My love for Earthbound came about in the mid 90's after a trip to Blockbuster. On the shelf stood a game box the size I have never seen before. I had never heard of Earthbound and wasn't quite sure what to expect from it. But after putting many hours into the game in my childhood, although never having finished it, I was in love. Earthbound, also known as Mother 2, ingrained itself in my head and in my love for video games.
Now that Earthbound is making a resurgence on Virtual Console (whether or not stuff will be changed such as the music, who knows...), I wanted to make a post to my favorite game of all time. The name Earthbound is thrown around a lot with a cult love that some don't understand because they haven't played and appreciated it. But with the release of it on the Virtual Console, can it stand the test of time? In my opinion...without a doubt.
The first thing that stands out would be the look of the game. One of the criticisms the game received when it first released was the graphics. For a game that released late in the SNES life, many expected it to look better than it did. While the graphics aren't superb, there's a beauty in the simplicity and the bold colors that are used that really make the game pop. It's easy to put it down, but no other game quite looks like Earthbound other than the Mother series itself. But the game itself still looks amazingly gorgeous to this day.
The music in the game is also another standout reason to play it. I never listen to video game soundtracks, but there's so much aesthetically pleasing music that I always find myself singing a tune or wanting to listen to one from the game. You will know immediately what kind of music to expect once the first boss battle is over and you start the new day with upbeat music and a brighter world.
If I had to make any negative comments about the music, it would simply be that it is the reason it's been so difficult to port over according to Nintendo. Since there was inspiration taken from American culture, there is a lot of nods to the Beatles (which Keiichi Suzuki gained inspiration from Lennon) which intimidated Nintendo from re-releasing it due to legal concerns.
The battle system has some unique aspects which I wish most RPG's would include. For example, none of the battles are random. You will see all the enemies before you engage them. Most enemies will scramble towards you in an attempt to battle, unless the player is overpowered. Instead of making the player waste their time easily dispatching an enemy, the enemy will instead try to run away and avoid battle. If the player touches them, most of the time it is an automatic win. No battling is required, just a quick flash, and you receive a "Congratulations" message saying you won and acquired some experience. Otherwise, the screen will swirl from the inside out with a specific color. If it's red (attacked from behind), you have been ambushed and the enemy will attack first. Green (you attack from behind) means you get the upper hand and attack first, and blue (face to face) means it can be a toss up who attacks first. This way, you are never surprised going into battle as you know instinctively to never get attacked with your back to the enemy.
The other quirk in battling I want to touch on is the rolling health points. While most RPG's have the health points automatically deducted after the attack, Earthbound will instead roll the points down until it reaches the number they were attacked. And in most games, if the attack is more than the health, you automatically die. In Earthbound, this isn't the case. A player can heal themselves before their life hits zero and the health will be added starting where their health was at. So if they receive mortal damage which should kill them, but heal themselves by 50 when their life is at 22, their health will be 72 (or maxed out if their health is lower than 72). On the other hand, if you can defeat the enemy before you health reaches 0, the battle will end and the character will live with whatever health was left. It's a fantastic addition that I wish was implemented more often.
While the story is a tad cliche with the whole "boy on an adventure to save the world", it is surprisingly dark in many respects that one wouldn't expect with how lighthearted the majority of the game plays. The first indication is running into the insane cultists in Happy Happy Village which are dressed essentially as the Ku Klux Klan with a makeover. Another part of the game has one of your characters going through one hell of a torture sequence in an attempt to complete a personal trial to leave their homeland. And let's not even talk about the lead up to the final boss battle where you literally give up everything to save the world. Completely messed up for an innocent looking game, and much darker than most people will give it credit for.
But one of the most appealing things about the games is it's goofiness. I don't know if I've ever fought hippies or piles of puke in a game before, but Earthbound does it. Their filtered view of Western culture makes this game so fun and off the wall. If the weird enemies don't do anything for you, maybe breaking the 4th wall will. Riding the Loch Ness Monster after a bubble gum blowing monkey calls for it is pretty cool. Visiting a town of Mr. Saturns who are basically weird pigs with a speech problem(-o) is entertainingly dumb. Visiting a magic town where a walk down memory lane is somewhat depressing but oh so trippy. And speaking of trippy, what about visiting a backwards world where everything is in neon. There are so many things I can list that make this game so different than any other RPG I've ever played, and saying any more would spoil it for those who haven't played it.
So seriously, if you haven't played it, don't hesitate especially if you love RPG's. There's a reason it has the cult status that it does, and not on a "I love this game because it's so bad" kind of way. The game is smart on so many levels and should be appreciated on all of them. While it's not the most complex game out there in terms of it's leveling up system and the inventory limit can be frustrating at times; I don't think there's any game out there that quite compares to it. For it to have went unnoticed to so many gamers is a travesty, because it is one of the best games ever released and I will argue that with anyone. To this day, I have never played a game as much as this one and I have not grown bored with a single thing about it. And I doubt I ever will.
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