"Mother 3" was a critical and commercial success, and received praise for its character development, graphics, music, emotional story, and mature themes; however, some believed its gameplay offered few innovations to the role-playing genre. The game was never released outside Japan, though it has generated a cult following. An unofficial English fan translation was released by the Starmen.net internet community in 2008, and received over 100,000 downloads within a week. "Mother 3" was re-released for the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan in 2016.