In October of last year, Starmen.net, the largest and most well-known MOTHER community, set out to produce the MOTHER 3 Handbook as a companion guide to the MOTHER 3 English translation they had just released. What followed were several months of hard work. The MOTHER 3 Handbook is the result of talent, dedication, hard work, and pure, unbridled love for the MOTHER franchise.

From the moment you open up it up, you can tell that a lot of love and care went into the production of this book. The design is extremely well done and has a clean, organized feel. The info boxes are smartly laid out so as to reduce clutter. What really astounds, however, is the artwork. Every single character, from the major enemies down to the most insignificant character, gets their own hand-drawn charicature accompanied by a box that gives more information on them. The character artwork is excellent and helps breathe more life into the characters throughout the game. The book contains over 450 character artworks. Similarly, major characters as well as all the bosses are given a clay model rendition. These models are strikingly detailed and the effort that went into them as well as the fact that there are over 50 of them is incredible.

The book is also laid out with maps. Instead of being drawn, the makers of the handbook simply took the map data from the game and put it in the handbook, preserving the pixel art while presenting an easily viewable map at the same time. The makers of the book also put markings on the maps making it so readers can easily spot where items and paths to the next game screen are located.

The handbook is also very well-written. The writers managed to capture the signature humor of the MOTHER series and it shows. Puns and witty gags are abound in this book. An example is an on-going story within the book titled "Legend of Doorknob," which tells the story of a lone doorknob on a dangerous and exciting quest. In fact, the book can be fun to just read even when you're not playing the game.

However, don't buy the book expecting a thorough walkthrough. It's not actually designed to help you through the game at all. Sure, there are boss and enemy tips as well as maps but this handbook was designed to enhance your enjoyment of MOTHER 3. In that respect, the MOTHER 3 Handbook goes above and beyond the call of duty. Although, special mention does go to the enemy and boss info boxes which list out the various statistics and item drops of every single enemy and boss.

Easily one of the best touches are the numerous info boxes strewn throughout the book. They're at times helpful, other time helpful, and usually both. Still other times, they serve to make the world of MOTHER 3 feel more cohesive and real. The boxes make the book feel like a travel brochure guide at times, which is probably what the makers were going for considering the official MOTHER 2 guide did the same thing. Speaking of which, the handbook exudes a very professional feel. It's 100% fan-made but if you didn't know that, you might mistake it for an official guide.

The MOTHER 3 Handbook shows exactly what the MOTHER community is capable of. As I said before, the amount of hard work and care that went into this book is staggering. I'm convinced that if Nintendo were to try and emulate Starmen.net's efforts they would come nowhere near the quality of the MOTHER 3 Handbook. It exudes an air of professionalism and love that I have never seen from any other fan effort and is easily one of the best pieces of gaming merchandise I own.