SNES Review: EarthBound

Review by: Pierst179
Edited by: Pikaboo

Earthbound is an RPG where you take control of a normal boy that suddenly becomes a hero, the chosen one. It all happens when a meteor crashes into the peaceful town of Onett in the middle of a scary night and he decides to explore. And is here in the beginning of the game that you start to realize that you are not playing an average RPG.

As you advance to check out what has happened, with one of your friends, the music gets creeper, when you get to the top of the mountain a strange bee comes out of it, and tells you that in the future, 10 years later, Earth had been transformed and dominated by aliens and that he is not a bee he is actually human!!



An intelligent storyline that keeps EarthBound away from any game. The battle system is turn-based, and while battles happen you will get strange information about what your friends are doing and how they are reacting to the battle, which is really funny as they can cry or pass out. The battles, as expected from a turn based RPG, can be really slow paced because everything you do the information appears written on the screen, so it takes quite a while for a single turn to end, but if you are fed up with the slow pace you can press AutoFight and battle will just happen. The most interesting and innovative aspect of the battles is that your HP or Health doesn't just go down automatically. It uses a "rolling counter", a feature where your HP rolls down however you can still continue your turn while it is rolling down. Because of this, if you're fast enough you can heal before your HP hits zero, thus saving your life. However, because of this, this makes the game much easier, a double-edged sword. During the battles you will be able to equip lots of different items and use many Psychic powers.

But the game isn't all about battles, there is also lots of exploration on Eagle Land, you will need to communicate a lot to discover what to do next or where is the problem. While speaking to the characters, which are magnificent and full of personality, you will see some lines that are just the funniest things ever.



Graphically the game is just great, there are many different scenarios to go through, and you will always be amazed by the huge and colorful view, it doesn't matter where you are. The best thing about the visuals is that it gives the game its own style.

Sound is just great, all songs are awesome and could easily make it to the top of any hit parade. During battles an alien-like song will be played, and the game is filled with electronic sounds that give you the feel that we are being struck by aliens.

Replay value is something that this game would have a lot if it wasn't for its long battles, when you finish it you will think about doing it again, but I believe you are going to be a little bored just to think of defeating all those bad guys again.

Earthbound is one of the best RPGs ever, its humor, its creepiness, everything is just awesome, and while some SNES game struggle to keep in shape and up to date EarthBound manages to still be looking good after such a long time. A timeless game.

SNES Review: Super Metroid

Review by: Pierst179

Super Metroid was released when the SNES was already fading, and most people were already wondering how would the next-gen consoles and their 3-D graphics look like, still it turned to be one of the most remarkable games ever, how did the game managed to do that? Read below.

Samus' SNES adventure picks up exactly where Metroid II left of, after defeating all Metroids that lived in SR-388, a baby Metroid followed her, instead of terminating him and consequently all Metroids forever, she decided to take him to a Galactic Federation lab so that scientists could do different researches on Metroids.



While looking for a new bounty she picks up a distress signal coming from Ceres, the place where the baby Metroid was being kept, after heading to Ceres she discovers that a Space Pirate attack had taken place there, when she walked into the room where the baby Metroid was supposed to be she finds out that Ridley is there, after a battle the Metroid is taken by him.

So now our favorite Bounty Hunter has to rescue the Metroid to stop the Pirates from using him. Super Metroid works basically in the same way as Metroid, even the planet to be explored is the same.

During the game you will have to search for updates for your suit while exploring the place, while playing you will have to do loads of backtracking in order to find the missing upgrades, sometimes you can even go through a long path until you get to a dead end where you discovered you missed an item.

Inside this big puzzle you will find many others, such as Morph Ball mazes, hidden passages and enemies that are not so easy to be defeated. The boss battles are really straightforward and simple, yet some of them are pretty tough.

That's how the game works, the whole planet itself is a huge puzzle that has got to be figured out little by little, patience is required and if you have got it you will be rewarded with an unique experience.

Sometimes the adventure can get a little bit frustrating because it doesn't matter if you killed every single enemy in a room, when you go back there they will be all still alive.



The graphics are great, unfortunately they can't be compared to some of the games that were released less than one year later, still Super Metroid has a great variety of scenarios that are very compelling and interesting, the textures look good and all enemies, especially the bosses look really outstanding. Light effects are also very nice, during more intense battle you will see lots of explosions and they look good.

The sound is really immersive, some themes are really catchy, and you should not be surprised when you start humming some of them while walking on the street. The sound effects are pretty good, I oftenly use Samus' plasma beam just to hear that sound.

The game itself isn't too long, but there are so many things to collect that I'msure yo will be spending a lot of time just wandering around looking for a door that hasn't been open, or for a hidden path to a secret room that may contain a Missile Expansion, or some more Power Bombs.



The replay value therefore is very high, playing this game is enjoyable and fun, despite some minor flaws like irresponsive controls while performing some moves and the fact that as you advance the game gets easier instead of harder, because by the time you get to the end you can have so many energy tanks and such a powerful suit that enemies will slightly damage you.

Super Metroid is an unique game, it is the installment of the series that determined the style for the three Prime games that would keep the series going.