T
TorontoReign
Guest
Earthbound, 1995
APE/Halken
SNES
Local Retailer, Ebay
Once upon a time in Eagleland...
Earthbound is a SNES jRPG full of toilet humor, pop culture references, offbeat music, and Japanese Wonkiness with references to the Blue’s Brothers, Beatles, 1950’s sci-fi/horror movies, even fourth-wall breaking jokes that parody jRPG tropes of the time. The story begins in the 1990’s in Eagleland, a 1950’s satire of America. You are an average 13 year old boy until the night a meteor lands in your home town of Onett - Animals start attacking humans, people begin acting strangely, you realize that you have psychic (PSI) powers, and an alien bee from the future tells you about a god-like extra-terrestrial called Giygas, who has traveled through time and space to take over the planet, and only you and three other children can stop him. So Ness sets off to find his companions, all the while acquiring 8 Magical Melodies from Sacred Sanctuaries around the world. Along the way he meets several unique characters such as the odd race of aliens called Mr. Saturn’s, a sea serpent named Tessie, and a genius kid inventor named Apple Kid. Some of the more unique quests involve you rescuing a girl from a crazed cult leader in Happy Happy Village (Who resemble the KKK in more than a few ways), ridding a town of an unearthly zombie menace, and learning to teleport from a desert dwelling talking monkey. Earthbound was released with an oversized box, official strategy guide, and scratch and sniff stickers(I still recall how they smelled), which all went with the motto, “This game stinks!”, unfortunately it was not as well received outside Japan (Where it was called Mother 2, a sequel to the original that was never released stateside), despite that it has gained quite the cult following over the years with Earthbound/Mother characters appearing most recently in the Smash Brother series, and many fan projects still being developed by modders, with full support by Shigesato Itoi (the creator) I might add.
Kay-o. ZOOM!
Not cracking a smile while playing Earthbound is nearly impossible. It was a shining beacon in a time when most RPG’s were based in Fantasy or Alien worlds, even now it is still is one of the few RPG’s with a Modern setting. You use your Bank Account where your Dad deposits your allowance instead of carrying all of your cash on you. Instead of potions you have hamburgers, bread rolls, french fries, and pizza. When your friends get injured they follow you as ghosts until you revive them at the Hospital. You can buy supplies at Department Stores like frying pans, baseball bats, teddy bears, Cold Medicine, Rock Candy, and bottle rockets. During combat you might catch a cold, be possessed by evil spirits, become infected by symbiotic mushrooms, get a bad sunburn, or grow Homesick and have to call your Mother. EarthBound is actually one of the first jRPGs where you can avoid combat because you can see the enemies on the screen. When you do get into fights the screen switches to a first person view just like in Dragon Quest, with psychedelic backgrounds that change for different enemies. Each of the kids have certain specialties which add enough variety to the combat whether it be Paula’s Pray ability, Jeff’s handyman skills, or Poo’s Kung Fu. The fact that the music is so well received in Japan that they included it in some of their textbooks is simply amazing. The music does have a way of toying with your emotions in the most subtle of ways, although it isn't quite as symphonic as say Final Fantasy VI, I do believe it to be just as good if not better. If you consider yourself a fan of SNES RPG’s in the least bit, give this game a shot, even if you aren’t, you should probably give it a shot anyway. If it doesn't win you over by the time you get to Moonside, I have no faith in humanity, or you seriously despise jRPG’s, and should stay away from them altogether. The finality of this statement is merely an attempt at emphasizing the superiority of one of the most underrated cult RPG’s of all time so please don’t take offense.
“You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas’ attack!”
However, as is typical of many RPG’s on the SNES, the grind does get to be tiresome after a while, with the major downside of the game being it’s linearity. For those RPG fans that like more C&C, you may be disappointed, since Earthbound is pretty straight forward even by SNES RPG standards, with very little replay value content. You can go back through the game world after beating the last boss, but there isn't really that much for you to do aside from talking to characters to see if they have new dialog. Also, If you're the kind of person that doesn't enjoy satire, then you probably won’t enjoy it since that seems to be pretty prevalent throughout the entire game. The battle sequence’s may not appeal to many people since the graphics are a bit dated, the combat can be fairly simplistic, and you will be seeing the battle screens quite a lot due to the occasional grind-fest. There is a bit of unbalance when first meeting characters since they start off at level one, instead of your current level, so this makes the grind process even more irritating.
Those minor quirks aside, that shouldn't stop any avid RPG addict from completing the game at least once, even if you never play it again, it will stick with you like a dingle-berry. The slogan for this game says it all, “This game stinks!” (In a good way)
To learn more check out starmen.net
APE/Halken
SNES
Local Retailer, Ebay
Once upon a time in Eagleland...
