13 Points on Earthbound - Ape/HAL Laboratory - 1994 [SNES]

1. Earthbound is something of a cult classic and there's a reason for that: it's great. It is sort of a self-aware console RPG w/ a great sense of humor. It comes off as ahead of its time even today.

2. Graphically, it is cute but not exactly beautiful. It works.

3. This is a humorous RPG but it's not just a RPG w/ jokes. It's a pretty subtle send-up of the genre, while still being a very good game in that genre.

4. The story is ridiculous. A young boy assembles a team of other children to save the earth from the ultimate evil. Even the main character's parents don't really take it seriously. This gives the whole thing an air of just being a child's fantasy. I mean, seriously, if your kid was actually on a mission from God or whatever, wouldn't you follow along and try to help?

5. There is zero customization available in this. Equipping your party goes as follows: find a better piece of gear, equip better piece of gear. There is almost no choice in how you chose to build your characters.

6. Number 5 keeps you out of menus and focused on playing so it's fine I guess.

7. This gets pretty tough at times but the penalty for your whole party being KOed is pretty minor so you can just keep cracking at the tougher dungeons and don't have to backtrack and grind.

8. Every time you save your game you have to click through like ten boxes of text. Actually, basically everything you do in menus requires an excessive amount of diving through options. This is not the most charming thing about the game.

9. The middle of this drags a bit, not gonna lie. It is not a terribly long game but there is still some fat to be cut. Basically, it's a console RPG.

10. Even at its worst though, Earthbound is sprinkled w/ enough little jokes and charm to keep things palatable. moment to moment.

11. You get to pick your favorite food. I picked pizza. I also named my party after a bunch of dudes I know. It's chill.

12. Using the first teleportation spell you get is the most annoying thing in the entire world. You have to find an area where there is enough space to run around in circles. I suppose this serves the purpose of those aggravating "you can't teleport here" pop-ups you see in other games w/ a gameplay mechanic, which is a good thing on paper but just doesn't work.

13. This ends on a teaser for another game... which they never released in the West. Booo!