Am I the first one to say that EarthBound is good?

MOTHER 2 is such a beloved game around the world, it's a little hard to believe that it ever undersold or was considered a flop. EarthBound has become such a household name among gamers, and Itoi's creations have spawned an entire new genre of RPGs, the Mother-like. It's hard to undersell the impact that the MOTHER series has had on me, and on gaming as a whole.

I first played EarthBound a few years ago, getting about half way through, playing the entirety of MOTHER 3, and then coming back to finish it. A weird way to go through them, I know, but it's just what I did at the time. This game is easily one of my favorite games of all time, definitely my favorite on the Super Nintendo, and in my opinion, one of the greatest games of all time.

There's a lot that sets EarthBound apart from other RPGs, then and now. The urban settings, as well as the more modern characters and casual language serve to separate EarthBound from its contemporaries of Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests. The themes of being a kid, growing up, existing in a world that wasn't made for you, is an incredibly powerful sentiment that applies to every generation, and is only enhanced by the fun visuals and whimsical setting. Each of the party members are kids with their own background, their own relationship to their family and the world around them, and their own struggles as they join Ness's journey to save the earth. The character and personality of everyone in the MOTHER games serves to deepen the world and accentuate the progression of events as the result of real human emotion and decisions, not just a convenience for the author.

The gameplay itself is more engaging than the average RPG, incorporating a spinning dial for the health and "magic" meters, allowing you to time your actions and speed to the end of the battle to conserve your party's status. MOTHER 3 later expanded this system with new real-time action commands akin to Paper Mario. Each party member also has their own inventory, so in addition to their signature abilities, you can strategize about has which items, in order to use them to their fullest effect in battle.

The ability to see enemies in the overworld, and control who gets a first strike on who, also elevates the RPG experience here, departing from the all-too-common random encounters of other games in favor of a player-controlled system that allows for avoiding, challenging, and strategically ambushing opponents.

The story and the text is also unmatched, nothing quite has the same vibe and experience as a Shigesato Itoi MOTHER game. Toby Fox's body of works comes close, but he has his own flare and flavor to writing and overall style, it stands on its own. The music further pushes this aesthetic by enhancing the world, characters, specific scenes and encounters, battles, etc. The emotional moments are more heartwrenching, the silly moments are more wacky, and the tension of battles is more palpable.

Each of the three MOTHER games are technically disconnected, but they do follow a through-thread that links all of them together in an interesting way. You don't technically miss too much if you don't play them in order, but MOTHER does offer more buildup to EarthBound, and EarthBound does lead smoothly into MOTHER 3. I recommend playing EarthBound first, then MOTHER 3, and then MOTHER, as I feel this gives you the best entrance to the series, and the most whole understanding of the story and the world.

As much as I love it, EarthBound is not a perfect game.

I mean, it's pretty close, but it's not perfect.

There are a few weird bits of balancing that can make certain battles a slog, or a beat-your-head-against-a-wall kind of trial and error. Altogether the balancing is well done, but there are a few awkward moments that may have you stumped for a while.

Other than that, the only real issue that I encounter on a regular basis is the limitations of a Super Nintendo game. If there's too many sprites on screen (which, with the enemies in the overworld, will happen in more than a couple locations) the game has a lot of slowdown, and in battle it struggles to keep up with the rapidly-spinning stat counters, making that mechanic a little harder to utilize than I'd prefer.

But yeah it's pretty close to a perfect game, and to that extent, I do consider MOTHER 3 to be a perfect game, as it fixes these issues entirely.

I love the MOTHER series. There's truly nothing like it in the video game landscape, as close as some things come to that. Playing EarthBound for the first time, especially blind, with or without friends, is a magical experience, especially when leading into MOTHER 3. Whether you're an RPG fan or not, I recommend EarthBound if you want to experience everything it has to offer. I relly do think it has a little something for everyone; adults, children, and even your older sister.

These days the only official way to play it is on the Nintendo Switch Online - Super Nintendo app, but SNES emulators are plentiful, and if you have a 3DS, it's super easy to pull up on there. The 3DS is actually my personal favorite way to play! Of all the Super Nintendo game you could be playing in the modern era, I think EarthBound has aged the best, and has the most to offer. It really is such an amazing game, and I highly recommend you check it out for yourself.

~ Alex Amelia Pine

This post is a part of the series Game Reviews