Day 311, Game 311 - EarthBound

I know I've talked about it before, but sometimes, I just want to be apart of the conversation, whatever the conversation is regarding video games. I may not have a lot of interest in whatever topic or game is being talked about, but I still like to know the ins and outs, the details and the points/counterpoints of the conversation. 

I live my life like this on a daily basis, not just in regards to video games. I'm an information sponge, and want to know all I can about whatever I can. Sure, sometimes I feel like I absorb too much information, but that's just the nature of the beast. I blame my journalistic background, although one could argue that my natural inquisitive thirst for knowledge led me to journalism in the first place. 

Tomatoes, tomatoes, I say. 

Anyway, EarthBound is one of those games I have always heard of, but never knew anything about. When playing Smash Bros, I seemed to figure out that Ness (and later Lucas, also) was from the EarthBound series,but that's as far as my knowledge took me. I didn't get the moves, the level  based around the game, or anything about anything, really. But I knew of it, and that's all that mattered. Because EarthBound is incredibly hard to find in it's original SNES form these days, and I never had the chance to play it as a kid, my desire to know anything about the game never turned into anything more. Why care about something or invest time into researching something that meant nothing to me? No one was talking about the game, other than hopeful fans clamoring for it's US re-release on a Virtual Console, so without a discussion to be apart of, I had no business worrying about it.

That is, until Nintendo shockingly and unexpectedly announced that they would be releasing EarthBound on the Virtual Console for the Wii U. And naturally, the Internet blew up. Finally, after an eternity of waiting, fans would be getting a true version of the game they probably missed out on in the first place. And because the Internet blew up, I had to know exactly what all the commotion was all about. 

So when the game was released, I downloaded it immediately. It was only ten bucks, but according to the Internet, it was well worth the money for one of the most highly regarded and almost unanimously best RPG games for the Super Nintendo, ever. After I downloaded it, there it say. Because in all honesty, RPGs are not my cup of tea, especially in this crazy year of gaming. My game time is at a premium, and being able to invest serious time into an RPG - despite how good it is - just isn't something I could conceivably do. Especially for such an old game. You know, the new hotness in video games always seems to take precedent in time investment, for me. 

Well, I finally got around to playing it, mainly because I wanted to make absolutely sure I got it into this year of gaming blog, because of the crazy whirlwind of conversation the release of this game caused. And while I enjoyed what I played, I just didn't get far enough into it to see all the charm that supposedly makes this game amazing. Sure, the writing was great, and how they set up the whole game and storyline was fantastic, but I just didn't sink enough time into EarthBound to fully gauge how much I will eventually like this game. 

So far, it's okay as it sounds now, and I would like to eventually get through it. I know I've said that many times before over the course of this year, but I really would like to. I want to experience the admiration the Internet seems to have for this game in the same light. Thankfully, now I can. I can finally be apart of the conversation. It's just a matter of doing it of course. 

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