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Edward Mass
Sep 14, 2011

𝅘𝅥𝅮 I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
Friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen
𝅘𝅥𝅮
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qezniWLWxEA

Well, it happened. After years of clamoring to re-release it, Earthbound has been released for the Wii U's Virtual Console worldwide. It costs a little extra than a normal SNES game, but rest assured, it's worth it.

What makes Earthbound so special? Well, it's...different. Most RPGs take place in fantastic settings. Earthbound takes place in the present day, where fire hydrants and paintings are enemies. Unlike most RPGs, Earthbound is funny. Earthbound is infused with pop culture references, from the Beatles to Mr. Baseball, a Tom Selleck movie you've probably never seen. You'll travel by bus, by spaceship, and by monster.

I never played Earthbound until a few years ago, when I decided I wanted to play the Mother series back-to-back-to-back. Earthbound, the middle game, is the only one released in the United States and (now) Europe. It is also the most popular of the series, given Ness' appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series.

Why did it take so long for Earthbound to get the Virtual Console treatment outside of Japan? Well, it wasn't music rights issues as previously thought. It turns out Nintendo just didn't know how many people wanted to play it. Seriously. Only until they found out about the petition that starman.net put out to re-release the game did they figure, "hey, maybe we should sell this game". Sales have proven strong since its release, only behind Donkey Kong, which literally costs 30 cents this month. I don't own a Wii U ($8 an hour does that to a person), but I would spend the :10bux: for it if I had the chance.


(Thanks to Rhinoceraptor for the rest of the OP)
-----------------------------------

THREAD GUIDELINES
  • Keep Spoilers to a minimum and be sure to tag them.
    This game is old sure, but plenty of people still haven't played it. Let's do them a courtesy and discuss major plot points in the [spoiler] tags, alright?

  • THAT Theory.
    We all know which theory I'm talking about. THAT theory has been discussed to death whether you subscribe to it or not, and unless you have a really amazing insight into it, let's try not to bring it up.

  • On any page number with a '6', end posts with "Boing", "Ding" or "Zoom".
    Because Saturn is the 6th planet.
---

Q&A

How much is it?

It's only :10bux:, and purchasing it will help to show the bigwigs at Nintendo of America that there's money to be made in this series again.

You said it's a sequel, do I need to be familiar with the first game?
Not really. The connections between games are more thematic than anything else. There is an overarching storyline, but it's like the story between Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker in that either can be played independently of the other. Besides, the first game, though good, is an '80s NES RPG and hasn't really aged well gameplay-wise. You Should really only play it as supplemental material if you really enjoyed the second and third games.

Why is the kid in the hat not fighting?

Sometimes Ness (as seen in Super Smash Bros.) gets homesick during the adventure and will randomly be unable to perform actions in battle. This can be frustrating since he will be your main healer and hitter for the bulk of the game. The only way to cure homesickness is to call your mother on the phone or visit her directly. (CaptainYesterday note: a baby chick also does the trick.)

Which is better, the Yo-Yo, or the Slingshot?

Neither, buy a baseball bat.

---

VIDEOS!

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGOEMCG2Ll4

NOA promotion EarthBound at Comicon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uinZ2wn3qF4

A Nerd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT8ZDZf7gw0

MOTHER RESOURCES (Thanks, Rhinoceraptor from last year!)

Official Site

Travel Guide -- This came boxed with the original game! A lot of work was put into it, and it's more of a companion book than a strategy guide. :siren: NO LONGER SCRATCH 'N' SNIFF :siren:

Starmen -- The Internet's biggest MOTHER fan community. Lots of fanart and such.

EarthBound Central -- A blog or various EB related stuff.

MOTHER 3 Translation Project -- A fantastic translation patch of MOTHER 3 to English.

MOTHER 4 Fan Game Project -- A Fanmade Sequel Project, still under development. MUCH cooler than you would expect.

MOTHER Remake Hack -- A recreation of Earthbound Zero using Earthbound's engine is also in the works.

Edward Mass fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jul 25, 2013

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Neo Rasa
Mar 8, 2007
Everyone should play DUKE games.

:dukedog:
The music when you fight the Kraken (and a few battles later on) is literally one of the coolest songs in any game ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxkc3C6sXlY

I said come in!
Jun 22, 2004

I wanna play this on the 3DS. :(

.TakaM
Oct 30, 2007

I've started EarthBound many times on emulator, I always quit when I got to big-step, not because I wasn't enjoying it but because I felt guilty.

