Why EarthBound is the Best Video Game

There are a lot of games that fizzle out over time - EarthBound is not one of them. It may not be perfect, but it has an unmistakable spirit.

[InTheZoneAC]

No such thing as best game, just best in genre, but again it's subjective.

[nitus10]

I have played Earthbound and found it to be unusual as far as RPG's go.

To those that liked the game "great", but I found it to be boring preferring SNES games like Final Fantasy 6 (that 3 for those in the US), Secret of Mana, Zelda a Link to the Past etc. Need I go on?

[narsaku]

Oh yea there is. A bar is set game after game after game generation over generation. There is a math to what games are better than the next.

Put it this way, you can personally think a game is better than another because the protagonist gf looks like a crush you had in school, but it doesn't mean it's now magically good. You see, that's an opinion.

But, when the overwhelming majority of people across the world all agree that a certain game is better than the rest for several reasons that can all be weighed against the rest of the industry, just to come out obviously on top. Then yes, you can say that's the best game.

Even if you disagree, and don't like a game for some personal reason, you should still be able to look at it, "if you have enough experience under your belt", and say, "I see why that's considered the best game ever made."

Even though that list is pretty hard to debate as there's a good 10 games that are so far beyond anything else you see in the industry they all kinda trade blows at the top of the mountain.

[DanteVFenris666]

There's no bar set generation after generation. A fun game is timeless.

A link to the past > uncharted 4. Despite the graphics. But this is subjective. There's no like objective best game ever. Neither is there 10 perfect games like that that battle.

[InTheZoneAC]

Don't overthink it bud, earthbound isn't the best game

[Gh05t]

"But, when the overwhelming majority of people across the world all agree that a certain game is better than the rest for several reasons that can all be weighed against the rest of the industry, just to come out obviously on top. Then yes, you can say that's the best game. "

Because majority is always the best, most objective, least biased way to do things... The majority has never been wrong ever, and as long as everyone in the majority agrees it doesn't matter what anyone else does, right?

[New_Age_Retro_Hippie]

yes it is

[dillydadally]

To be honest, I have always been a huge RPG fan, especially back in the 8 or 16-bit days, but I've never gotten the love for this game. If you take out the humor and setting, the game is as bland as RPGs come. Without the humor and setting, it's like an RPG maker game. I tried to play the game a couple times, but never got far because the humor wasn't my cup of tea and the rest of the game was a drag - tons of random battles with a generic, largely featureless battle system.

[New_Age_Retro_Hippie]

I was actually writing a long response to this, but I lost the text and now I'm too sad to try again. SO I'll just say that EarthBound actually had a pretty robust and innovative handling of "random battles," where enemies are all visible on screen and can be avoided as needed. Chrono Trigger does this too, but it's more set piece. Almost every encounter is in the same place, and unlike EB, there are unavoidable encounters. You also cannot sneak up or get sneaked up on by enemies like you can in EarthBound. EarthBound also lets you avoid weak enemies by making it so that if an enemy is too weak, it will not only flee from you, but it will be instantly killed when the battle starts. You still get the bonuses, you just don't waste the time. Also, while EarthBound may not be the most innovative thing battle-wise, it has unique means by which for every character to fight. Ness and Paula use various magics that do damage based on positioning (ie PK Fire hits all enemies standing next to each other, PK Freeze is a single-shot, and PK Thunder hits enemies at random), Jeff can use various debuffing tools (among other things), etc. EarthBound being as simple as it seems is owed too to its accessible game desijgn, where players can more easily get into it without taking advantage of the more complex stuff. It's a very "Nintendo" design.

Also, the most interesting thing EB did was rolling HP - ie, where an enemy could hit you for fatal damage, but because your HP has to count down, you have time to kill the enemy before you die or manage to heal and save yourself.

[shockwave4life]

Better then Ocarina of Time? A link to the past? Super Metroid? Final fantasy 7? Super Mario bros 3?......I don't think so Earthbound isaint even in the Top 10 of SNES games!! Earthbound is weird and honestly kind of garbage

[New_Age_Retro_Hippie]

I actually changed the title because it was originally depicted as my favorite game, but I wasn't sure if "my" is acceptable in titles. So it's not intended to be considered better than any of those objectively.

Though I definitely prefer them. Ocarina of Time is actually not a top 10 Zelda for me personally either - not because OoT is bad, just because the lot of the series is so good.

[New_Age_Retro_Hippie]

How so? Ocarina of Time is a very good game, but there ARE other great Zelda games, you realize. That said, a person not having a certain popular game as one of their favorite games is not, and certainly should not, be what determines a person's credibility. I would argue that putting your stock of someone into whether they like the games that you like is in and of itself a show of poor credibility.

Consider views beyond your own.

[DanteVFenris666]

No it's definitely in the top 10 ness games at least most people I think would put it at least up there

[-Foxtrot]

Whatever you think of the game the fact they haven't continued this series just shows how out of touch Nintendo are.

[New_Age_Retro_Hippie]

I don't entirely agree. On one hand they certainly bungled the series with localization; on the other hand, I'm wary of a Mother 4 that isn't made by Itoi. It just isn't the same without him.

[rpgenius420]

Can't wait to play it on my mini snes!

[RosweeSon]

Super Nintendo was the Shiii.
This, Super Mario World (basically Mario Bros 3 but even better if that was possible) Super Mario Kart Zelda Link to the Past, Street Fighter 2, Donkey Kong Country 1/2/3, Super Metroid most started elsewhere but this console truly lived up to its name of Super so many classics and that's before all the RPGS that many loved like secret of mana etc, Unirally was also a winner ;) F-Zero was great but hard as concrete same with Pilotwings, I preferred the N64 versions of those games but wow SNES was amazing.
So many timeless classics even now, Xbox one X honestly any timeless classics? Even now 4 years after launch, I'd struggle to find one that will last even half as long as these games have and will continue to do.