How well will the petition do?

I estimate an approximate 39,998.4~40,300 signatures by the time reid decides to close the petition. I'd guess higher, but reid says there's an approximate four-month limit on the petition. I estimate such a number because there are a lot of EGM fanboys out there, and EGM is likely to mention us again. Oh, and once that petition is finally released to the Japanese public, a mention from Famitsu is probable, and it would help greatly. Keep your fingers crossed.

As for the Mother 2 cast vs. Flint and company, I'd guess Flint. Putting in the Mother 2 cast would be more work than necessary; it would involve a reworking of the whole Mother 3 story entirely. Bringing back the EarthBound cast would be pointless, and I think I'd be more interested in seeing new characters in the spotlight.

--Tetsu



Congratulations on writing a Letter of the Week!

Tetsu writes well. This is his SECOND LETTER OF THE WEEK IN A ROW, PEOPLE. WRITE GOOD LETTERS. DETHRONE TETSU. THANK YOU.

Seriously, though, next person to write a letter of the week gets something... Good. Unless it's Tetsu, then I'll have to go bite his head off for monopolizing the Letter of the Week market :(

Congrats on the branding,
-STARMANDELUXE-



Then again, EGM might mess up the URL and direct everyone to Starman.Net. People all over the world will read EGM and go to sign the petition, only to be met by STARMAN BOHEMIA, and a bunch of foreign stuff. They would all figure out some way to sign the STARMAN BOHEMIA petition, and STARMAN BOHEMIA will die from the bandwidth.

*High-pitched kid screams "HEY, IT COULD HAPPEN!"*

--Poo

I think Mother 3 should have Flint,the other rumored peeps,Ness,Paula,Jeff,Poo, Ninten,Loid,Ana,and (maybe) Jack.With different attacks.You know,like a game where worlds collide and you will go thru the EB0,EB,and EB64 worlds again,with things changed a lot,like the enemies and places.

But,sadly that probably won't happen.It WOULD be cool though.

As for the petition, I think we can reach about...45,000 sigs at the LEAST.At the most,are final goal of course! It's quite possible.

We just need to spread the word,and we could get 'em!

~Moochie (the penguin)



You speak for everyone when you say this, I'm sure. Unfortunately, my own take on EB being re-released and Mother 3 coming out: "Not any time soon." It's really too bad, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Also, if you like at the Home-Run Bat's description in SSB:M, it notes that it's first appearance was in SSB, meaning that it was not created in the name of EarthBound. Oh well. :|

--StarmanDeluxe



Oh man, you said "peeps". If I said something "last year" like that, my face would be red. And when you proclaim that your idea "WOULD be cool", I don't know what to think because you just went and embarrassed yourself by saying "peeps". Apparently you thought it "WOULD be cool" to say "peeps", but you thought wrong. Oh, did you think wrong... anyways, as for petition predictions, my prediction is that we'll get to the goal of 30,000, maybe a little over. I hope you paid attention to my statement just now because that's the only serious thing you're going to get out of me throughout this whole Mailbag.

--Poo

Thanks. Because of you... my computer brike. And it won't be fixed for a while. You want a rivalry? A sacred rivalry? You got it foolio. I promise you... I'll never typo insult you again. I'll just insult you. YOU MAY BE ON VACATION... BUT I PROMISE THAT YOU'LL PAY... ....or something.

--Carpainter



ANOTHER TYPO ARGH&*^**%^*%%

Eh, I'll let it slide. I don't know what 'brike' means anyway.

--StarmanDeluxe



I can just see you at home, talking to your hick friends. "Man, my computer brike. Cletus, fire up the wagon, and we'll go hunting for roadkill." You're just a little pond in my game. A little pond in my sea. Uh...writer's block, sorry.

--Poo

Well!

I tragically missed the start of the new petition (darn sun and sand) and came back to view the website. I laughed for almost a minute.

10,000 sigs in a week? Crazy stuff. I stuck around for the first petition...*nostalgia*...and must say I could never have expected this. ONWARD!

Now, for M3...I'm not sure what I would like to see. The few screenshots that we got weren't really hinting at much...if there's one thing I'd like to see more Mr. Saturns...and perhaps more PSI attacks. Something with spiffy FFX caliber effects.

"I ask for so little...and boy do I get it." -Dilbert

--Mr. Bound



Wow, you sound exactly like me. I missed the start of the petition due to sun and sand, too! That must make you my third-ever... SOUL BRUDDAH!

