The Difference
I'm sure that there are a million articles that have already talked about what sets EarthBound apart from all other games, but we are in an article drought and I'm incredibly tired right now so I'll go with this subject before I try to explore new material. Hopefully I'll be able to bring something new to the table that hasn't been discussed before.
My first memory of playing EarthBound is pretty clear. My friend had gotten EarthBound for his birthday, and neither of us had any idea what the heck it was. Either my friend was embarrassed to be playing EarthBound or his parents just randomly picked out a video game to give him for his birthday. No matter how EarthBound came into my friend's possession it was there. We went downstairs into his basement and put it in his SNES. When we started playing I was intrigued by the game but not yet completely caught up in it. When summer came that year I decided to trade with my friend. I let him borrow my Game Genie and he let me borrow EarthBound. By this time he had already beaten it and he was raving about what a good game it was. The player's guide was not part of the trade, so I had no help at all. Once I started playing that summer I couldn't stop. I was playing EarthBound all day.
My parents were a little worried about me because I am the type who always has to get out of the house at least once a day in the summer. Even now I can't resist the temptation of going outside and shooting a basketball every once in a while, but I couldn't stop playing EarthBound. After about a week of nonstop playing I was in Scaraba... and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I bugged the crap out of my friend until he let me use his player's guide. From there beating the game was a relative breeze. I was a little sad when I gave EarthBound back to my friend, but I had soon moved onto other things to keep myself occupied. The next year he leant it to me over Easter break and my love for EarthBound was rekindled once again. About a month later I finally convinced my Mom to take me to Best Buy to buy EarthBound for myself. It was finally mine.
Over the years I have come to play lots of other RPGs. I fell in love with games like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG, but nothing ever came close to matching EarthBound for me. The whole game had this feeling to it. Its like when you are eating something and there is this wonderful taste to it, but you just can't grasp what it is that you are tasting. EarthBound had that taste. The game was charming and unforgettable. Nowadays too many games take themselves too seriously and have incredibly dark or overly happy feelings too them. EarthBound found a happy medium between the two. It was a fun lighthearted game that let you escape from this world and escape to a world that you could honestly see existing.
Perhaps this contemplation of what makes EarthBound what it is goes against what the game was meant to accomplish, but I just felt that I had to reminisce about the good times I had with it. With the direction in which video games are moving we may never get a game quite like EarthBound again. The RPG genre has turned into "Who can make a prettier cut scene then everyone else." Nowadays there are still games that are enjoyable to play, but nothing will ever be able to capture that feeling that EarthBound was able to give me.
I'm sure that there are a million articles that have already talked about what sets EarthBound apart from all other games, but we are in an article drought and I'm incredibly tired right now so I'll go with this subject before I try to explore new material. Hopefully I'll be able to bring something new to the table that hasn't been discussed before.
My first memory of playing EarthBound is pretty clear. My friend had gotten EarthBound for his birthday, and neither of us had any idea what the heck it was. Either my friend was embarrassed to be playing EarthBound or his parents just randomly picked out a video game to give him for his birthday. No matter how EarthBound came into my friend's possession it was there. We went downstairs into his basement and put it in his SNES. When we started playing I was intrigued by the game but not yet completely caught up in it. When summer came that year I decided to trade with my friend. I let him borrow my Game Genie and he let me borrow EarthBound. By this time he had already beaten it and he was raving about what a good game it was. The player's guide was not part of the trade, so I had no help at all. Once I started playing that summer I couldn't stop. I was playing EarthBound all day.
My parents were a little worried about me because I am the type who always has to get out of the house at least once a day in the summer. Even now I can't resist the temptation of going outside and shooting a basketball every once in a while, but I couldn't stop playing EarthBound. After about a week of nonstop playing I was in Scaraba... and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I bugged the crap out of my friend until he let me use his player's guide. From there beating the game was a relative breeze. I was a little sad when I gave EarthBound back to my friend, but I had soon moved onto other things to keep myself occupied. The next year he leant it to me over Easter break and my love for EarthBound was rekindled once again. About a month later I finally convinced my Mom to take me to Best Buy to buy EarthBound for myself. It was finally mine.
Over the years I have come to play lots of other RPGs. I fell in love with games like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG, but nothing ever came close to matching EarthBound for me. The whole game had this feeling to it. Its like when you are eating something and there is this wonderful taste to it, but you just can't grasp what it is that you are tasting. EarthBound had that taste. The game was charming and unforgettable. Nowadays too many games take themselves too seriously and have incredibly dark or overly happy feelings too them. EarthBound found a happy medium between the two. It was a fun lighthearted game that let you escape from this world and escape to a world that you could honestly see existing.
Perhaps this contemplation of what makes EarthBound what it is goes against what the game was meant to accomplish, but I just felt that I had to reminisce about the good times I had with it. With the direction in which video games are moving we may never get a game quite like EarthBound again. The RPG genre has turned into "Who can make a prettier cut scene then everyone else." Nowadays there are still games that are enjoyable to play, but nothing will ever be able to capture that feeling that EarthBound was able to give me.
