"The second best game ever."

Earthbound by ProtoZero

Introduction:
On June 1, 1995, Ape and Nintendo released the one of the greatest games of all time, Earthbound. It used to be my favorite game until I played Final Fantasy III. Before Earthbound, RPGs meant dungeons, swords, castles, and everything medieval. Earthbound changed all that. It had important role play game elements, such as leveling up, turned base fighting, and bosses. But how many games do you know have ATM machines, trout flavored yogurt, and a village that worships blue? Not many. Earthbound was the most unique game of its time. Other than unique, Earthbound is also extremely fun. Today, Earthbound has been sadly forgotten by most people. But for those who want to visit Onett town, this is for you.

Story: 10/10
It is probably the weirdest story in video games, but also the most unique. The plot is not as serious as a final fantasy game, which makes it better in my opinion. A meteor in the middle of the night awakens Ness, a young boy about the age of 13. His mother lets him go check it out. He finds a weird alien guy named Buzz Buzz. He tells him that the Giygas, another weird alien, will destroy the earth. Sounds like you average role-play game story right? Guess again. Ness goes to different towns; encounter everything from New Age Retro Hippies, to attacking taxicabs. Ness goes to eight sanctuaries to collect parts of the sound stone. The plot is also funny. There might be an obstacle that you can’t get by. Just so happens, an item to get past it is conveniently in your reach. But you must beat get it. Its hard to explain, but I’ll just put it this way. The plot suddenly changes into something completely different but it doesn’t lose you. There are tons of surprises that I won’t spoil to you. You can find them out for yourself. The story is very weird. It’s genius, but weird. I loved the story enough to give it a ten. Not as near as good a Final Fantasy III, but still great.

Character Design: Good
I won’t go into too much detail, but I thought this was important. The party members are Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo. Each has a different look and personality. The character design is good, not great. There are no in depth emotions with them. But I enjoyed all of them.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics really go well with the mood in Earthbound. They are bright, cheery in most places. The graphics look almost like they’re out of a cartoon. Some people might say it looks kiddy. As far as battles go, I have no complaints. All the enemies look good. It does not show Ness and company but it doesn’t hurt the battles. Every battle has a colorful, almost 60’s background. Overall, I think the graphic are great. You may think it looks kiddy, but I think is goes perfect with Earthbound’s wackiness.

Music/Sound: 10/10
Earthbound has one of the best soundtracks in video games. Once again, the music is second all time behind Final Fantasy III. The best is the Onett song. Twoson, New Age Retro Hippie, Winters and many more are also great. The music is unforgettable; you wont turn your volume off on this game. The sound is nothing to brag about. The PSI attacks and regular hits sound normal. The sound is not bad, but it’s not really that good. But because of the wonderful music, it still deserves a ten.

Game Play: 8/10
Earthbound is an RPG, but it’s not like most of the others. There are no random battles. You actually get to see an enemy. It is not as frustrating as random battles because you expect them. Sometimes you can even avoid the enemy. This is a very great bonus as far as fun factor goes. You go from town to town meeting new friends as well as enemies. Paula, Jeff, and Poo join your team. They all have different personalities and fighting abilities. The battling is not perfect but it is still great. You have health points and PSI points. PSI is your main attacks. During battles you use a normal attack or use a special PSI move. You learn more attacks as you level up. The only problem in the battles is that you can’t see yourself. This may not bother some people, but I would rather be able to see Ness. You can obtain items that can defeat bosses in one hit, which is kind of cheap. The bosses are really cool, and I would rather battle them. I’m not saying you can defeat every boss with a special item because you can’t. But some bosses can easily be destroyed with a multi bottle rocket. The weapons you obtain are very strange. You can buy baseball bats, slingshots, frying pans, and laser guns. The puzzles can be rather tricky sometimes. There are a few spots in the game that when you beat, you hope you never have to do it again. This is the only bad part about the game play. While most of the game is very fun, some locations are nerve racking. Overall the game play is excellent. It is a very long game but none of the locations are extremely difficult. I beat the game in about 3 months. It is a very fun game almost the entire way through.

Replay Value: 9/10
The game could keep you busy for a very long time. There are certain items you can only obtain after defeating a certain enemy. Only problem is, you have a 1/128 chance of getting that item after the battle. Yeah, that might take a while. However, like I said before, there are places in the game that you might not want to do again. But the items and the fact that it is such a great game will bring you back for more,

Buy or Rent:
Well, I seriously doubt you can rent this game. It is hard enough trying to find a place to buy it. But even if you could rent it, you should still buy it. Its a great game to add to any gamer’s collection. At least give it a try. You will be glad you did.

Overall: 10/10
Earthbound is cool. It changed the meaning of RPG. It is really crazy but great at the same time. Trust me, you should definitely try my SECOND favorite game ever. Even today, no game compares to its uniqueness. To describe this game in one word, it would be: genius.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/09/02, Updated 12/22/02