Earthbound

Hey guys,
Most of you remember my CPHistories, I’m sure. Yes, I am never going to write another CPHistory again, nor post a post about CP again, but every now and then I will write a post like the CPHistories. This is one of them.

The year in 1995. The rivalry between SEGA and Nintendo is starting to end, after SEGA crapped up the market with the Genesis/Mega Drive CD Drive (With such fondly remembered games such as “Night Trap” and “Marky Mark: Make My Video”) and the 32X (With absolutely no reason to buy it). Nintendo and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System were winning, after a major blow to SEGA with Donkey Kong Country.

In 1989, Nintendo created an RPG game for the NES (Famicom in Japan) called “Mother”. It featured a psi boy named Ninten who had to save the world from a evil being called Giygas. It sold 400,000 copies in Japan, and to this day is considered one of the best NES  titles.

But this post isn’t about Mother. It’s about Mother 2. Nintendo made a sequel (Not a direct sequel, considering how Ninten and Ness look exactly alike)  for the Super Nintendo. (SNES, Super Famicom, call it whatever you want) However, Mother 2 was released in the U.S, under the name Earthbound. Nintendo advertised for Earthbound crazily. They had T.V. ads, A large box that it came it, a strategy guide, and more.

But not to dwell on the advertising campaign. Earthbound was a great game. It was what one could call a parody of the U.S. and life in it. It had pop culture references in it. It was also, however, a great RPG (Role-Playing Game). It was a bit of a parody of RPG’s, but that could just seem that way because it was so different to the games of that genre at the time (Your weapon=sword. No exceptions) Instead, you played as 4 kids. Ness, the main character (Who is also a Smash fighter, I’ll talk about that later), Paula, Jeff and Poo all mainly fight with psi moves. The only exception is Jeff, who has no abilities and uses high tech weapons and stuff. Bottom line, the game is great (At least it seemed that way in the 10 minutes I played at a friend’s house )

The final boss battle was also phenomenal. Giygas, the final boss, is possibly the most frightening final boss ever (BTW, does anyone know how to pronounce Giygas?). Ganondorf and Bowser can’t even compete (Giygas never raced carts with Ness….) The designer of Earthbound, Shigesato Itoi, said that the Giygas boss battle is based on a traumatizing experience he had when he young …somehow….. The Giygas battle was so great, yet scary, Giygas was not included in Mother 3, because he was deemed “Too frightening for a younger audience” (Note that Giygas looked like Mewtwo in Mother).

However, in the U.S., Earthbound did not sell well. It’s mainly thought that it’s sales were due to its graphics, which were not great for the era in which 3-D games were rising already (It would be less than a year until Super Mario 64 was released, proving that 2-D games were dead on home consoles.). But Earthbound did not die. Like most great things that fail, it became a cult classic.

A sequel was planned for the N64 under the name “Earthbound 64″, but the game was never released. However, a sequel was made. “Mother 3″ was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006…….In Japan only, despite all the people who wanted it in the U.S. The game, however, did not star Ness or his evil twin Ninten, it starred a kid named Lucas.

And Ness survived also. How? Easy. Time for me to once again release my inner Super Smash Bros fanboy. For those of you who don’t know what SSB is, its a series where Nintendo characters pretty much duke it out. It’s totally awesome. And in the original N64 game (Called Super Smash Bros.), Ness was included as a hidden character. If he hadn’t been included in the first, he might not have been in the series, and there would be less demand for Earthbound on VC. Thus, Ness still had a name in Nintendo, unlike Earthbound……
(Note that Lucas appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
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…..Until recently. In 2006, Nintendo released their 7th Generation console, the Wii. I feel no need to talk about how awesome the Wii is, as most people already know. I’ll just say that along with added motion sensitivity to games and many other things, Nintendo added something called the “Virtual Console” There, you can buy Wii Points and download older games, generally from Nintendo Consoles. It is one of the most genius moves ever by Nintendo. Finally, I don’t have to hunt for months to try and find that N64 game I really want! I can but SNES games without buying an SNES on eBay!!!!!!

Except for one thing. The Virtual Console isn’t perfect. Sure, it’s nice to be able to download games from other systems not made by Nintendo. But Nintendo has gotten to carried away with it. We still lack some great Nintendo system titles, while we have loads of crap from other systems. It’s missing tons of great games like Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Super Smash Bros., Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario All-Stars……

…but most of all, Earthbound. The game was first in a “Most Wanted On Virtual Console” survey by Nintendo Power, followed by Mother in 2nd. And yet...it’s still not on there, despite all the demand. Perhaps, just perhaps, Nintendo is saving this for the holidays, then they will release it the Monday after I publish it, and I’ll look like an idiot. There is also word that a DS game with all 3 will be released. Although it would be great, Nintendo is going to need Mother 3 on the DS Virtual Console if they want to make the DSi a success, and thus I would rather have Earthbound on the VC

So get with the picture Nintendo!! Stop giving us Genesis/Mega Drive games no one cares about!! It’s considered that the PS1 was released at the perfect time to swoop up all the SEGA fans, so in other words, there aren’t many hard core SEGA fans who will want to take a trip down memory lane on the VC!! No one even knows what a NEO GEO is, yet there are more games for the NEO GEO than the N64!!! Every week, my trip to the Wii Shop channel ends up with me laughing at how stupid that week’s game edition is!!
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However, there is hope for Earthbound. It was rated “E” by the ESRB with it’s platform as “Wii” All we can do is hope……….
~Guinea