Earthbound has a special place in my heart, I have nostalgic overload when it comes to what I call a masterpiece but again my review or what i say about it is 100 percent biased. This was one of the very first game I ever got to experiences let along complete as a kid, it even produced memory's between me and my sis as I watch her play it for countless times I learn so much details about this game before I even got my hands on it. I loved even reading that simple players guide making Eagleland feel like a living, breathing country, with it newspaper ads and events page all from the guide. I even remember being so excited with my sister for the release of Earthbound 64 but we now know how that story goes. Lets jump 17 years later, it has been a long time since I played this game let alone the actual cart. I was about 4 when I first experiences E-bound jump maybe 7 years later I got to play the game again through the use of roms and emulators. So when I got the actual cart from my sister and her SNES, I would have been insane not to play it again and even better that my memory was a bit fuzzy about the game making it seem more fresh and more awesome to remember the wittyness the game has to offer, the classic 16 bit music and just how different this is game today and back then. Enough of hearing a boring back story, you guys wanna know why you should give a dam about Earthbound and why ever RPG fan should at least give this game a try.

Earthbound comes from an era where RPG's were just becoming mainstream in the gaming community, with stuff like FF6 and Chrono trigger coming on the SNES, games like those had there knights, potions, swords and staffs but the franchise of Mother (called in Japan, also I will get into the first game on a different blog) wanted to be different. It did away with the swords and potions for Baseball bats and hamburgers which even to this day I haven't played RPG in that vain. The setting ditch the fantasy land for the heart of America creating something you could relate to. I bet anyone if this game was released as a new IP on a hand held it would have been love today not just a cult classic its now know for.

I booted up the cart and the one thing Earthbound does the best out of anything is the 16 bit music, the title screen with the 16 bit rock sounds amazing, But needless to say why I love this music is with the infusion of classic hits like Johnny B Good and the Beatles making every song memorable and it seals a memory in time, right now I'm listen to the album and I can remember what part of the game that was from and what I was going in the game at the time which beside a famous gaming song or melody I have never been able to do. Earthbound has a slow start in the beginning but it picks up to tale of epic proportions and takes a surprising dark turn to how light hearted and cutesy the game takes its self. One of my favorite parts of the game is trip out coffee talks you have with a couple of NPC's. Having a chat with them make you feel like you came a long way in the 30 plus hours the game takes to complete, I really like when games does this because you have to reflected all the back to hour one and are like "wow I have come a long way and become so much more stronger" Needless to say this blog will become a 10 page essay if I talk about every little detail.

Warning spoilers in the video Trip out coffee video

Earthbound is a game every RPG fan should play, It may be Kiddie and light hearts but rest assured there is deep level of detail put into this game for even a Hardcore RPG fanatic to sink there teeth into. For the around 30 hours the games takes to beat I bet you can find a moment that every time someone mentions Earthbound you will look back to. It maybe a slow start and quite easy but complete it because there is always a surprise around the corner, an new dialog you haven't seen and even a new item or two you have never used before but maybe one day Nintendo will finally re-release this masterpieces and then everyone can play this game. So thanks for reading guys!! I will be playing through Mother 3 for the first time next to continue this franchise but I'm still working on Fuel, blog to come for both games soon but until next time "keep gaming gamers"

Thank you for this. I have vivid memories of going over to my older cousins' place when I was 8 and playing some crap game on their SNES. My first system had been a PlayStation, so I didn't really know what I was doing. They said, "Check this," and popped in Earthbound. Proceeded to freak out and play it at their house over a summer.

I have no fucking idea as to why Nintendo hasn't remade, rebooted, retooled, or done anything with this amazing and still one-of-a-king game (aside from Smash Bros, thank God for that series.) At least translate Mother 3!

@ElvishName: Weren't there some sequels made on the GBA or DS or something? I never followed the series particularly closely after the first one.

I have some fond memories of the original though, if only because it came in a ludicrously big box that blew my adolescent mind.

This game had the most unique music for the platform and genre at the time. It's on par with some of Nobuo Uematsu's best work, to me.

I wouldn't really call Earthbound a "Hidden Gem". It's not really obscure and it's widely hailed as one of the best RPGs, if not one of the best games, for the SNES.

But I digress. I hear it's a pretty good game. Too bad it's never going to receive a legal re-release, else I would have played it by now.

yeah, earthbound is well loved by many, it's not hidden in the least. A real hidden gem for the SNES would probably be SMT 1/2/If... though those games aren't as good as Earthbound.

