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No countdown page has ever lived up to the hype

There. I said it.

I didn't report on "OrigenXbox360" back when it first surfaced earlier this month because it seemed to be all fluff. Sure, there were your standard rabid fanboy hopes and dreams being strewn about, but I didn't buy it. This isn't how Microsoft promotes a massive game announcement or release. And hell, something about bunnies and fruit just doesn't scream "Halo" to me. Microsoft goes for something huge like a fullblown Alternate Reality Game these days, not some piddly little flash movie countdown page.

And wow, look at that, I was right. After all the hype the day is finally here, and OrigenXbox360 is a lame European-exclusive Xbox360 promo contest. With bunnies. It's going to be some kind of deal where you win some Xbox360 schwag and a trip to the North American release, probably in NYC.

Oh, and there will possibly be bunnies involved, but I don't have any confirmation on that front at the moment.

As if one disappointing countdown wasn't enough for you, we've still got two more to talk about. Back over the weekend there was a lot swirling around over at Starmen.net about a potential upcoming announcement of Mother 3. That would (will?) be Earthbound 2 to us in America. It boiled down to some cryptic comments about "It" by Shigesato Itoi: designer, creator, and father of the wonderous Mother series. Now, we're pretty sure he's not talking about the Segway, so the Earthbound-faithful immediately jumped to "ZOMG THIS IS MOTHER 3 IT IS FINALLY HERE I CAN DIE HAPPY". Then people poked around and found that "Brownie Brown" (a Japanese developer based in the city where Itoi said he was working, and was previously connected to Mother 3 Development via some super mega tinfoil hat rumors) had a blurb on their site about hiring game testers for a new project, and also found a little flash game that vaguely resembles the Mother style.

I didn't report on this at the time because the Starmen.net guys, as great as they are, are prone to getting overexcited about things that may in fact have no basis in reality. At the time it also strongly seemed like this was tied to a completely separate game, totally unrelated to Mother/Earthbound/whatever. I like to report on things when there at least seems to be some shred of truth involved, or when I'm dissecting potential lies like I am here.

Then, just to make things more complicated, the guys at DS-x2 found something to drag us back to my topic. A flash countdown to later this week, which shows the back of a scientist infront of a chalkboard. Unlike the wonderful Origen debacle above, we know for sure this time that this is related to a DS game announcement. When you add this to the insanity above, it looks suspicious. When you then decompile the flash application and compare the front of the scientist to Mother 2's Dr. Andonuts, well . . it certainly seems to be falling into place. We'll see when it finishes. This very well could be Mother 3, but as I said, countdown pages never live up to their hype. I'd love to be wrong in this case, though.

As if all this wasn't enough, Marvelous Interactive (the company responsible for the second flash movie) released yet another flash countdown at the same time as the other one, counting down to the same time. There's very little speculation here, but it's a PSP game with some kind of tree. No one apparently wants to speculate about trees after Origen, though. I don't blame them.

So there's quite a bit for you to all think about. Just don't get too worked up over it, it'll make it easier when it sucks.

UPDATE - 28 SEP 2005: DS-x2 has scans from Famitsu Magazine that show the new DS game from Marvelous isn't anything related to mother, and is in fact, some game called "Contact". Once again, we have proof that no countdown page has ever lived up to the hype. Brownie Brown still has their secret project that might be Mother 3, though, but it still remains unrevealed.

Sources: Starmen.net, DS-x2

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