to the Nintendo 64, believing that they could also creatively flourish by making a 3D world without technical restrictions. However, their early specifications exceeded the capabilities and memory limits of Nintendo 64; halfway through development the team scaled back its large scope and changed the platform to the 64DD, a Nintendo 64 expansion peripheral that was later released only in Japan in 1999. Mother 3 was expected to be a 64DD launch game, but development shifted back to the Nintendo 64 after the 64DD's commercial failure. Nintendo showcased a demo of Mother 3 at the 1999 Nintendo Space World trade show. It was expected to be released in North America under the title EarthBound 64, on a 256-megabit cartridge, similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. IGN reacted favorably to the demo and compared the multi-character narrative to the Japan-only Super Famicom RPG Live A Live, and Famitsu readers ranked the game as one of their top ten most anticipated towards the end of 1999. Shigesato Itoi announced in late August 2000 that Mother 3 had been cancelled following a number of delays. Iwata and Miyamoto clarified in an interview that resources had been moved to the development of the GameCube, the next Nintendo console. Itoi stated that an additional two years would have been required to finish the game, which was 30% complete at the time of cancellation. Iwata stated retrospectively that the focus on 3D graphics made the project overcomplex. Miyamoto also stated that the Mother franchise had not been abandoned and that he was still interested in bringing the game to fruition. In 2003, in a Japanese commercial for the compilation game Mother 1+2, Nintendo announced that it had restarted the development of Mother 3 for the portable Game Boy Advance console. Itoi had believed that restarting the project was impossible but changed his mind following encouragement from the Mother fanbase. Nintendo subsidiary Brownie Brown developed the game, with input from Itoi. While the graphics were changed from 3D to 2D, the story was not altered. Mother 3 was about 60% complete by July 2004, and was released on April 20, 2006 in Japan. Design Itoi thought of the concept behind Mother 3 towards the end of Mother 2 production, a "detective story where the city was the main character". He thought of a hack, small-time, womanizing private investigator who would become engrossed in a