On Earthbound Friends
I recall that frigid night in January, receiving my package from Quebec, enthralled to discover I secured an English, and not French, copy of Earthbound. I popped it in and felt amazed by its atmosphere playing the first few minutes surrounded by the dark of the late hours.
Earthbound! I came to school that next Monday with a smile on my face.
“You totally have to see this game!” I remarked to my friends into video games. They all felt ecstatic to hear of the game Mr. Saturn came from.
February. There was a heavy snow and the roads were slushy as could be. I shivered in my driveway, alto saxophone in my hand preparing to jam. The Prius of my environmentally minded comrade slipped around and I rushed to meet him. We played some of our jazz band music (back inside of course, where everything was nice and warm) when he blurted out, “Hey, what about that Earthbound?” The opening chords blasted out of the television’s speakers and prompted a couple smiles. “That was pretty classy.” My jazz buddy was totally impressed by Earthbound’s smooth style. The wild Mr. Saturns made us both laugh and Fourside’s music inspired us to get back to our immature performance. Later he remarked, “Earthbound’s plot is so great!”
But was the game’s plot truly great? Six months later I defeated Giygas. The endgame’s beauty prompted me to introduce another fine fellow to this super software. I shall call him Bruce. This guy was a quintessential role-playing game fan. He was a veteran of the Super Nintendo RPG era, having beaten all the Final Fantasies (and fervently declaring VI as the best), and nearly any other game one could conjure up. Earthbound, however, was absent from his vast repertoire. He took the game on his laptop and played away, humored by its simplicity. “There’s no plot, the music’s all right, but it’s ridiculously easy,” he said. “But Mr. Saturn is the best. Ever.” There’s the verdict, straight from a role-playing connoisseur’s maw. He played the game to the land of dinosaurs and remains there today, dropping the game for good. I played his cold file via laptop several months later at a Dance Dance Revolution Party. Everybody there loved Venus’ performance and asked for an encore. Even though he’s done playing the game, Bruce still enjoys popping a Moonside quote into conversation.
This brings me to another decent chap. Jeff wasn’t a typical hardcore gamer, but he loved gaming. Zelda was his thing. He started playing and proceeded to get stuck at nearly every point of the game. We talked online about the absolute wildness of the game. He made great process until the Monkey’s Cave. “This is so dumb. I don’t want to do this.” Jeff mumbled a few weeks about this before finally continuing on. “You know…I just had to get a picnic lunch and everything else was in the cave. Amazing!” He proceeded to add, “You know…I don’t think I’ll ever be able to finish Earthbound. It’s not too great as a game alone, but it lives on as an experience.” Jeff currently is inside Dungeon Man with no significant progress foreseeable in the future. An experience, though? That’s an interesting thought.
Ken was a computer genius with major skill in all things technology. He was into first person shooters and Earthbound was his first RPG aside from Knights of the Old Republic. He loved the game. “This is really fun! I like how your dude is always centered and they just moved the background. At least in houses…” A month later at an amusement park, we were all exhausted from eight hours of standing, walking, and riding. We boarded the park’s train and rested our weary feet. Ken began talking about Earthbound again, which brought me back from my lulled state. Having been absorbed in this new genre, he decided to comment on the technical aspects of it. “It’s kind of stupid that you just gain levels. All I do is keep going through something again and again until Paula is strong enough to survive.” We conversed about the game’s system before I nodded off to sleep.
I showed the game to a couple other friends. “ ‘The enemy became tame?’ That’s lame. That’s fun, but I don’t like RPGs with magic.” And then another kid, “I don’t like that Pokey kid. He sucks,” played up to the part where you save your game the first time.
I realized that my friends’ reactions to this 16-bit wonder reflected mine. First, like my friend Bruce, I was disappointed with its system. Then I was entertained by Earthbound’s humor with my fellow musician. After that, I looked closely at the game’s technology and became amazed by its battle backgrounds and amazing sights (Moonside was particularly impressive) as Ken did. Then after having beaten the game, I saw the great big picture, like my Zelda-enamored friend, Jeff.
Earthbound is a classic that will always stand the test of time because it simply rocks. The game can stir the player’s emotions in such a way that will keep them interested. This is why my friends gave it such admiration. Earthbound is everything my friends found wrapped into one fantastic package. As it stands, several more of my friends are interested in the Revolution’s downloadable content. I am without a doubt that their impressions will be overwhelmingly positive!
