Game Players’ EarthBound Review

I dont like this guy who wrote the review. The game doesn’t feel rushed, that review does.

Not a very good review but what do we expect?

I’ve always taken most revies of any game, good or bad, with a grain of salt. You’re pretty much deciding whether or not to buy a game based on one total stranger’s opinion.

“How many times can you play a game this big and slow?”

..If I told him how many times I played EarthBound to completion last year alone, I’d blow his mind.

I don’t think older people would get bored of earthbound quickly , but I do believe this game is a much better experience as a kid and not as an older guy , mainly due to it’s randomness factor and the surprising ending of the game.

I really feel baffled by how many contemporary reviews of EarthBound accuse the graphics of looking like an NES game.

It reminds me of when the first screenshots of Wind Waker came out in 2001 and people were saying “OMG THESE GRAPHICS ARE SUX THIS LOOKS LIKE A SUPER NES GAME”.

I guess the “good graphics = realistic graphics” fallacy is nothing new after all.

$59.99?

i bought it new in 1997 for $15

Considering the era of the N64 had begun by the time you bought it, I would hope so.

“Even though the game is huge, it moves along quickly”

“How many times can you play a game this big and slow?”

He first says that it moves along quickly, then he says it is slow. Sounds like when you’re writing a paper at 5am in the morning and your conclusion is completely different from your thesis.

I also always wondered why gaming magazines focused on the size (megs) of the game, and why some super nintendo games had a small picture like “12 MEG” on the front of the cartridge.

One thing’s been bothering me with these reviews: they say EB looks little better than an 8-bit game. Have they even played both systems, man? I mean, Mother and Earthbound/M2 look so different…
That and I’ve never seen EB as a “kiddie” game. Methinks they didn’t get around the ending. Enough to scar a kid for life, the ending can be. :>

I remember this review and the reply Bill [douchecookie and a half] gave a few months later after somebody questioned the 69% score it got.. this was actually how I was first introduced to my medicine known as EB and a few weeks later my neighbour decided to trade me EB for I think it was 2 Spiderman Comics and SM All Stars + SMW, fair trade if you ask me.. but next tim I go back to my ma’s I’ll check and see if I still have these in the basement and I’ll send some scans in if I have em.

You can’t save at anytime…

This review has SO many errors. @_@

Ugh I hate the “it’s too kiddie” argument, “there isn’t a man bleeding to death in this game? How childish!” And whats up with reviewers comparing EB to Dragon Warrior like always? RPGs aren’t games you can just play 10mins for and the write a review of. You have to play them fully to see all the good and bad parts. Oh well…at least this guy got past onett.

I bet that people who say those bad things about EarthBound have never even played it, but i’m not talking about the reviewers. They just judge the game by its graphics.

Fair review in my opinion. Although he did contradict his own statements, it looks like he tried his best to write an unbiased review. Huzzah for a decent review.

And this also made me think why a Mr. Saturn is in Happy-go-blue-blueville.

I guess the “good graphics = realistic graphics” fallacy is nothing new after all.

SuperTrainStationH nails it.

That fallacy has been around since Pong, when it was absurd, and will be around as long as there are people who don’t grasp the concept of style.

Another review that looks like he got only a few hours into the game. Notice how he focuses on the Happy Happists as the enemies in the game. No mention of anything past that point, like Belch or Mr. Saturn. What a retard.

Who. cares. about. graphics.
Seriously, it’s like this guy was loaded on coffee when he said the game was fast and then crashed and forgot everything about the game. “it’s big and slow”
Well of course it’s big! It’s an RPG. Ever played super mario RPG? That game takes like 30 hours to complete, and that’s not even counting the motherload of extras in that game.

And he probably muted it so he can’t listen to the awesome soundtrack.

Wait, Earthbound *doesn’t* contain a man who’s bleeding to death? I kind of had the impression that was what was happening with Everdred in Fourside.

