Best. Game. Ever.

 By Starman

There is no doubt that this is the best-est game ever... I just finished playing the whole game again and despite the fact that it was released more than a decade ago, I still get hooked to it.

Earthbound is an RPG published by Nintendo for the SNES console. It was released in Japan in 1994 as Mother 2. It became an instant big hit but had less commercial success when it was released in US a year later. Nevertheless, it has became a cult hit and has been named in most people and review site's list of top games.

Designer Shigesato Ito has created a masterpiece. The game is a parody of American culture and it will never fail in making you laugh. The setting is a place called Eagleland. Giygas, the evil boss from Mother 1, is exacting revenge by corrupting the hearts of the different beings on earth. It will be up to three boys and a girl to save the world from the clutches of this hard-to-pronounce-name evil.

The protagonists are not the conventional sword-wielding knights. Instead you control a young boy wielding a bat and a yo-yo to combat evil. His name is Ness and he can also use psychic abilities. Paula, the only girl, is capable of both offensive and defensive psychic abilities. Jeff, the genius, compensates his lack of powers with his ability to use gadgets and rockets. Poo, a weirdly-named-psychic-using prince, is able to shift-shape into your enemy and use its powers.

The characters especially the enemies are very unique. At the start of the game, you'll find it silly that you have to fight dogs and crows. But as you progress in the story, you'll get used to fighting fire hydrants, taxi vehicles, mushrooms and other crazy stuff.

The gameplay is simple. You can freely roam the world and enemy encounters are not the same with that of Pokemon, meaning that it is not a random encounter. You can gain an advantage against the enemy if you can contact it on its side or back. You select your commands from menus(much like Final Fantasy) and the sequence of actions will be done depending on the speed of the character. The life of each one is represented by an odometer-like widget. Unlike other games, if the damage dealt to you is greater than your life points, you can still live if you defeat your enemy before your scrolling hit points reach zero. The game is relatively easy if you do not rush through the story. There is a lack of customization of skills. But who could complain? This was released a long time ago where flexibility in skills were not that yet popular.

If I were to give this game a score, I will give it a 10/10 for being awesome and legendary, as Barney Stinson says it, legen... dary! One thing that separates it from other RPGs is... I guess everything about it. It deserves to be in the list of top games of people. This game taught me to love role-playing games.

Here is a video that will surely remind you of the game. Great job to these people for doing a near perfect rendition of the game. I hope that they continue this epic story...

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"What an almighty idiot!"

-Pokey commenting on the evil boss Giygas