"The most underrated game of all time. Period."

If you are 15 or younger, you probably heard about this game because you played Super Smash Bros. and/or Super Smash Bros. Melee, hence Ness being in them (great games by the way.) Well, if your new to this game, you might want to read this paragraph to read about some history of this game and why it did not sell very well. If you are a veteran, feel free to skip this paragraph and read the rest of the review. Back in the mid 1994, Mother 2 (Earthbound) was released in Japan. Nintendo of America (or NOA), failing to bring Mother 1 (Soon “doomed” to be known as EarthBound 0 by ROM hackers, “rommies” and the EarthBound community) to The United States of America back in 1990, decided to give it another go, and release it here in the USA. They thought it was going to be a big success, but, sadly, they were wrong. They sold this game with Scratch N' Sniff stickers and a players guide. Even in Nintendo Power, they had a ten dollars off coupon for EarthBound! So you are probably wondering why it did not sell good, even with those things. Simple. People thought the graphics were bad and kiddy. I still laugh at today's modern-day graphics and violence fanboys, because they just do not seem to understand that a fantastic game can have bad graphics. For example, if you took a game that was as fun as all the Final Fantasy's, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, Mother and EarthBound, Zelda, and all the dozens of Mario games, but had graphics like pong, they would think any game that was more violent (*Cough* *Cough* Conker's Bad Fur Day and Grand Theft Auto *Cough* *Cough*) would be better. Also, Nintendo put out an advertisement that said “This game stinks” and had a picture of a trash can monster. I could see why some people would have been influenced to not buy this game; most people took this advertisement in the wrong direction (By thinking the game is bad). The Internet wasn't nearly developed back then as it is now, meaning there wasn't game sites such as Gamefaqs that had reviews on it, showing people that this was a good game. Ok, now onto the review!

Gameplay/Learning curve: 10/10

You play as Ness, a teenage boy who goes out to investigate the asteroid that landed by his house. You battle enemies such as the New Age Retro Hippie, a Stray Dog, a Crow, Psychic Psycho, and dozens of other creative and memorable enemies. For the learning curve, it is very easy to understand. In 10-30 minutes, you will probably have gotten used to the battle system and all the rest of the stuff you need to know. If you want a game that has good gameplay and that is easy to figure out, you might like this.

Story: 9/10

You go out to investigate the meteor that landed by your house. You later meet a fly called buzz buzz. He comes from 10 years in the future to tell Ness that he is one of the four chosen ones. You later meet three other friends: Paula, the blonde, Jeff, the nerd, and Poo, a foreign Asian kid (And no, he has nothing to do with poop). The story gets better the further in, so I won't spoil it for you.

Difficulty: 7/10

This will be split into two categories to make things easier to figure out:

Puzzles: 6/10

Earthbound isn't very hard puzzle wise. In Mother/Earthbound 0, the puzzles are harder. If you like a hard game with difficult puzzles, this might not be for you. But unlike the puzzles...

Battles: 9/10

The battles can get very tough. If you never die, your probably using codes, or a guy who is really good at games. If you want a game with hard battles, EarthBound is the game your looking for!

Graphics: 8/10

Sure, the graphics aren't very good compared to Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger, but the graphics really fit the mood of the game. Yes I know they're kiddy, but that's a good thing in this case. If you don't really care about the graphics in games, this is a game of choice.

Sound: 10/10

This has a lot of R&B, which like the graphics, fits the mood of the game. I still listen to the New Age Retro Hippie theme. If you like games with good music, you should check out this game.

Replayability/amount of play: 9/10

The game will last you about 10-40 hours of gameplay, depending how good you are. But like most RPG's there really isn't very much to do when you beat the game other then make a new file. The game is still fun to play a second time though.

Originality: 10/10

Teenage boys and a girl as main characters? An ATM™ Machine? And even bathrooms?! I'd say it was original! Back then, an RPG was usually taking place in the medieval times, had magic and swords, fantasy monsters such as Cyclops's and Ogres, and usually had adults or older teenagers about the age of 15-17 as the main characters. This game really changed the way we play RPG's. We now have three types of RPG's: Traditional, which as the same battle system as Earthbound and Final Fantasy, Modern day, an example would be Phantasy Star Online, it has a different type of battle system as traditional RPG's, and Communication RPG's such as Animal Crossing and the Harvest Moon games. If you like a game that is fresh and original, you should play this.

Buy, Rent, or burn: Buy

If you burn it, you'd be a idiot since it's a good game plus a fairly expensive one. You can't rent it anymore, so your choices are to buy or play at a friends house. If your friend has it, try it, because you could be one of those rare people who won't like it. You can get it for about $30 used at a local gaming store that sells pre-owned games such as Gamestop or EB Games. But is $30 worth it? Heck Yes! If you don't have an SNES, and you can read Japanese, you might want to import Mother 1+2 for the GBA. It has this AND Mother/EarthBound 0!

Final Score: 10/10

This is probably my second favorite game of all time (Chrono Trigger being my favorite). It is very original, has good sound, and good game play. Alternate choices are Mother/EarthBound 0 for the NES, Animal Crossing for the GCN (It even has the New Age Retro Hippie theme in it!), Chrono Trigger, Mother 1+2 (Which like the title says, it has this and Mother) for the GBA, and all the Final Fantasy's for the NES, SNES, Game Boy, GBA, Nintendo DS, Game Cube, PS1 and PS2.

Breakdown:

Gameplay/Learning curve: 10/10
Story: 9/10
Difficulty: 7/10
Puzzles: 6/10
Battles: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Replayability/amount of play: 9/10
Originality: 10/10
Buy, Rent, or burn: Buy
Final Score: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/15/04, Updated 01/03/05