I've never objected to playing a rom before but I felt like I was ruining my first play-through and I wanted to wait until I could actually pay for the game. I gotta say I'm glad I waited and I can absolutely see how this game garnered such a devoted fanbase.


I'm up to the Mr Saturn village and I'm really enjoying exploring the world, especially enjoying the music- I've left it playing in the background quite a lot.

DrManiac
Feb 29, 2012

I said come in! posted:

I wanna play this on the 3DS. :(



I'm pretty much in the same boat. I would buy the absolute poo poo out of this but I don't have a wii-u.

victrix
Oct 30, 2007


Yeah same. Apparently it's not on the Wii either?

I said come in!
Jun 22, 2004

victrix posted:

Yeah same. Apparently it's not on the Wii either?

Yeah I don't believe it's even on Wii. Nintendo is doing this in the hopes that it'll sell more Wii U consoles. Since the majority of software sales on the Wii U are SNES and N64 games, I see where they are coming from with this business strategy.

Microsoft Weird
Sep 11, 2007

And no Wii-U price drop in sight.

This, the winter of our discontent. :negative:

abraham linksys
Sep 6, 2010

:darksouls:

schizopol posted:

And no Wii-U price drop in sight.

This, the winter of our discontent. :negative:

Is there anything you get from playing this on Wii U instead of on an emulator? Honestly curious.

Dice Dingus
May 4, 2010

I said come in! posted:

I wanna play this on the 3DS. :(

I would pay like 30 bucks to play this on the 3DS.

I first played this game years ago, maybe in early middle school. It was an absolute trip, and it's one of the few games that I've been able to play again and again as the years go by. It's profound sense of style and humor planted one of the first seeds in my mind that blossomed into and understanding of how a story is about much more than the outline can describe, but that it's really about how you tell the story, and how you use your medium to your advantage.

And truly, no other game will make you feel as homesick as this one will. :unsmith:

abraham linksys posted:

Is there anything you get from playing this on Wii U instead of on an emulator? Honestly curious.
The knowledge that you're making it profitable for them to keep the game available, giving them the incentive to make a modern classic available legally to more players as the years go on.

Neo Rasa
Mar 8, 2007
Everyone should play DUKE games.

:dukedog:

abraham linksys posted:

Is there anything you get from playing this on Wii U instead of on an emulator? Honestly curious.

It was long ago "patched" but originally if you pirated a cartridge/rom of Earthbound, upon the check detecting this the game would run with like 4x the number of encounters and it would hard lock right before the final boss. :getin:

Team Beagle
Apr 29, 2009
I can't really see anyone buying a wii U console just to play earthbound but I'll definitely be grabbing earthbound when they actually release some new worthwhile games for it. It's such a unique game it's always worth another play through.

Microsoft Weird
Sep 11, 2007

Sales of the Wii U are not picking up either way, at least not until the fall lineup. Even then :iiam:

abraham linksys posted:

Is there anything you get from playing this on Wii U instead of on an emulator? Honestly curious.

I meant it more from a business perspective.

Ciaphas
Nov 20, 2005

> BEWARE, COWARD :ovr:


Neo Rasa posted:

It was long ago "patched" but originally if you pirated a cartridge/rom of Earthbound, upon the check detecting this the game would run with like 4x the number of encounters and it would hard lock right before the final boss. :getin:

AND wipeout your saves, as I recall. Pretty loving brutal antipiracy technique.

I said come in!
Jun 22, 2004

A bit off topic, but the amazing thing about SNES RPGs is that they have aged incredibly well. To this day I still play a number of them; Final Fantasy VI, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Secret of Mana, and Secret of Evermore. I can play all of these from start to completion and feel like they hold up just as well as any modern day RPG.

Meat Recital
Mar 26, 2009

by zen death robot

I said come in! posted:

I wanna play this on the 3DS. :(

In Nintendo's infite wisdom, the 3DS screen is smaller than the resolution that the SNES output. I would have loving LOVED my 3DS if it had SNES virtual console support.

BipolarAurora
Jan 1, 2013

Neo Rasa posted:

It was long ago "patched" but originally if you pirated a cartridge/rom of Earthbound, upon the check detecting this the game would run with like 4x the number of encounters and it would hard lock right before the final boss. :getin:

If EarthBound had a selectable hard mode that was exactly that, I'd play it more. :colbert:

Chumbawumba4ever97
Dec 31, 2000

by Fluffdaddy
I absolutely adore this game, even though I'll never understand the obsessiveness levels some people have with it. Definitely in my top 10 of all time though; probably my top 5 actually.

