Happy Mother's day! We were so happy to play ... by gaming hours on Earthbound on our dusty ol' Super Nintendo console. Wait ... wrong mother? Oh well. (Image credit: protozoider) Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Japanese hardware sales, April 28 - May 4: Mothers in gaming edition
This Week in Review visits LittleBigPlanet
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup looks up at the stars

News
Gears of War 2 gameplay footage debut
BioWare drops 10-day validation from Mass Effect PC
EA wants you to "Skate It" on Wii and DS
EA takes out $1 billion loan for Take-Two acquisition
Facebreaker trailers: Meet the pugilists
Miyamoto: Ocarina of Time could have been in first-person perspective
Gamecock's Wilson announces candidacy for ESA president
Amazon and Gamestop offering God of War III pre-orders, claim March 2 release

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Kid Icarus Wii details, concept art revealed

Culture & Community
GamePolitics speaks with federal game bill sponsor, ESA deems bill unconstitutional
Ikea'nt believe it: A fully functional giant NES controller/coffee table
Spend Mother's Day playing games with mom

Mother fans, rejoice! EarthBound, also known as Mother 2 and the only game of the series to be released in the US, has been rated by the ESRB for the Wii. While that seems to be a good indication the game is bound for the Virtual Console, we're not going to make that leap without an official confirmation from Nintendo. Besides, given the rabid fan base of the game here, we're half-serious when we say we suspect Nintendo might consider selling the game unchanged for $50 on a disc. We guarantee it would sell like gangbusters.

An ESRB rating is the only outside hurdle the Nintendo-owned property to putting it on the Virtual Console (if that's the route they take). Now wouldn't that make for a clever Mother's Day gift, hm?

[Via VC-Reviews; thanks, Jango311]

A small slip-up on the Nintendo of Japan website has revealed three previously unannounced characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Fan favorites Ness and Jigglypuff will be returning from the previous Smash Bros. titles, while the pokémon Lucario will also be joining the ever-growing ranks.

Nintendo of Japan recently posted a 5-minute video explaining the many features of Brawl. In one section of the video, the sticker-collecting feature is shown off. A small set of icons along the bottom shows which character can equip each sticker, and originally showed small icons depicting Ness, Jigglypuff, and Lucario.

Nintendo of Japan has since updated the video, conspicuously whiting out these icons and effectively assuring us that this is "for real." More than simply confirming new characters, this news also confirms that the Brawl roster will exceed those characters announced on the official blog, which is just good news for everybody. Check out the original, unedited footage after the break. The icons appear very briefly around 4:20.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Wouldn't you have loved to have been there on Super Smash Bros. Brawl audition day?

"Hi, my name is Lucas, but you may know me from Mother 3."
"So, no one in America has any clue who you are, right?"
"Umm, yes. That is technically correct. Yeah."
"Do you have any special powers?"
"Well, I look kind of like Dennis the Menace."
"You're hired!"

For our part, we're forever going to pretend that newly announced brawler Lucas from Super Smash Bros. Brawl is actually Power Glove and radical haircut sporter, Lucas Barton from The Wizard. In the biz, that's known as an upgrade.

Seeing the words "Mother 3" in the same sentence as "released" is cause for excitement. In this case, though, it's more like a kick in the stomach. The Mother 3 soundtrack has just been released on the US iTunes store. All 26 songs from MOTHER3i and the arranged album MOTHER3+ are available for $9.99 each. After almost a year of pestering Nintendo to localize the game, we get a soundtrack.

A soundtrack.

Remember anticipating a 3D The Legend of Zelda? How about the excitement Final Fantasy 64 stirred up? Gaming was making its first leap into 3D in the mid-90s, and Nintendo was primed to usher in the new generation with its powerful Nintendo 64.

Tech demo videos got gamers hot and bothered with the prospect of playing our favorite franchises in glorious 3D. While the graphics pale in comparison to today's games, we have to admit, they're still pretty cool to watch. Hit the jump for the videos, and be prepared for the tears of joy.

Any hopes that Mother 3 was in the process of being translated in English have just had their hopes dashed by Nintendo of America Treehouse Localization Producer/Manager Nate Bihldorff. In an interview with Planet GameCube, Bihldorff exclaims that he "wouldn't look forward to [a Mother 3 translation] in the immediate future," adding that none of the writers are currently working on one, though maybe some of the translators that do not work for him may be "in discussion."

It has been over seven months since the title was released in Japan, and in development for years prior -- if Nintendo was to bring the title over, the process would have already begun. That it would be a sure-fire hit, with a built-in audience of rabid fans, is just another piece to the confusing puzzle: why would Nintendo, as a for-profit business, not spend the time and effort to bring the title over?

The fan translation for Mother 3 has been ongoing since its launch.

[Via Starmen.Net]

1UP's Jeremy Parish was kind enough to post the above picture on his blog, reminding us all that the lifetime of a particularly stinging internet meme is likely to extend beyond that of a mere mortal. The depicted DS game is Contact, an Earthbound-ish RPG from Atlus, one of the few developers that can don the "quirky" tag with pride even as they bounce around a drunken cosplay party. Our first instinct was to question Tomm Hulett, the man in charge of the game's localization, regarding the whereabouts of his elbow in relation to Sony's battered ribs.

"I'll be honest, I can't really speak for the Professor. He has a mind of his own, and he's sure to say all manner of crazy things as you play through Contact. It certainly seems like he's up on his gaming news, though, doesn't it? I have heard that battles in Contact ARE based on actual battles which took place in space, though, so who knows."

Tomm confirmed the presence of crabs in the game, though didn't specify if they were of the "giant enemy" variety as commonly found in feudal Japan.

The game that has been jokingly called "Almost Earthbound" is quite possibly one of the most unique RPGs to hit Nintendo's touchy-feely handheld. The impetus of Contact is that you're not in direct control of the main character. Instead, you act as a mysterious external force that helps out a young boy as he searches for the parts of a weird professor's downed spaceship. The bottom screen of the DS allows you to guide your character through some wonderful looking environments, while the top screen always shows the professor scurrying about and doing work in his lab. He constantly communicates with you, making odd remarks, providing useful information and generally hurling a wrecking ball through that pesky fourth wall.

Getting back to your character in the bottom screen, it's possible to engage enemies by tapping on them with the stylus and selecting the attack icon. Now, the battles are competely automatic with the exception of using the d-pad to dodge some attacks. Some will definitely be turned off by ths approach, but it fits in well with the game's exploration and its acknowledgement of the player as an entity in the story. The game makes pretty good use of the touch screen, with the special attacks particularly standing out. Essentially, you peel off  the attack command as if it were a sticker on your screen and then stick in back into an appropriate slot. Much like the rest of the game, it's a pretty fun and quirky experience.