Mother 1 or Mother 3?

Mother 1 very loosely ties into earthbound's storyline, in the sense that literally only one character goes from 1 to 2. The gameplay is very mediocre, slow paced compared to 2, and the graphics tend to make you hurl (even for an NES game...). I dunno, I've played through 1 and I didn't particularly enjoy it, mostly because I played 2 first. I'd suggest simply playing 3.