3.5/5 ★ – Zimtiki's review of EarthBound Beginnings.

This Japan Exclusive Famicom game, originally called “Mother” but later renamed “Earthbound Beginnings” for its extremely LATE U.S. release, is unlike any other RPG of its time. Rather than being based in a fantasy world, this game explores the life of a child in the American suburbs named Ninten, who, after being attacked by a LAMP in his room, discovers that the planet is under attack by aliens being led by a being named Giygas, with the power to corrupt people and inanimate objects into attacking innocent civilians. His only hope? Find his friends Ana and Lloyd and learn to use his telekinetic abilities passed down to him from his great grandfather, which will also lead him to discover why this invasion is happening in the first place… First things first, this game is OLD and has its problems because of this. To level up, you’ll need to fight countless enemies that you’ll randomly encounter along the way. These enemies consist of skunks, hippies, crows, and sometimes just floating eyeballs. Terrifying. The biggest problem with the game is the frequency of these encounters. Sometimes, you’ll encounter an enemy after EVERY STEP and these weak ass enemies can take like 20 seconds to kill and are genuinely zero threat and ONLY give you 2 xp, it feels like such a waste of time. Some of the later enemies though will DESTROY you and will CONSTANTLY appear in your path which can be super annoying. Luckily, the game knows when to stop throwing enemies at you in order to build moody scenes, and it’s really effective in this game. Despite my earlier gripes, this game absolute pushed RPGs in a new and interesting direction, reminding the developers that RPGs don’t have to take place in a FUCKING fantasy setting. For real, get that dragon ass shit out of here. These characters are human, and I genuinely feel for them. The story is simple but it sucks you in quick, and the ending is fun and interesting. This game is slightly frustrating, but it’s a good ass time. It’s crash to me how much better I found this game to be than A Link to the Past. It proves that sometimes, turn based combat in the better option for a game like this. Me likey teehee!