EarthBound fever is here and it has been running red-hot! This cult-classic, JRPG from all the way back in 1994 has returned, big time, with it’s Virtual Console release on Nintendo’s newest money-maker, the Wii U. Any educated nerd knows what EarthBound, or Mother, is and if you didn’t know what it was before then I guarantee you know what it is now, especially with it’s re-release. Like a lot of people out there I’m new to EarthBound but I feel like an old fan, considering the amount of research I’ve done on the game, and I absolutely love it! I missed it the first time around because it was released the year I was born so I’m real happy that it was brought back. There are a lot of reasons why EarthBound is an incredible game and why it has been and will continue to be an incredible game and I’ve decided to list just a few of the reasons why I think EarthBound is a game that can’t be stopped!
The Transition Into Our Generation:
I mentioned just above, and I’m sure you already know, that EarthBound(Mother 2) has just been re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console, that’s fantastic! It makes me want to scream; “Fuzzy Pickles” because what makes this release even greater is that the game wasn’t changed in any drastic way. The music is still the same, the look is still the same, the gameplay is still the same and for all intents and purposes it’s still the same game! The fact that someone could take an old game, plop it onto a next generation console and have it already be incredible is such a great feat. I’m the type of gamer that prefers to have the latest and greatest of games, I won’t continue playing Pokemon Black and White 2 because I would rather just wait to play Pokemon X and Y, that’s the kind of guy I am yet when I picked up EarthBound to play I never thought to myself “Jeez, I’d rather be playing [insert game here] than this crap”, not once!
The Dark Story:
It doesn’t really seem like it would have a very deep and dark storyline, the game is often so colourful and bright but play it enough and you release that this game is not exactly what it seems. The game goes in and out of the shadows when it comes to the story, it really does, one moment you could be in a happy, little village chasing butterflies and fighting neighbourhood dogs and the next minute you could be fighting off zombies as they attempt to engulf a town. As the game goes on you can feel it getting darker and darker, the Giygas fight (The final boss) as up on the top of peoples lists as one of the scariest, and hardest, boss fights around. The theories and stories behind Giygas and his battle are enough to send chills down spines.
The game creator himself, Shigesato Itoi, has said that the “inspiration” behind Giygas’ lines during the final fight with him came from when he was a young boy and he accidentally walked in on an adult movie where it showed a rape scene, this is disgusting and terrifying on it’s own but for a little boy to have seen would have been extremely traumatizing. He’s also stated that while writing those lines him and his co-writer wouldn’t finish up and leave until they were both on the verge of crying, this right here shows how deep the game goes and the effect on both it’s creator and it’s audience. You can definitely feel the heart and soul put into this game. There are so many theories behind a lot of the characters and battles in EarthBound, I honestly suggest you give them a read even if you have no interest in the game.
The Audio and Visuals:
Beautiful. Just beautiful. This game has been praised for it’s audio and visuals since it was first released and you can see why. The game looks fantastic, the enemies and characters are all quirky and it’s style is done in such a way that it will go from cute to creepy in the span of a single fight and that’s just with the visuals. The 8-bit soundtrack is real funky and I found myself having more fun with it when I was listening to the music alongside the gameplay. The music behind the game is so good that there is an actual soundtrack that you can buy for it. Even rapper YTcracker released an album dedicated to the music in this game, it’s called; EarthBound: Adventures of The Soundstone. The animation holds up in this day and age, it doesn’t feel like you’re playing an old Pokemon game where you can tell how dated it is.
The EarthBound Legacy:
This may be the biggest reason to play this game. Without EarthBound there wouldn’t be as many great JRPGs around nowadays. In a time where RPGs were all fantasy-based, where you’re aknight that fights dragons and saves the princess, EarthBound dared to be different, dared to be “weird” and became a cult classic because of it. Ness, the main character of EarthBound, has been a staple character in every Super Smash Brothers game since the very beginning, they even added in Lucas (Protagonist of Mother 3/Fan name: EarthBound 2) to the last iteration of the game without his game ever being sold outside of Japan. EarthBound has created some of the worlds most dedicated fans with people translating games and even offering the translations to Nintendo for free with the hopes that everyone outside of Japan might get a little more of a taste. It’s left such an impact that 19 years later Nintendo has brought it back and it’s still a crowd favourite that has not only continued to make money but continued to be a great game.
Well there you go! Those are just a few of the big reasons why I think EarthBound is an unstoppable juggernaut of a game. I’m going to continue hoping that Nintendo give us more EarthBound in the future the same as all of you out there. Let us know why you love EarthBound and why you think more gamers out there should start playing it! Hit us up in our comments section below. Keep your eyes on the site and your eyes on the stars because you just don’t know what’s out there!