--StarmanDeluxe



Deep inside each and every one of us, we knew you were "Bound" to come back. Get it, your nickname is Mr Bound, and...yes, puns are in this season. We're also very big on "All your base are belong to us" and "At least I screwed Cyan". Now, I don't know what you're talking about when you're referring to this "M3", but this is a Mother 3-oriented Mailbag, so we have to talk about Mother 3, not this crazy "M3" that you speak of. Anyways, here are three things I'd like in Mother 3:

1) No more Mr. Saturns. Those things were annoying in the beginning, so why put them in there again?

2) The PSI stuff has got to go. What can be more overrated than a bunch of kids using telekinetic and psychokinetic powers? Yeesh.

3) Horrible graphics. Everyone thought EarthBound was great because it had "original" graphics, so let's take the next step and use EarthBound Zero graphics in Mother 3!

--Poo

For the petition, I thing threre will be somewhere between 22,000 to 34,000 signatures, depending if the petition is "advertized" on many different sites.

As for the character, I think M3 will use Flint. The characters changed between EBZ and EB, so, most likely, M3 would use a new set of characters.

--NessSnorlax



...Are you aware that your email domain is "pokemonforever.zzn.com?" Are you aware of that? No sane person would tote THAT on the end of their names...

--StarmanDeluxe



So you're saying that we can't possibly have 21,999 or 34,001 signatures at the end of the petition. It has to be greater than 22,000 and less than 34,000. All right, whatever you say. I don't have any reason to believe you since you seem to like talking about this "M3" stuff. When you say that the characters changed between EBZ and EB, what, may I ask, are you talking about when you're referring to the characters from Lis Vender's fan comic series[EBZ] (an EarthBound comic based off episodes of Dragonball Z) and EarthBound for the Super Nintendo [EB]? Makes no sense to me.

--Poo

Wow! I never thought that the petition would go this well. To think I said that starmen.net was small and unknown when I first came here in mid 2001. I was very very very wrong. I know realize that it's a large web community. I think the petition will go to around 35,000 signatures.

As for Mother3 when it is(if it is) realeased I would like to see Flint in action. Although first I should worry about getting a Gamecube. Well Ebounder Brad signing out.

--Brad



Spoony brads!

Whee that came out of nowhere kthxbye go eat more sugar now WHEE

--StarmanDeluxe



I notice that you're using America Online, Ebounder Brad. Evidence that causes me to believe this is...your AOL e-mail address. But did you know that you can save hundreds of dollars a year if you switch to Geico Insurance? No, not Gecko, Geico. Stop calling him. Anyways, Geico's phone lines are open 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK, so you'll be able to reach them whenever you need them. They don't compensate their service for the cheap prices, either. For instance, if you didn't want mayonnaise on your sandwich, they wouldn't take your sandwich and wipe the mayonnaise off on a table. And you don't need to steal a ride to work by wearing a suit made entirely out of magnets, either. That's because Geico's prices are like cheap braces. Quality stuff for maintainable prices. As you can see, Geico offers the best and more. For more information, please call (1-800) GEICO-INS.
Oh, and yeah, uh, I think Flint's cool too...

--Poo

I hate april fools day :(

--Bob Cobb



I don't :)

--StarmanDeluxe



I'm going to make a guess and say that it hates you too.

--Poo

I concur, the petition is definately doing great! I was rather surprized to see the signatures to shoot up in a matter of days like that. I'm not to sure about 50,000 or 100,000, but I bet we can break 30,000 easy!

In response to your second qusetion, I hope Flint will be the star. Ness was cool, but it wouldn't make sense to bring him back as the star; he's way to powerful!

Maybe something like your walking down the forest path with Flint, and you see rustling and snorting up ahead.

You run up there to find Ness beat and battered on the ground with 6 pig soldiers above him. Flint tries to help him, but (23 year old I guess) Ness flings you back and jumps up.

He whips out a bat and beats the heck out of the piggies.

Then after the Ness and Flint become good friends and start traveling together...
Well, maybe I'm just a dreamer...

--Dakkon



I think Flint should be scrapped completely and he should be replaced by a giant frog. KTHXBYE! I'm in a wacky mood.