Earthbound is a SNES jRPG full of toilet humor, pop culture references, offbeat music, and Japanese Wonkiness with references to the Blue’s Brothers, Beatles, 1950’s sci-fi/horror movies, even fourth-wall breaking jokes that parody jRPG tropes of the time. The story begins in the 1990’s in Eagleland, a 1950’s satire of America. You are an average 13 year old boy until the night a meteor lands in your home town of Onett - Animals start attacking humans, people begin acting strangely, you realize that you have psychic (PSI) powers, and an alien bee from the future tells you about a god-like extra-terrestrial called Giygas, who has traveled through time and space to take over the planet, and only you and three other children can stop him. So Ness sets off to find his companions, all the while acquiring 8 Magical Melodies from Sacred Sanctuaries around the world. Along the way he meets several unique characters such as the odd race of aliens called Mr. Saturn’s, a sea serpent named Tessie, and a genius kid inventor named Apple Kid. Some of the more unique quests involve you rescuing a girl from a crazed cult leader in Happy Happy Village (Who resemble the KKK in more than a few ways), ridding a town of an unearthly zombie menace, and learning to teleport from a desert dwelling talking monkey. Earthbound was released with an oversized box, official strategy guide, and scratch and sniff stickers(I still recall how they smelled), which all went with the motto, “This game stinks!”, unfortunately it was not as well received outside Japan (Where it was called Mother 2, a sequel to the original that was never released stateside), despite that it has gained quite the cult following over the years with Earthbound/Mother characters appearing most recently in the Smash Brother series, and many fan projects still being developed by modders, with full support by Shigesato Itoi (the creator) I might add.
Kay-o. ZOOM!
Not cracking a smile while playing Earthbound is nearly impossible. It was a shining beacon in a time when most RPG’s were based in Fantasy or Alien worlds, even now it is still is one of the few RPG’s with a Modern setting. You use your Bank Account where your Dad deposits your allowance instead of carrying all of your cash on you. Instead of potions you have hamburgers, bread rolls, french fries, and pizza. When your friends get injured they follow you as ghosts until you revive them at the Hospital. You can buy supplies at Department Stores like frying pans, baseball bats, teddy bears, Cold Medicine, Rock Candy, and bottle rockets. During combat you might catch a cold, be possessed by evil spirits, become infected by symbiotic mushrooms, get a bad sunburn, or grow Homesick and have to call your Mother. EarthBound is actually one of the first jRPGs where you can avoid combat because you can see the enemies on the screen. When you do get into fights the screen switches to a first person view just like in Dragon Quest, with psychedelic backgrounds that change for different enemies. Each of the kids have certain specialties which add enough variety to the combat whether it be Paula’s Pray ability, Jeff’s handyman skills, or Poo’s Kung Fu. The fact that the music is so well received in Japan that they included it in some of their textbooks is simply amazing. The music does have a way of toying with your emotions in the most subtle of ways, although it isn't quite as symphonic as say Final Fantasy VI, I do believe it to be just as good if not better. If you consider yourself a fan of SNES RPG’s in the least bit, give this game a shot, even if you aren’t, you should probably give it a shot anyway. If it doesn't win you over by the time you get to Moonside, I have no faith in humanity, or you seriously despise jRPG’s, and should stay away from them altogether. The finality of this statement is merely an attempt at emphasizing the superiority of one of the most underrated cult RPG’s of all time so please don’t take offense.
“You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas’ attack!”
However, as is typical of many RPG’s on the SNES, the grind does get to be tiresome after a while, with the major downside of the game being it’s linearity. For those RPG fans that like more C&C, you may be disappointed, since Earthbound is pretty straight forward even by SNES RPG standards, with very little replay value content. You can go back through the game world after beating the last boss, but there isn't really that much for you to do aside from talking to characters to see if they have new dialog. Also, If you're the kind of person that doesn't enjoy satire, then you probably won’t enjoy it since that seems to be pretty prevalent throughout the entire game. The battle sequence’s may not appeal to many people since the graphics are a bit dated, the combat can be fairly simplistic, and you will be seeing the battle screens quite a lot due to the occasional grind-fest. There is a bit of unbalance when first meeting characters since they start off at level one, instead of your current level, so this makes the grind process even more irritating.
Those minor quirks aside, that shouldn't stop any avid RPG addict from completing the game at least once, even if you never play it again, it will stick with you like a dingle-berry. The slogan for this game says it all, “This game stinks!” (In a good way)
To learn more check out starmen.net
