So I've been playing Earthbound lately... I'm having a great time. It's still one of my favorite games of all-time and I'm glad to see it re-released after all these years. Anyway, while spamming the Miiverse with goofy comments and minor spoilers, I've seen a lot of positive reactions from people who never played the game back in the day. It's gotten a lot of attention which I hope Nintendo notices because maybe they can release the rest of the Mother series in North America already.

So let me get to the question. To those new to Earthbound, does the game match the hype or are you underwhelmed? And while I'm here, to grizzled vets of Earthbound like myself, does it still hold up?

By the way, I still think it's awesome.

Vet here. Does the game hold up? Absolutely. It can be kinda hard at times trying to figure out what you are supposed to do next. While I played through the game, I used a walkthrough. I guess that is my only complaint. Art style still looks great, the music is still awesome, the dialog holds up.

Would be awesome if Nintendo would official release Mother 1 and 3, but I don't think that will happen sadly.

How can you hate a game where a Big Pile of Puke is an enemy?

I think we're all overlooking the most important question: Can the Wii U version be played while eating pizza?

@video_game_king: Yes, but that gigantic gamepad does not do you any favors.

The answer to that question is yes, either with a Classic/Pro Controller, or if you map L to ZL on the Gamepad.

I'm getting a Wii U in the near future, and seeing as I only played through half the game on an emulator, I can't wait to actually get this on the virtual console and finally complete it. Since this was only a year ago, I'd definitely say it holds up. It's pretty clear what you're suppose to do in the game, so it's not like it's impossibly hard to understand. It was also pretty unique in it's humor and style. Definitely holds up.

I can see that being an issue, especially with people unfamiliar with the game. I've played through the game so many times that I have it virtually memorized, but there are parts of Earthbound that caught me a little off-guard. At least first-timers have the Miiverse for hints. All I had back in the day was a fairly sizable 100+ page players guide.

And it's weird how the music doesn't get as much attention as the story and humor, but the soundtrack is amazing.

I don't get it. What does that sequence of words have to do with Summers?

Newcomer here who didn't play it originally back in the day, and doesn't have a Wii U. But I played the SNES version for a bit like 8 or 9 years ago.

I sorta didn't get why everyone is so crazy about it, but maybe I wasn't quite far enough to the cool parts where it's totally nuts? I got to the beginning of the part where you play as just Jeff. I'll admit that the setting is pretty cool, in that they made a pretty traditional JRPG set in weird caricature of America, and the music was rad. Battle system seemed alright, but kind of the least remarkable part of the whole game.

The HP being an odometer, where if you take a fatal blow, it can technically take a couple seconds to fully register and if you're quick you can apply a healing item/spell to bring the health back into the positives is clever, I guess, but I also thought it's kind of dumb because that's not what damage is (unless every attack is secretly a very strong poison attack).

Also, the friend whose SNES I was playing it on, I watched him playing a part later in game, I guess where he was grinding in this one spot, waiting for a particular enemy to drop Poo's super powerful sword or something? That looked super unfun. Also of note: I eventually decided this friend was kind of an asshole and I stopped talking to him years ago, so because he liked Earthbound, this may be slightly tainting my opinion of it, even though I know it is widely respected and a classic.

I want to stick my dick in a light socket and piss in it so I can electrocute myself for not being able to get Earthbound. I fucking love this game, and I really want it for WiiU. No words can really describe how bad I want to play this game again.

It holds up a lot better than I expected, but I still think the game is extremely overrated.

I've tried to beat it a couple of times over the past decade and failed each time (though the most recent might still be considered to be in progress if I ever get back to it.) It's hard, and obtuse. Really more like an 8-bit RPG with 16-bit graphics. There are loads of items that the game just flat out refuses to tell you the function of that I can't help but feel would make the whole experience nicer if I just knew what they did. Compounded by a limited inventory that is constantly preventing me from trying out those items because I've filled it with as many healing items as I can. Weird difficulty spikes: one minute you're traipsing along, killing everything with ease, the next you're OHKO from some stupid tree that blows up when you kill it. There is no obvious overarching story for a great deal of the game. Each new character in your party starts at level 1, with accompanying stats. Though the obnoxiousness of this is alleviated somewhat by the later characters leveling up faster. It's a bit of a trial and error RPG. You will occasionally lose progress in this one. (Unless you just use a guide I suppose.)

It is a pretty unique experience, and I honestly wish I had more patience for it, but every time I see a new enemy or enter a new area, my first immediate thought is "Oh gawd when did I last save?" Which kind of ruins it for me.

I can't even comment on earthound as a 'game' anymore. It hit me at such a formative point in my life that it is an absolute legend. I can't tell you if the gameplay is good or how the pacing is, Earthbound just is at this point.

I played the crap out of this game back when it released and I feel this game has aged well. The humor is the surprising thing that I found holds up pretty well. Also, my 7 year old niece started playing this game Sunday and she is having a blast with it as well. Fun for all ages!

I don't have any nostalgia for Earthbound, and haven't played it, but I absolutely adored Mother 3

Is Earthbound as good or better than M3?