"Oh No! Mad Duck Fell Down!"

Earthbound ranks number five in my all time favorite games list. A fun, quirky, and goofy game, Earthbound is truly one of a kind. To me, this game seems symbolic of my childhood, one game I will always remember playing for long hours on my bedroom floor when I was 8 years old. Hopefully, this review will convince you to play this game, for it is one for the ages. Here it goes.

Graphics-9.5/10

Many people enjoy debating over whether Earthbound has absolutely great graphics or if it has absolutely terrible graphics. I like to support the former side of the argument. Earthbound, to me, has very stylistic, neat, and colorful graphics. Sure, you may not appreciate them if you just finished playing Resident Evil 4, but that is a given. The environment is done very nicely, lots of different things with different colors. People look like they were drawn by a four year old but that doesn't bother me, as they fit in perfectly with the mood of the game.

There isn't too much slow down when going from screen to screen, but if there are lots of enemies in one spot the game may slow down to a near crawl, which can become annoying but usually doesn't last every long.

Battle graphics are acceptable, although not all that great. Only your enemies are visible during battle, and they are often well drawn and look, like everything else, generally goofy. Attacks usually are underwhelming, usually just a flash and then your attacked enemy just blinks for a while. But some of the more special attacks are pretty neat to watch, such as Ness's and other characters PSI attacks.

I wish they had drawn the actual characters such as the main character, Ness, during battle sequences, but you get used to it after a while and it isn't that big a deal. Overall the graphics are quite different from many RPG's. Full of vibrant colors and interesting environments, Earthbound should not let you down graphically speaking.

Music-10/10

Earthbound has a very original sound track. Most RPG's it seems boast dull and sometimes depressing music with fast paced music during battle sequences. Earthbound's is quite different. The regular, walking around music is typically jovial and makes me happy. It also is effective in portraying the mood of each area to the player. While walking in Winters, a cold area (duh), the music does a good job of casting a “cold” sound on the player. That's a bad way of describing it but it's the best I can do. The same goes for when you are walking a desert stage and so forth. The music also does a good job of projecting the mood of the area. While walking through a swamp you get a feeling of eeriness, but, when walking through a nice town you get a feeling of happiness. This is one thing RPG's fail to often in doing.

Another great thing about Earthbound's sound track is that almost every area has its own music, and there are about 6 different types of battle music. As mentioned before, there seem to be too many RPG's that feature one type of music for the world map, one type for indoors, and one type for battles. Earthbound breaks the mold here like it does in so many other categories.

The battle music is also satisfying, often projecting, like the area music, the mood each enemy would normally project on a person actually confronted with that enemy. For example, if you fight an enemy such as a Mad Duck, goofy, bubbly music comes on that is exactly what it should be. Although I have never been confronted by a Mad Duck, if I were to be I am sure this music would fit the moment quite well. Finally, what tops off the sound track is the producer of this games voice saying OK, at the very beginning of the game. Truly a fantastic moment in the gaming music world.

Gameplay-9/10

Earthbound's gameplay is lackluster but still enjoyable. It is one of the few categories that Earthbound really doesn't offer something original too. Basically, you walk around from town to town (there is no world map) and do each task you need to do there. Often times you will get into lots of battles. One of the greatest things in the entire game though is that you can see you enemies. Rather than the typical walk around and be attacked randomly by invisible enemies ploy, Earthbound lets you see your enemies and thus helps you avoid, or get into, battles whenever you want to. This helps keep the game fresh as you can avoid fighting tons of battles if you so wish to do so. Since you can see your enemies you can sometimes back attack them, but they can also back attack you.

In battle gameplay is what I was talking about being lackluster. Most battles you rapidly smash the A button and just non stop attack until your enemies are dead. You may through in a few PSI (AKA Magic) attacks here or there but for the most part it is just rapidly hit A. There are a few interesting things to the battle system, however. One such thing is that your HP acts almost like a slot machine. If you have 100 HP and an enemy takes out 25, your HP will scroll down until it reaches 75. The interesting thing is that you can manipulate this to keep your characters from dying. If I have 100 HP and a guys takes out 101, if you can kill the enemy and end the battle before your HP scrolls down to 0 you will survive the battle. This was very nice of the developers to put in since it will often save you throughout the entire game.

