the cutting room mirror

Backgrounds

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This is a sub-page of Mother 3/Unused Graphics.

The game has a variety of unused battle backgrounds, some of which can be seen by trying to fight unused/invalid enemies. Some of these backgrounds remove the black borders at the top and bottom of the screen, similar to boss battles in EarthBound.

To do:
There's a lot to do.

Unused Background Graphics#

Mother3-1.pngM3_BG_Clayman_Ani.gif
What seems to be an earlier design for the Clayman, very similar to the one found in the final.

Mother3-5.pngM3_BG_Exit_Ani.gif
An exit sign.

Mother3-bg-5e.pngM3_BG_COOL_Ani.gif
A trippy background made up of stylized depictions of the Thinker statue mirrored all over.

Mother3-bg-17a.pngM3_BG_A2_Ani.gif
A bunch of As.

Mother3-bg-17c.pngM3_BG_B2_Ani.gif
A bunch of Bs.

Mother3-bg-17d.pngM3_BG_A_Ani.gif
A giant A.

Mother3-bg-17e.pngM3_BG_B_Ani.gif
A giant B.

Mother3-bg-125.pngM3_BG_NUMBERS_Ani.gif
Big ol' numbers!

Mother3-bg-159.pngM3_BG_CROSS_Ani.gif
A red cross.

Mother3-bg-178.pngM3_BG_G3_Ani.gif
A giant G3.

These background graphics show an earlier version of the Pigmask design, with them going through multiple designs during development:

Here's what they look like in-game. Note the Pigmask with sunglasses has no animated background; instead, they stay stationary:

The most notorious are a series of morbid backgrounds, from a giant "X" to a giant/close-up ghostly image of Claus. It even includes a giant red face reminiscent of Giygas, but less terrifying. Although many fan theories persist online, it is unknown where exactly these backgrounds would have been used, and this part of an interview with Shigesato Itoi denies the Giygas returning theory.

When put in-game, they're mixed and matched, which can be seen here: