EarthBound

"Possibly the greatest game ever created"

Creators of the game: Ape
System: SNES
Year: 1995

I've played this game since I was a baby. Whether I was just gathering some bird men and fighting for a little while, or... erasing my brother's game by accident, I loved it. I don't know exactly why I loved it as a little kid, but I just did. It's such an amazing game.

Well, most people hated this game because
A. It did not have swords and shields and mystical dragons
B. It was a turn-based RPG
C. It was modernized
D. It's graphics were not as amazingly awesome as other game's graphics were
E. It was an RPG, and people thought it took no effort

Well, I loved the game for every single one of those reasons. I mean seriously, you're a boy with a bat and psychic powers. PSYCHIC POWERS. Not magic! Not anything else. Psychic powers! It's just plain fricken' amazing! It's awesome! You can heal your friends, yes, friends, not "party members" as they are in Final Fantasy and such, but they're actually called your FRIENDS in this game. Plus, the game has a load of humor and quirks! You can even fight hippies! What's better than that?

Storyline: 10/10
The game starts out in 199X, in the city of Onett, in the country of Eagleland. Basic sci-fi storyline, (for the most of it). Earth is being invaded by a giant alien creature dude and there's the protagonist and his friends, and of course the antagonist. Well, Ness is just a regular boy, with a telephone for a father (not really, of course) and a mother who will cook his favorite food for him at command. Over the course of the game, Ness meets up with a girl named Paula, who is a master psychic, a boy named Jeff, who is not a psychic, but can fix broken things that you find, and Poo (*snicker*), who is your average psychic ninja prince dude with only 1 weapon.

Well, along the way to stop Giygas (the giant alien creature dude), Ness meets up with a bunch of quirky characters such as Belch, a blob of slime, the Starmen, possibly the coolest video game characters ever, and even a gangster by the name of Frank. To stop Giygas, Ness must fill up all the nodes on his "sound stone" by going to certain areas that show Ness some of his memory and play a melody for him to record on his sound stone. Ness obtains this sound stone by a fly who is 10 years old... Yes, very weird, indeed. Sometimes the party changes around, like sometimes Ness is the leader (most of the time), and Jeff is the leader once, but then Poo solos it for a little while, once you lose Paula, and once you lose Poo so that he can train.

Early in the game, if you choose, Ness can find this statue called the Mani Mani statue from this guy named Liar X. Agerate, (liar exagerate :D) which follows you through the whole game. You fight it sometimes, and you also save a guy from falling to it's deadly trap of deadliness. You defeat it later in your dream... Which is kind of a reality...

At points in the game you actually get to go to a concert for this band which is a satire of the Blues Brothers. Also, a "hot" Madonna like figure named Venus. You use her autograph at one point in the game too, which is pretty funny.

Length: 10/10
Wow, this game is long as hell! 'Specially for a SNES game. You know why? Because the graphics are not as advanced. Well, anyway, the game can months to beat, even if playing it non-stop. It's a hell of a long game. When I first played this game and understood it (this was when I was 5), I didn't appreciate it. I am now older, and I just love it. You can't imagine how much you'll appreciate this game after beating it. It's just such an amazing game.

Gameplay: 10/10
"It's a turn-based RPG. 'Nuff said." Some would say, but this is no ordinary turn-based game. You honestly DO have to plan out your battle, as you can go from having full health to death in one of your enemy's turns. You have a basic "attack" button, but it varies by which weapon you use. If you use a baseball bat it says "bash", but with a yo-yo, it says differently. Also, each character has their own special skill. Jeff can use his bottle rockets and bombs. Paula can pray, which either hurts you, hurts your enemy, hurts you and your enemy, helps you, helps your enemy, or helps you and your enemy, so it's a risky skill. Ness doesn't have a special ability, sadly, but he can turn on auto-battle and run away, which isn't much of an ability. Each battle takes planning and strategy, unless you turn auto-battle on, which is a good strategy if you're planning on just leveling up. Oh yes, and the level-up system. It can take hours just to level up sometimes because enemies kill you often, and it takes alot of EXP to level up once you're in the 50 plusses. The game is so funny too, you can even buy a run down shack with a "great view" of the ocean.

The shop system is cool too, because you can buy your stuff, then equip it right there, and then sell your old stuff, all in the same screen. The game also shows you whether or not something is better than what you have right then. Let's say you had a cracked bat, and there was a Casey Bat in the shop (which is impossible, because that's a unique, UNIQUE, unique, very rare item which is the strongest bat in the game, but misses frequently), the Casey would start flashing because it's better than the crappy cracked bat.

It's cool also, because the game has real stuff. Like baseball bats, and frying pans, and burgers, and even pizza. There are gangsters and hippies and old guys and robots and even dogs to fight!

Graphics: 10/10
Honestly, people hate the graphics, but why? I love them! Even if they aren't advanced, they're 16-bit! I loved the appearences of the characters, the colors, the backgrounds, the effects. Especially I loved the battle backgrounds. They were always swirling around in the background, and it was just fun to watch them. Really, they entertained you while battling. Even the last boss's background... Well ESPECIALLY the last boss's background.

Music: 500,000,000,000/10 (no, really 10/10)
This games music is amazing!!!!! I loved all the catchy beats, like the song for Onett town, and the song that plays as you ride your bike. I would whistle along as I played this game! I know I can't really give it a 500 billion score, but I just love this music so much. Every last music, and sound effect (excluding the caves and Twoson's musics) were wonderful!

Overall: 10/10
This game is a must-have. Buy it. I know it's expensive now-a-days, but you really REALLY need to get it. If you don't you'll explode. GET IT.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/16/05