That said, yeah, the “kiddie” argument is lame and has always been lame. I remember Yoshi’s Island getting bagged the same way, and I completely bought into it at first. Then I played the demo at an EB and changed my tune pretty quickly.

Reviews are much different today than they were back in 1995. Although these days it is not too uncommon for major magazines to get demos upon demos of games about to be released and at least one reviewer has played through the entire game upon release, back when Earthbound was released this was not the case. Don’t forget to look closely at the picture… this is a 1 PAGE REVIEW.

The editor was probably approached with something along the lines of “So there’s this new game Earthbound, go ahead and take the copy and write a one page review for our reviews section.” You can’t expect the reviewer to take the time to play through a game as massive as Earthbound to write a one page review on top of his other responsibilities. He played through the game until he got a generally good feel of how it was played, and then wrote the review.

As for the comments about the graphics, you have to put yourself in the time. While nowadays the advancement of games is generally just making things shinier and smoother, in 1995 they were pushing the envelope, gamers were seeing really cool action sequences in games, and were drooling at the mouth for the 3d systems set to be released in a matter of months. When Earthbound came out, you had a simple art style where the only thing that moves on screen at any given time were the expressionless people, aside from objects like cars that moved without the wheels moving, and a battle sequence where you were using and interface not much updated from the 8-bit era where you are fighting a picture of an enemy (except for the background, which the author commends).

Although there are errors in this article, it is definitely the best article relative to the others, and gives an insight to what many gamers were saying about Earthbound back then, and why it was turned down by most gamers.

No deaths? He obviously never got up to Everdread’s final word…

Why not feature some Japanese magazines’ reviews of EarthBound if you can find any? It might be interesting…

I probably have an Earthbound Review in an old Nintendo Power. I have every issue since StarTropics (Issue 20). I’ll have to look it up next time I go home.

Here in Mexico we never had a review of Earthbound (besides of the gamepro one translated) but the game managed to appear in the bests sold games section (for about three months) of our official Nintendo magazine, strange thing since I never saw a copy at retail till the N64 era.

I noticed that once again the pictures they have are the from the Beta translation.
look at picture 5 and you can tell, The Happy Happy…….person still has the HH on his hat and dosent have the puff at the end of his hat. ^_^ I feel proud of myself for seeing that

Flint, do you mean “Club Nintendo”?

They were playing the beta version! The cultists have HH on them without the puff ball!

You can save at any time! Realy!? Wow! We have seen this before? So I have played an RPG battling hippies and piles of Puke! Wow! A slow and fast game? Older gamers won’t like it?…………….Wait a second this wasn’t published on April Fools day? Hold on a second…..(calls 991 and tells them to check on “Jeff’s” brain)……OK I’m back.

This review stinks.

i can imagine the scenario now “What only $50? fine expect a bad review”…idiots, if only they actally played the game

“there isn’t a man bleeding to death in this game? How childish!”
Did they forget about Everdred?
…

Well, he doesn’t actually BLEED in the game, but it does seem like he’s dying. I guess this shows how desensitized society has become.

“OMG! The game doesn’t have violent images and situations! It must be really bad!”

Club Nintendo probably did a review for Earthbound. In later magazines of CN they say it’s a very good game, so their review must be better.

The guy who wrote this review was Jeff Lundrigan, who was GP’s RPG guy. I really enjoyed his reviews when I was a kid. He was hilarious when he started tearing into a bad game.

I remember he generally preferred games with darker stories and such. Earthbound is admittedly a love it or hate it kind of game.

Woot! I loved Game Player’s mag, they were so fucking hyusterical

Ahaha, very randomly, I wrote a reply to this review in 1995 and they published it in the Christmas issue. I used questionable Lisa Frank stationary because that’s all I had in the house and Bill ribbed me about it. I have a scan if anyone’d like it, but it’s not so important. XD

Yeah, if you can get a scan of it, definitely send it in. I love this sort of stuff!

Mato – I got a scan, I’ll send it in. XD It’s a bit of a nostalgia trip, if nothing else.

He probably never got to Everdread’s last words let alone giygas.