I recall that frigid night in January, receiving my package from Quebec, enthralled to discover I secured an English, and not French, copy of Earthbound. I popped it in and felt amazed by its atmosphere playing the first few minutes surrounded by the dark of the late hours.
Earthbound! I came to school that next Monday with a smile on my face.
“You totally have to see this game!” I remarked to my friends into video games. They all felt ecstatic to hear of the game Mr. Saturn came from.
February. There was a heavy snow and the roads were slushy as could be. I shivered in my driveway, alto saxophone in my hand preparing to jam. The Prius of my environmentally minded comrade slipped around and I rushed to meet him. We played some of our jazz band music (back inside of course, where everything was nice and warm) when he blurted out, “Hey, what about that Earthbound?” The opening chords blasted out of the television’s speakers and prompted a couple smiles. “That was pretty classy.” My jazz buddy was totally impressed by Earthbound’s smooth style. The wild Mr. Saturns made us both laugh and Fourside’s music inspired us to get back to our immature performance. Later he remarked, “Earthbound’s plot is so great!”
But was the game’s plot truly great? Six months later I defeated Giygas. The endgame’s beauty prompted me to introduce another fine fellow to this super software. I shall call him Bruce. This guy was a quintessential role-playing game fan. He was a veteran of the Super Nintendo RPG era, having beaten all the Final Fantasies (and fervently declaring VI as the best), and nearly any other game one could conjure up. Earthbound, however, was absent from his vast repertoire. He took the game on his laptop and played away, humored by its simplicity. “There’s no plot, the music’s all right, but it’s ridiculously easy,” he said. “But Mr. Saturn is the best. Ever.” There’s the verdict, straight from a role-playing connoisseur’s maw. He played the game to the land of dinosaurs and remains there today, dropping the game for good. I played his cold file via laptop several months later at a Dance Dance Revolution Party. Everybody there loved Venus’ performance and asked for an encore. Even though he’s done playing the game, Bruce still enjoys popping a Moonside quote into conversation.
This brings me to another decent chap. Jeff wasn’t a typical hardcore gamer, but he loved gaming. Zelda was his thing. He started playing and proceeded to get stuck at nearly every point of the game. We talked online about the absolute wildness of the game. He made great process until the Monkey’s Cave. “This is so dumb. I don’t want to do this.” Jeff mumbled a few weeks about this before finally continuing on. “You know…I just had to get a picnic lunch and everything else was in the cave. Amazing!” He proceeded to add, “You know…I don’t think I’ll ever be able to finish Earthbound. It’s not too great as a game alone, but it lives on as an experience.” Jeff currently is inside Dungeon Man with no significant progress foreseeable in the future. An experience, though? That’s an interesting thought.
Ken was a computer genius with major skill in all things technology. He was into first person shooters and Earthbound was his first RPG aside from Knights of the Old Republic. He loved the game. “This is really fun! I like how your dude is always centered and they just moved the background. At least in houses…” A month later at an amusement park, we were all exhausted from eight hours of standing, walking, and riding. We boarded the park’s train and rested our weary feet. Ken began talking about Earthbound again, which brought me back from my lulled state. Having been absorbed in this new genre, he decided to comment on the technical aspects of it. “It’s kind of stupid that you just gain levels. All I do is keep going through something again and again until Paula is strong enough to survive.” We conversed about the game’s system before I nodded off to sleep.
I showed the game to a couple other friends. “ ‘The enemy became tame?’ That’s lame. That’s fun, but I don’t like RPGs with magic.” And then another kid, “I don’t like that Pokey kid. He sucks,” played up to the part where you save your game the first time.
I realized that my friends’ reactions to this 16-bit wonder reflected mine. First, like my friend Bruce, I was disappointed with its system. Then I was entertained by Earthbound’s humor with my fellow musician. After that, I looked closely at the game’s technology and became amazed by its battle backgrounds and amazing sights (Moonside was particularly impressive) as Ken did. Then after having beaten the game, I saw the great big picture, like my Zelda-enamored friend, Jeff.
Earthbound is a classic that will always stand the test of time because it simply rocks. The game can stir the player’s emotions in such a way that will keep them interested. This is why my friends gave it such admiration. Earthbound is everything my friends found wrapped into one fantastic package. As it stands, several more of my friends are interested in the Revolution’s downloadable content. I am without a doubt that their impressions will be overwhelmingly positive!
