycle; it began development in 1994 as a Super Famicom title, but development transitioned to the 64DD, then to the Nintendo 64, and finally to the Game Boy Advance. Although Nintendo of America has not announced plans to localize Mother 3, a fan translation group has released a patch to translate the game into English. According to Itoi there are no plans to create a fourth Mother game, and has announced not to create another installment. However, he may continue making other games besides Mother.