--StarmanDeluxe



Right...Ness is too powerful. My visualization is: Flint is walking down a forest path when he sees rustling and snorting up ahead. He finds six pig soldiers looming over a beaten up Ness. Flint runs over and tries to help, but Ness whips out a volley of his new Super Smash Brothers Melee moves! Ness flies up and tries to use PK Flash, but it's too slow to charge, and he gets knocked down again. He uses a PK Thunder to fling himself at the enemy but is surprised when the attack comes up short and lands him at the feet of the pig soldiers. He reaches up to throw the pigs, but he forgets that he can't throw, so he ends up being grappled by the pig soldiers and beaten again. With one last attempt to save himself, he brandishes his yo-yo and tries to walk the dog and shoot the moon, but his only succeeds in making the pig soldiers laugh. Flint walks over, says "Do you pigs feel lucky?" and the pig soldiers run away. Ness goes off, becomes a bitter kid, and joins up with Pokey for world domination. Maybe I'm just a dreamer...

--Poo

I hope we get a whole lot o signatures. What we got before didn't impress Nintendo all that much so 100,000 would be nice... Also, ness and company should come back, but, they will consist of Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo, AND TEDDY! I think that's his name at least... You know the big muscle guy, yeah, him. Not ever playing the first mother game I think adding him would make the game a whole lot more interesting.

The closest thing to reality you can get: Virtualboy

--Virtualboy



No. Big Muscle Guy was stupid. He should have died. DIE DIE DIE

--StarmanDeluxe



I doubt anything would really impress Nintendo, except for rallying outside their headquarters in Pikachu costumes. But maybe we could persuade reidman to give the Mother 3 petition a Pokemon look. Maybe make all the text yellow and print the petition on Pokeball shaped paper.

I agree that they should bring Teddy back, too. (Although I don't agree with your description of him as muscular) Even if he didn't help much and he died after a couple blows, he still saves your party from a couple attacks. Also, they should bring back the Super Plush Bear. He cost a lot more than Teddy, but he also took a lot more before going down. Quick, here are two facts about Teddy:

1) If you rest in a hotel with Teddy in your party, he will get recovered, too! I think this is the only way to give him back HP.

2) Enemies that explode or self-destruct before going down are DEADLY to Teddy! If you fight an Atomic Power Robot or something, and you take it down, it'll sadly take Teddy down as well.

--Poo

I just would like to say that due to the inevitable success of the Mother 3 Petition, there should be a Rescue reidman 3 Petition to go along with it. Imagine people at places like 8-bit theatre, gamefaqs.com, and penny-arcade saying "Sign the Rescue reidman 3 petition!"

--Yutz



Heh, let's try to get THAT published in EGM!

--StarmanDeluxe



I just would like to say that this letter has nothing to do with the Mailbag topic at all, and as of now, I'm starting a petition that will get you banned from Starmen.Net forever. I'll also be forwarding your threatening letters to the police.

--Poo

To whoever is doing it this week or something, I forget, STOP CONFUSING ME....

Now. I figure the petition should make it to roughly 29,999, and Nintendo will say "Too late, you took too long to make it to 30k, no Mother 3 for you", and then we'll all have to grab our trenchcoats and katanas and repeatedly kill each employee of Nintendo.

--Banjooie



:( :( :( No one loves me. No one knows that I'm the mailbag guy. I'm the only consant replier. These other guys? They come and go. SO ADDRESS THE LETTER TO ME OR NOT AT ALL KTHXBYE

Also, you say you want to repeatedly kill each Nintendo employee. Are you saying we should kill each employee more than once? What?

--StarmanDeluxe



Did you know that there's a meteorite heading for earth? It's supposed to hit sometime in 800 years. Still, that's not a whole lot of time to get ready. Don't worry, though, my local radio station says that they will freeze Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck and thaw them out when they are needed. Why are you people still worried about the petition?! WHY?!!?!?!?!?!?!

--Poo

The petition will Reach an all time high of 100,000 signitures and Mother 3 will be promptly restarted and Nintendo will say "Hey you guys" or something like that "thanks for bringing it to our attention that every person in America wants this game. On a side note Nintendo will make everyone even more happy and install Ness and Co. for the third installment and watch as every person in America buys a GameCube just for EarthBound 2:Fall of the Pig King. Oh yeah and EarthBound and Mother will be put in one cart made ONLY FOR Game Boy Advance! Kudos to you guys for making the petition and most likely the game a reality.

--Kyle Chalupa



Chalupaaaaaa!

