Sound Battle


 * See also: List of Mother 3 enemies by battle song

Sound Battles are a combo system built into Mother 3's battle engine.

In Mother 3
When a character uses their basic attack command, pressing the A button or L button in time with the beat of the music will allow them to achieve extra hits, which are each weaker than the initial hit. To hear the exact timing to press the button, an enemy must be asleep, which allows the player to hear their heartbeat, with each beat representing when to hit the button. A character can get a maximum of 16 hits per-turn; if this occurs, a sound effect of a cheering crowd is played. The Battle Memory is a method to practice Sound Battles.

Each playable party member has a different instrument for their combo attacks.

Memo
"Press the button with the music rhythm, whaddya get? A feeling so enlivening you'll never forget!"

Trivia

 * While Duster only has a single combo sound set, there are others in the sound data for the game which are not correctly applied to him. These have been restored via hacking as an additional patch for the Mother 3 fan translation.


 * The Fake Frying Pan and the Fake Bat will yield different combo sounds.
 * This feature was also going to be present in EarthBound 64, with the 1999 demo players requiring the use of headphones while playing the demo in order to understand the mechanics for the Sound Battle system.