Mother 3 might be though! Mother 3 is also the superior game because it made me cry like three times

@deepfry55: Earthbound is my favorite game ever. That game is just an unique experience: the music, humor, chacters, and quirk are just so good. Mother 3 is also fantastic (funny enough there is a minor character named Fuel). Story wise leagues it's better than Earthbound with all the charm. Also it's not afraid to get serious a lot more often. Only (sort of ) complaint is that it's chapter based and not one continuous world.

@ArbitraryWater: The title Cult Classic is probably a more aplicable term. Since Smash Bros. more people seem to be aware of the series, but I bet not as many people have played it.

yeah, I love to see Earthbound get love anywhere I can, but to call it a hidden gem seems a far stretch in this day and age. Almost any retro site you go to has 90 Earthbound tribute videos and it's one of the top ten roms people list for emulation.

Mother 3 is not as good as earthbound, in my opinion, because it's less of a game and more of a storybook you navigate, but it's amazing in a way that few other stories have ever been in the history of man. And I'm not trying to be hyperbolistic.

@Nottle said:

@ArbitraryWater: The title Cult Classic is probably a more aplicable term. Since Smash Bros. more people seem to be aware of the series, but I bet not as many people have played it.

I feel like more people have played Earthbound via emulator than have actually played it on the SNES. But yes, Cult Classic was the term I was looking for.

That's a very well written piece you have there.

Although I think it's a bit incorrect to call Earthbound a hidden gem, cult classic, or underrated. The game is internationally huge. I'd say most people even vaguely interested in role playing video gaming has played, or at the least heard of Earthbound.

That aside, I enjoyed your write-up.

@ElvishName it's sad that Nintendo won't give this series any love and I understand money and risk go hand and hand but still it would be a perfect game for the DS but I heard Nintendo had a chance to put it on the VC but chosen not due to major chances with music and gameplay due to legal issue.

@GaintStalker There were two more games in the series know as Mother. Mother the original for the nes (Earthbound) which is Mother 2 in Japan and Mother 3 which is for the GBA, only Earthbound got the treatment of Nintendo bring it over to the States

@MrKlorox I agree there is not alot of games that have complete sound tracks I really love

@ArbitraryWater@Animasta@Nottle@JazGalaxy: I guess i should clarify "hidden Gem" I used that term more so for my friends and of people not into RPG's but want to get into them. Many friends have not even heard of Earthbound before but yet they know of Ness from SSB. I was playing on my recent play through and my roomate had no idea what I was playing but after a couple hours watching he decided to give it a shot and try it out. that was about a week ago and now his almost halfway through and loves it. I guess that how I came up with the title. But yes to people on the youtube and people into RPGs in general this game is more a "cult classic" But I'm very much looking forward to my Playthrough of Mother 3 and the increased difficulty it has to bring

@JazGalaxy: Give Mother 3 a bit of credit. It's battle system is improved over Earthbound with the music combo system. It's kind of a bummer that the world isn't as connected as Earthbound ( though to be fair Earthbound is almost as linear because after Fourside everything is connected by some sort of vehicle, you can't walk from Twoson to Summers.) Mother 3 was trying to have a story with characters that change, the chapters allowed you to see how the peaceful rural town of Tazmilly over time became something quite different. In Earthbound your party members, all 4 of them probably have a total of 14 lines.

@BuyBondsYo: Calling Earthbound a Cult Classic is probably fine, everyone knows whats Rocky Horror Picture show is but it's a Cult Classic still. By now the game gets the respect it deserves so it's not really under rated and enough people are aware of it the not be a hidden gem.

@Nottle for some reason Earthbound got so much better after Fourside, I love going to the new areas because they were completely different from the last. But don't get me wrong I love the city feel just after Fourside I dont think I could go back to another american town. I dont know if it was just me but I thought the Characters grew alot in Earthbound maybe most of it was interpretation through the coffee chats and the games ending.

@deepfry55: I'm not trying to dis any part of the game before or after Fourside, I'm just saying the world wasn't as cohesive after Fourside. You walk from Onett to Fourside. After that everyplace you go to is via Skyrunner, boat, and a Yellow Submarine. It's sort of like Mother 3 where there are huge gaps in time between chapters. It's linear, you can't really walk from a place in chapter 6 back to your house in chapter 1. But it's a change in scenery.

Yeah, characters grow some in Earthbound. But they don't really say much and there isn't much to say about them. You'll just have to play Mother 3, one character in that has more character traits than all the Earthbound party members combined.