Earthbound

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Initial reviewers had little praise for EarthBound in the United States, where it sold half as many copies as in Japan. Critics attribute this to a combination of the game's simple graphics, the satirical marketing campaign, and a lack of market interest in the genre. In the ensuing years, a dedicated fan community spawned which advocated for the series. Starting in , Ness became a featured character in each of the Super Smash Bros.

By the s, the game had become regarded as a " sacred cow amongst gaming's cognoscenti", [3] with multiple reader polls ranking it among the best of all time. In , EarthBound was given a worldwide release on the Wii U Virtual Console following many years of fan lobbying, marking its debut in many territories including Europe. EarthBound features many traditional role-playing game elements: Along the way, the player fights battles against enemies and the party receives experience points for victories. This pseudo-randomly increases the character's attributes, such as offense, defense, and the maximum hit points HP and psychic points PP of each character.

Rather than using an overworld map screen like most console RPGs of its era, the world is entirely seamless, with no differentiation between towns and the outside world.

The game uses oblique projection , while most 2D RPGs use a "top down" view on a grid or an isometric perspective. Unlike its predecessor, EarthBound does not use random encounters. When physical contact occurs between a character and an enemy, the screen dissolves into battle mode. In combat, characters and enemies possess a certain amount of HP.

Blows to an enemy reduce the amount of HP. Once an enemy's HP reach zero, that enemy is defeated. If a specific type of enemy is defeated, there is a chance that the character will receive an item after the battle. In battle, the player is allowed to choose specific actions for their characters. Once each character is assigned a command, the characters and enemies perform their actions in a set order, determined by character speed. Whenever a character receives damage, the HP box gradually "rolls" down, similar to an odometer.

This allows players an opportunity to heal the character or win the battle before the counter hits zero, after which the character is knocked unconscious. An affirmative response brings Ness, conscious, back to the last telephone he saved from, with half the money on his person at the time of his defeat, and with other party members showing as still unconscious. Because battles are not random, tactical advantages can be gained. If the player physically contacts an enemy from behind indicated by a translucent green swirl which fills the screen , the player is given a first-strike priority.

However, this also applies to enemies, who can also engage the party from behind in this case, the swirl is red. Neutral priority is indicated by a blue swirl. Additionally, as Ness and his friends become stronger, battles with weaker enemies are eventually won automatically, forgoing the battle sequence, and weaker monsters will begin to flee from Ness and his friends rather than chase them.

Currency is indirectly received from Ness' father, who can also save the game's progress. Each time the party wins a battle, Ness' father deposits money in an account that can be withdrawn at ATMs.

In towns, players can visit various stores where weapons, armor, and items can be bought. Weapons and armor can be equipped to increase character strength and defense, respectively. In addition, items can be used for a number of purposes, such as healing. Towns also contain several other useful facilities such as hospitals where players can be healed for a fee. EarthBound takes place several years after the events of Mother , in the fictional country of Eagleland.

The player starts as a young boy named Ness [nb 3] as he investigates a nearby meteorite crash [9] with his neighbor, Pokey, [10] [nb 4] to find his brother Picky. They find that an alien force, Giygas , has enveloped and consumed the world in hatred and consequently turned animals, humans, and objects into malicious creatures. A small, bee-like creature from the future instructs Ness to collect melodies in a Sound Stone to preemptively stop the force, [11] but is killed shortly thereafter when Pokey and Picky's mother mistakes him for a pest.

While visiting these eight Sanctuaries, [10] Ness meets three other kids named Paula, Jeff, and Poo — "a psychic girl, an eccentric inventor, and a ponytailed martial artist", respectively [11] — who join his party. After Paula telepathically instructs Jeff in a Winters boarding school to rescue them, they continue to a village of a species called Mr.

Saturn, the city of Fourside, and the seaside resort Summers. Meanwhile, Poo, the prince of Dalaam, partakes in a seemingly violent meditation called " Mu Training" before joining the party as well. The party continues to travel to the Scaraba desert, the Deep Darkness swamp, another village of creatures called Tenda who need a book to overcome their shyness, and a forgotten underworld where dinosaurs live.

When the Sound Stone is eventually filled, [12] Ness visits Magicant, a surreal location in his mind where he fights his personal dark side. The group discovers a device that contains the alien, but it is being guarded by Pokey, who is revealed to have been helping Giygas all along. After defeating him in a fight, Pokey turns the device off, releasing Giygas and forcing the group to fight [13] the monster.

Relive the ‘90s

During the fight, Paula reaches out to the inhabitants of Earth, who pray for the children's safety. The prayers manage to exploit Giygas' fatal weakness — human emotions — and defeat the alien, eradicating him from all of existence. The first Mother was released for the NES in The HAL team led by lead programmer Iwata worked on the game programming, while the Ape team led by lead programmer Kouji Malta worked on specific data, such as the text and maps.

The game continues Mother 's story in that Giygas reappears as the antagonist and thus did not die at the end of Mother and the player has the option of choosing whether to continue the protagonist's story by choosing whether to name their player-character the same as the original. Itoi sought to make a game that would appeal to populations that were playing games less, such as girls. The Mother series titles are built on what Itoi considered "reckless wildness", where he would offer ideas that encouraged his staff to contribute new ways of portraying scenes in the video game medium.

Characters

Itoi thought of the default player-character names when he did not like his team's suggestions. Many of the characters were based on real life personalities. For instance, the desert miners were modeled on specific executives from a Japanese construction company. The idea for the rolling HP meter began with pachinko balls that would drop balls off the screen upon being hit. This did not work as well for characters with high health. Instead, around , they chose an odometer-style hit points counter.

