Back in 1999, I was introduced to Super Smash Bros., a fighting game for the Nintendo 64 featuring a cast of familiar Nintendo stars. One wasn’t however – Ness, a kid armed with a bat, yo-yo, and a host of psychic abilities from an RPG known as Earthbound. This wasn’t the first time I had heard of the game, but Ness’ inclusion sparked my curiosity.
Earthbound became one of the first true RPGs I’ve ever played. The story is about Ness, a boy who finds himself on a strange adventure after a meteor crashes into the nearby hills and a chance encounter with a sentient insect from an apocalyptic future. The insect informs Ness of a prophecy that tells that three boys and a girl will eventually defeat Giygas, the being responsible for the future. Armed with only a cracked baseball bat and his developing psychic powers, Ness sets out on a long journey to find the other kids, defeat guardians of eight sanctuaries housing the Earth’s power, and fight Giygas’ minions.
Earthbound is actually the second game in the Mother trilogy, which gets its title from the John Lennon song of the same name. It is the only game so far to receive a proper US release, though the first game, localized as Earth Bound and dubbed by fans as Earthbound Zero, was set to be released near the end of the NES’ lifespan. The third game of the series was originally being developed for the Nintendo 64, but eventually was cancelled after several delays. It eventually resurfaced on the Game Boy Advance, though late enough in the system’s lifespan for any interest in localizing this game to be nil.
Earthbound’s gameplay is similar to old turn-based RPGs, specifically Dragon Quest games, except with a modern twist. Instead of swords, bows, and magic, there’re bats, stun guns, and telekinesis. The enemies consist of the believable to the downright bizarre, from stray dogs to barf monsters of death. Ness’ father has to be contacted via phone in order to save the game and ATMs are used for retrieving money, which accumulates as more battles are fought. Hospitals are found in almost every town, and if they can’t heal you, a special blue-haired healer that also resides there can.
Despite what the original “This Game Stinks” ad campaign might suggest, the humor in the game is rarely crude. It’s mostly a parody of RPG clichés and American culture. You’ll meet people who will travel anywhere, including deep inside monster-filled caves, for a deal, while the delivery men show up seconds after an order is placed… Most of the time. There are also tons of references to both American and British pop culture, mostly relating to the Beatles. A yellow submarine can be found inside the Dungeon Man, literally a living dungeon. A band of Blues Brothers stand-ins show up in different towns, performing at whatever theater they happen to be stuck at. And in one level a boss drops the Casey Bat, an obvious reference to the poem “Casey at the Bat” as the bat misses most of the time.
Enemies appear on the map and have to approached or be approached instead of occurring at random, making it easier to avoid constant, unexpected fights. The enemies even start running from the party when they reach certain levels and victories become instant rewards-reaping. The health meter is styled like an odometer, which started rolling down when a character takes damage during battle. This give the player extra time needed during heated battles to prevent characters from collapsing.
The final locations of the game are probably the tensest, as going from a mostly vibrant environment to a bleak landscape with powerful enemies and no hope of escape. At the end waits what probably is one of the creepiest bosses in the 16-Bit era, and simply fighting the way you fought every other boss in the game will not be enough. This end-game mood-swing makes it pretty that Earthbound was made by some of the same people who made the Kirby games!
The music of the game is probably some of the best from the 16-Bit era. There are also quite a few that are less than memorable and more atmospheric, but many of the town themes and many of the battle themes are fairly enjoyable. The boss themes are the best, especially the first phase of the final boss. A lot of songs even contain both vague and obvious references to American and British music, though the blatant one is the “Frank” battle theme, which sounds like a 16-Bit remix of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny Be Good.”
One of the weaker points of Earthbound is character development. Ness is a silent protagonist, meaning he has no dialog to speak of. There are some hints to his character, the biggest being his occasional periods of homesickness, but even these are lack an actual impact except preventing him from fighting. The easiest way to cure this is by calling his mother, but the dialog is limited and one-sided, not doing much for developing his character. If his mom had more lines of dialog and maybe even some player interaction, it may have made homesickness just a little less frustrating.
Nintendo seemed to be fairly reluctant in releasing Earthbound to the virtual console. The exact reason isn’t clear, though it’s believed that there may have been some copyright issues regarding the music. This coupled with the fact that game’s status as a cult classic despite being a commercial failure has led to the game costing an obscene amount of money. I was lucky to find my copy for around $50. This changed on July 18th, 2013, changed when Nintendo finally made Earthbound available for purchase on the Wii U virtual console for around $10 with no real changes. As an extra bonus, a digital copy of the original Player’s Guide was also released on the official Earthbound website, making this release practically a complete digital re-release!
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