While there are some cool things in the battle system, there are also some very annoying things. In the beginning of the game reviving a dead character can be expensive and tedious. There are no inexpensive, common items to purchase that revive a character such as there are in many other games. The developers probably made so few reviving items because of the generous scrolling HP system, so it all evens out in the end. Another down side is how many items you can hold. Each character can hold roughly 14 items (that's an estimate) each. At the beginning of the game you will often be squeezed for item space. But as the game progresses this will become less of a problem as you eventually get 4 characters which opens up a lot of item space.

Finally, the way how you receive money is quite different than many other games. You receive money through fighting enemies and then calling up your estranged father who reports how much money he has put into your bank account, which you can then retrieve through an ATM machine. You also save your game by taking to your father on the phone.

The main point to make about Earthbound's gameplay is that although it may not be very different from other RPG's, it is still fun and doesn't become dry quickly.

Story-10/10

Ah the story. Another controversial issue. Many people think the story is shallow and pedantic, to quote Family Guy, while others think it is deep and effective. Again, I am a member of the latter group. Earthbound's story is basically about an evil entity named Giygas who, in many years in the future, is the vicious tyrant over the entire universe. It is your job to lead the main character, Ness and his three friends against this evil entity and stop his diabolical plan. It may be a generic B movie plot, but it fits nicely with this game and is deeper than most RPG's stories.

The best part about this games story is the cast of characters that you meet along the way. Many of them are cool, but often stupid beyond belief. These things are what separate Earthbound from other RPGs. It is this games sense of humor and irony that make it so enjoyable and memorable. I don't think I have ever played any game that makes me laugh as much as this one does.

The story to me seems to have some deep hidden meaning to it. So deep that I have no idea what it is. But still, like I mentioned earlier, Earthbound's story just, for some reason, makes me remember my childhood. Thus, it seems to me that Earthbound's story is all about innocence and memories. That's probably more than the storywriters ever planned for it to mean but still, that's the way I like to look at it.

Controls-10/10

Controls are simple and quickly adaptable to. Thankfully the designers changed the way how to talk to people from the first Earthbound game (the first one was called Mother). Before you had to press A to bring up the main menu and then select the option “Talk to.” Now all you have to do is press the L button when near a person and you immediately begin talking to them. Battle controls are simple move and select commands. No real challenge there. Overall, Earthbound's controls are simple and comfortable to utilize.

Replayability-10/10

I rarely ever replay games. Especially RPGs since they take along time to beat and I already know everything I have to do. I have played and beaten Earthbound 6 times. That is by far the most I have ever replayed a game and probably will forever be the most. Earthbound just does not get old. While I wouldn't want to play it four times in a row, I still play it typically every year and a half just because I get the urge to play it. That is what Earthbound does to you. It is so quirky, goofy, and fun to play that it lasts with you. It is also a game that makes you happy when playing it. This is what gives Earthbound such great replayability.

Time-9.5/10

It is hard to tell exactly how long Earthbound really takes since there is no timer like most RPGs have. If I could guess I would say that the first time I played this game it took me roughly 45-65 hours. I can't remember exactly since that was 10 years ago when I was 8. I just beat Earthbound again today and I would say that it took me 25-35 hours to beat. The key factor is whether you know what you are doing or not. Earthbound has some very tricky points that require lots of searching around to complete. If you would like to beat this game going cold turkey with walkthroughs it will probably take you about the time I first mentioned. If you don't like to figure things out on your own and use a walkthrough it will take you about the same as the second time I mentioned.

Buy or Rent

Definitely a buy. First off, this game is pretty rare so you may have to resort to eBay in order to get one. Second, it is somewhat stupid to rent a RPG since you will probably have to rerent it 4 or 5 times and by then it would be just as accost efficient to buy it. Third, this game was made roughly 10 years ago so no rental place has it anymore. So it seems like the only option is to buy it, but that is okay since this game is so awesome.

Recap
Graphics-9.5/10
Sound-10/10
Gameplay-9/10
Story-10/10
Controls-10/10
Replayability-10/10
Time-9.5/10

Overall-68/70
Final-9.71

Well, that about does it for this review. I am glad to have written it for I have been meaning to for quite some time now. I hope I have convinced you to play Earthbound, for it is truly a great game. Earthbound is one of a kind with its unique, quirky, goofy, and fun atmosphere, it is a feel good game that won't disappoint.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/06