The programmers also found difficulty implementing the in-game delivery service, where the delivery person had to navigate around obstacles to reach the player. They thought it would be funny to have the delivery person run through obstacles in a hurry on his way off-screen. Itoi specifically chose against having an overworld map, and didn't want to artificially distinguish between towns and other areas. Instead, he worked to make each town unique.

His own favorite town was Threed, though it was Summers before then. Mother 2 was designed to fit within an eight megabit limit, but was expanded in size and scope twice: This entailed higher sound quality and music that sounds closer to his regular compositions. In Suzuki's songwriting process, he would first compose on a synthesizer before working with programmers to get it in the game.

His personal pieces play when the player is walking about the map, out of battle. Suzuki's favorite piece is the music that plays while the player is on a bicycle, which he composed in advance of this job but found appropriate to include. He wrote over pieces, but much of it was not included in the game. According to Tanaka, the Beach Boys were repeatedly referenced between him and Suzuki, and that he would often listen to co-founder Brian Wilson 's eponymous album while on the way to Suzuki's home. To Suzuki, Smile evoked the bright and dark aspects of America, while Song Cycle displayed a hazy sound mixed with American humor and hints of Ray Bradbury , a style which he considered essential to the soundtrack of Mother.

The soundtrack contains direct musical quotations of some classical and folk music ; the composers also derived a few samples culled from other sources including commercial pop and rock music. Additionally, he felt that the mix tape Wired Magazine Presents: As was traditional for Nintendo, Mother 2 was developed in Japan and localized in the United States, a process in which the game is translated into English for Western audiences. Nintendo of America's Dan Owsen began the English localization project and converted about ten percent of the script before moving to another project.

Lindblom was challenged by the task of culturally translating "an outsider's view of the U. While Lindblom took the day off for her birth, [34] he proceeded to work hour days [14] without weekends for the next month. Additionally, right before players reach the end of the pirated copy's story, their game resets and deletes its saved file in an act that IGN declared "arguably the most devious and notorious example of 'creative' copy protection". Under directives from Nintendo, [34] Lindblom worked with the Japanese artists and programmers [14] to remove references to intellectual property, religion, and alcohol from the American release, such as a truck's Coca-Cola logo, the red crosses on hospitals, and crosses on tombstones.

The graphical fixes were not finished until March , and the game was not fully playable until May. EarthBound was released on June 5, in North America. As part of Nintendo's larger "Play It Loud" campaign, EarthBound 's "this game stinks" campaign included foul-smelling scratch and sniff advertisements. It emphasized magazine advertisements and had the extra cost of the strategy guide included with each game. The game originally received little critical praise from the American press, [14] [45] and sold poorly in the United States: The game was especially expensive due to the included strategy guide.

They said the "saving graces are the fairly good music" and "hilarious adult humor" but added that "the humor is too mature for little kids, and the gameplay is too immature for older gamers. Lindblom and his team were devastated by the release's poor critical response and sales. He recalled that the game was hurt by reception of its graphics as "simplistic" at a time when critics placed high importance on graphics quality.

Reviewing the game years after its release, multiple writers described the game as "original" or "unique" [17] [49] [46] and praised its script's range of emotions [17] [49] and humor. Critics praised its " real world " setting, which was seen as an uncommon choice. Reviewers described the game's ambiance as cheery and full of charm. Schulz -esque character and world design.

IGN's Scott Thompson wrote that EarthBound balances "dark Lovecraftian apocalypse and silly lightheartedness", and was just as interesting nearly a decade after its original release. EarthBound was listed in Video Games You Must Play Before You Die , where Christian Donlan wrote that the game is "name-checked by the video gaming cognoscenti more often than it's actually been played". He called the game "utterly brilliant" and praised its overworld and battle system. Critics [ not in citation given ] consider the game one of the weirdest and most surreal role-playing games.

Kotaku described aspects of the game's story, such as the "Mr.

Saturn coffee break", as "poignant". Several critics referred to the game as among their all-time favorites. EarthBound is known for having a cult following , [16] [58] [14] [59] [45] [76] [ excessive citations ] which developed over time well after its release.

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Thomas wrote in that EarthBound 's "persistent", "ambitious", and "religiously dedicated collective of hardcore fans" would be among the first groups to influence Nintendo's decision-making through their purchasing power on Virtual Console. Wired described the amount of EarthBound "fan art, videos, and tributes on fan sites like EarthBound Central or Starmen.

It became "the definitive fan community for EarthBound on the web" and had "almost inexplicable" growth. The EarthBound fan community at Starmen. He had planned a book about the game's development, release, and fandom before a reply from Nintendo discouraged him from pursuing the idea. No dragons, mystical knights, or staff-wielding wizards appear in this game.

You are just an average 13 year old kid from the suburbs The local wildlife start attacking you, a gang of local hoodlums begins causing trouble downtown, you realize that you have psychic powers, and a mysterious messenger from the future tells you that you are destined to save the world.

But, before you face any of this, your mom reminds you to change out of your pajamas. Armed with a cracked baseball bat, a lucky charm for protection, and whatever food you can find including whatever gets thrown into the trashcan outside the burger joint , you begin your quest to stop the evil alien Giygas from destroying the world.

A few highlights from the game:. But, before you get too involved in these kinds of things, you should remember to call your mother. If you go too long without hearing her voice, you'll get homesick.

EarthBound

In addition to this, the EarthBound universe draws heavily from pop culture. The best part is that the campaign's slogan was "This Game Stinks. It even came with scratch 'n sniff trading cards at the back, one of which was a 'mystery scent' that turned out to be pizza that you could mail in to Nintendo and get a free air freshener which bore the image of a pizza man from the game.

Even EarthBound's box was an advertisement: Despite the hype and effort, EarthBound did not sell well in America. Even today the simple graphics serve as a stumbling block for many potential gamers, but they belie EarthBound's brilliant plot and dialogue.

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