--StarmanDeluxe



This letter is so hopeful, it almost brings a tear my eye...I can't bear to crush your little hopes and make fun of you. Oh, wait, yes I can. The petition won't reach 100,000. It won't even reach 10,000. Nintendo's going to personally e-mail you saying "Kyle Chalupa, you were wrong. We don't care about our fans. All we care about is our money. And sometimes we don't even care about that. P. S. You're a loser and you'll never get girlfriend." Nintendo will actually release Mother 3 and report to the world that Ness and co. are in it. When everyone buys the GameCube just for Mother 3, they'll find that the sequel they had been waiting ever so patiently for is just an RPG rehash of the SNES thriller, Bebe's Kids. EarthBound and Mother will be released on TWO separate cartridges, and they will be released ONLY on a new handheld system called the "1000 GAMES IN ONE PLUS A CALCULATOR" system. Nintendo will laugh as people all over the world are miserable and can't do a thing about it. See, look: [Nintendo] HAHAHAHA ROFL LOL ROFL

--Poo

Yeah I think this petition could go into the millions if you try to get Microsoft.com into it. Is there any heart in the world left untouched by the Earthbound series? On a side note, I hope that they don't do an RPG. And the new GCN Earthbound games shouldn't star Flint or the conventional SNES characters. Nay, they should make an endless Tetris-type game... the could call it "Earthbound Tetris," and it would feature a mind-boggling game of quick decisions. One might spend more time in this simplistic format than in a long, boring adventure to save the world. This would follow in the footsteps of many down-sized classics. Who didn't love "Yoshi's Story?" Also, did you know that it is physically impossible to lick your elbow?

With Love,
Bink



WTF EarthBound Tetris would be quite strange. In fact it would be quite dumb. So NYEH!

--StarmanDeluxe



Now, Binkster, YOU have got a plan there! Who needs another RPG? It's not like GameCube's lacking in the RPG department or something. What we really need is another sports game. Maybe they could make a "Ness Presents EarthBound Baseball". That would definitely draw the masses.

Oh, and you're wrong. I DID lick my elbow. I had to cut my arm off, but I "physically" licked my elbow. You were wrong!

WITH LOTS OF LOVE,
Poo

Well, I predict that the Petition will hit a few bumps while it is around. I predict the signatures boosting in two periods of time: 1, When kids get back into school from spring break. 2, When we release the plan for the fliers and/or when we start collecting signatures by hand. This will enable us to go around the school yard getting kids to sign.

After the petition ends, I predict we get somewhere between 40,000-50,000. After all, remeber when we thought how 30,000 was inpossible? We are 1/3 of the way there in a week!

On a Side not, I would hope to see another Ness look alike, except different names (Like in MOTHER). However, it's all good. I'm just looking forward to a new EarthBound experience!



No, Ness look-alikes=bad. Ness=good. However, I'll bet Ness=not in Mother 3, too.

--StarmanDeluxe



I hit bumps when I'm driving. So it's most likely the petition will hit bumps. On a side note: I think they might have a tough time making another look-alike kid and naming him GameCu or something.

--Poo

Sup Starman DX?
The petition is looking awesome, but in all honesty-I bet its going to die out after 20,000 some votes. I mean 30 K is alot of people and we only had 10 K last time. I definantly want it to go to 30, 40 or even 50 K but we can already see the slow up, at this rate, the PS3 will already be out. Thats why I want to say for everyone to spread the word and force people to sign who are just too lazy to click the link without motivation. Ive done my share as well as others I know. Now that thats out I want to say that whatever Nintendo decides to do with Mother 3 will be fine if they make it work but I can garuntee that Ness, Paula Jeff and Poo will not be in the game and I dont want them either, the games arent really connected in other than a boy, a red cap, a baseball bat, 8 melodies and an evil alien entity. It would be bad plot rehash to include the last four heroes back at lvl 1. I say hurrah for Flint. Nintendo knows what they are doing....some of the time. Peace out.

--Psionic Brawler



I don't here very often about how Flint is good. No, not hurrah for Flint... Hurrah for open-minded people!

--StarmanDeluxe



I'm not Starman DX, I'm Poo. Don't try that again. And did I hear the words PS3 in there? If you have any information for me about the new console Sony is making, please forward the information to me at my PERSONAL e-mail address: HERE

If you're willing to guarantee that Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo will NOT be in the game, I'd be willing to make a little wager on that...how about it, eh?

By the way, Nintendo knows what they're doing 24/7, yo. [Note from StarmanDeluxe: No they don't. What on Earth are you talking about? "Oppresssive Big N," remember?]

--Poo


Well, that wraps up this week. See you again next week!