Also, the ending to the game is easily the best ending I've ever experienced in my entire life playing video games. This includes the final boss battle, and the fact that the ending is (very minor "spoiler") a "playable" ending in which everyone you talk to, no matter where in the game, makes mention of the fact that you beat it.

The last boss has the best music ever. Intentionally lovely 8 bit music to throw you off for when thrashing heavy-metal guitars kick in outta nowhere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9gW3FS_brY

edit: The Little Rascals sample is so blatant I still can't believe there were no legal issues, unless the show simply fell into public domain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLeWBWGY_Gg

Chumbawumba4ever97 fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jul 25, 2013

Relin
Oct 6, 2002

You have been a most worthy adversary, but in every game, there are winners and there are losers. And as you know, in this game, losers get robotizicized!
The music in EB is so good because they lifted the melodies and etc. from real songs without giving credit.

Internet Kraken
Apr 24, 2010

slightly amused

CaptainYesterday posted:

Why did it take so long for Earthbound to get the Virtual Console treatment outside of Japan? Well, it wasn't music rights issues as previously thought. It turns out Nintendo just didn't know how many people wanted to play it. Seriously. Only until they found out about the petition that starman.net put out to re-release the game did they figure, "hey, maybe we should sell this game".

Don't tell me they never ported Mother 3 for this reason.

Ichabod Tane
Oct 30, 2005

A most notable
coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.


https://youtu.be/_Ojd0BdtMBY?t=4
I replay this game once a year. Man, there is a certain charm to this game. I think it's because the the nostalgia holds up over the year.

Blunt Force Trauma
Mar 16, 2008

No one gives a fuck about shit.
So fuck your shit.
We fuck shit up,
Cause shit's fucked anyway.
Shit is run in to the ground.

I don't wanna think about it,
I just wanna get down.

Miyamotos RGB NES posted:

I absolutely adore this game, even though I'll never understand the obsessiveness levels some people have with it. Definitely in my top 10 of all time though; probably my top 5 actually.

I'm sure a lot of it is nostalgia. For anyone who didn't play/know about the game back when it came out, the advertising techniques were something truly amazing and had 9 year old me absolutely engrossed well before the game came out. There were a lot of scratch and sniff stickers and smell is the sense most strongly linked to memory, I have fond memories of sniffing those stickers and daydreaming about the game. I seem to remember one smelling like pickles and I remember my brother getting really mad at me for scratching them because technically they came in *his* Nintendo Power subscription

Artix
Apr 26, 2010

He's finally back,
to kick some tail!
And this time,
he's goin' to jail!

Internet Kraken posted:

Don't tell me they never ported Mother 3 for this reason.

Mother 3 is a GBA game that came out in 2006 and almost didn't come out then. Expecting to get Mother 3, especially after Earthbound didn't sell especially well was a pipe dream. (And it's even more of one now)

Classtoise
Feb 11, 2008

THINKS CON-AIR WAS A GOOD MOVIE

Artix posted:

Mother 3 is a GBA game that came out in 2006 and almost didn't come out then. Expecting to get Mother 3, especially after Earthbound didn't sell especially well was a pipe dream. (And it's even more of one now)

Yeah, until we see GBA games on the 3DS Shop, there's no hope of a Nintendo-done localized Mother 3 release.

Eggie
Aug 15, 2010

Something ironic, I'm certain
I wonder why it took so long.

Was it legal trouble with the sampled music and Dali's Clock?

SwimmingSpider
Jan 3, 2008


Jön, jön, jön a vizipók.
Várják már a tólakók.
Ez a kis pók ügyes búvár.
Sok új kaland is még rá vár.
Beaten by minutes... :negative:

Oh well. I love EarthBound, so it's nice that there's a thread. Would you object to me putting the OP for my thread in this post, CaptainYesterday? Just for the sake of a bit more information about the game?

Meat Recital
Mar 26, 2009

by zen death robot
There are a few GBA games on the virtual console, though they might be 3ds ambassador exclusives. Regardless, there's no way Nintendo is going to translate Mother 3 for VC, and little chance they're going to buy the translation.

Edward Mass
Sep 14, 2011

𝅘𝅥𝅮 I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
Friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen
𝅘𝅥𝅮

Rhinoceraptor posted:

Beaten by minutes... :negative:

Oh well. I love EarthBound, so it's nice that there's a thread. Would you object to me putting the OP for my thread in this post, CaptainYesterday? Just for the sake of a bit more information about the game?

Sure! I'll add it in.

DARPA Dad
Dec 9, 2008
For anyone wants some insight into how EarthBound was translated into English, I recently interviewed the game's chief translator. He actually ended up having to rewrite a lot of the text, so the game's writing isn't just from Itoi but from the localizer as well. EarthBound is one of my favorite games so it was really cool to get an opportunity to speak to someone who had such an impact on the game.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/marcus-lindblom-earthbound/

SwimmingSpider
Jan 3, 2008


Jön, jön, jön a vizipók.
Várják már a tólakók.
Ez a kis pók ügyes búvár.
Sok új kaland is még rá vár.
Thanks, I'm pretty proud of it, so it's nice to see it not go to waste!

edit: It's here.

njsykora
Jan 23, 2012

Robots confuse squirrels.


I should say I'm playing this for the first time as a European given it took 18 drat years to finally come out here and loving it so I don't think it can all be nostalgia. It's just stupidly hard and pretty tedious at the beginning before you're actually capable of killing more than 2 things before healing.

Seshoho Cian
Jul 26, 2010

njsykora posted:

I should say I'm playing this for the first time as a European given it took 18 drat years to finally come out here and loving it so I don't think it can all be nostalgia. It's just stupidly hard and pretty tedious at the beginning before you're actually capable of killing more than 2 things before healing.

Crossposting from the other thread.

We did it guys. :unsmith:

TheRationalRedditor
Jul 17, 2000

WHO ABUSED HIM. WHO ABUSED THE BOY.
Are there any known changes for better or wosre to this new version?

JSnake posted:

For anyone wants some insight into how EarthBound was translated into English, I recently interviewed the game's chief translator. He actually ended up having to rewrite a lot of the text, so the game's writing isn't just from Itoi but from the localizer as well. EarthBound is one of my favorite games so it was really cool to get an opportunity to speak to someone who had such an impact on the game.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/marcus-lindblom-earthbound/
Cool beans, gonna read this with conviction!

Edward Mass
Sep 14, 2011

𝅘𝅥𝅮 I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
Friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen
𝅘𝅥𝅮

TheRationalRedditor posted:

Are there any known changes for better or wosre to this new version?

Cool beans, gonna read this with conviction!

No epilepsy-educing flashes anymore.

SwimmingSpider
Jan 3, 2008


Jön, jön, jön a vizipók.
Várják már a tólakók.
Ez a kis pók ügyes búvár.
Sok új kaland is még rá vár.

CaptainYesterday posted:

Why is the kid in the hat not fighting?

Sometimes Ness (as seen in Super Smash Bros.) gets homesick during the adventure and will randomly be unable to perform actions in battle. This can be frustrating since he will be your main healer and hitter for the bulk of the game. The only way to cure homesickness is to call your mother on the phone or visit her directly. (CaptainYesterday note: a baby chick also does the trick.)

:monocle: I didn't even know this! I'm going to have to try this on my next playthrough!

I appreciate you or putting my stuff in there. Think you could give me credit for my parts though?

SwimmingSpider fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Jul 25, 2013

Adam Bowen
Jan 6, 2003

This post probably contains a Rickroll link!

CaptainYesterday posted:


[*]THAT Theory.
We all know which theory I'm talking about. THAT theory has been discussed to death whether you subscribe to it or not, and unless you have a really amazing insight into it, let's try not to bring it up.



I have no idea what you're talking about, and I've played the hell out of Earthbound. Care to explain?

Logic
Jan 8, 2009
I played it back in my childhood and loved it. When I seen it was available on the WiiU it was an instant purchase. I was afraid it would not hold up after all these years, but after a few hours of playing it I am back in love again. Great game and lets hope we see more great revivals.

CousinKevin
Oct 16, 2012

Ever since they worked on that project together, her life turned around and became more exciting.
The game asked me what my favorite food was, "quesadilla" didn't fit, neither did "chicken wings", so I wasn't able to continue past that screen :(

Edward Mass
Sep 14, 2011

𝅘𝅥𝅮 I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
Friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen
𝅘𝅥𝅮

Rhinoceraptor posted:

:monocle: I didn't even know this! I'm going to have to try this on my next playthrough!

I appreciate you or putting my stuff in there. Think you could give me credit for my parts though?

You are doubly welcome.

Adam Bowen posted:

I have no idea what you're talking about, and I've played the hell out of Earthbound. Care to explain?

Search 'Giygas theory'.

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Endorph
Jul 22, 2009

Adam Bowen posted:

I have no idea what you're talking about, and I've played the hell out of Earthbound. Care to explain?
I'm gonna guess it's the 'Giygas is meant to look like a fetus.' thing, and all spin-off theories based on that.

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