Date played: August 31st and September 1st
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10
I played a ton of Earthbound! The memories are flooding back to me as I play through the early portions of the game. I defeated the giant ant that was terrorizing Onett, which got the attention of the police. The pigs brought me in for questioning because I ignored a "no trespassing" sign... for fuck's sake. Then I fought the testosterone fuelled police officers. My victory opened up the road to Twoson.
Twoson is a quiet town. There's not much going on except for a preschool and the Runaway Five show. It all started with local residents asking for my help in finding Paula, the blonde girl who volunteers at the preschool. It seems she was kidnapped by a local cult, the Happy-Happy people. This led to a large battle area, filled with UFO's and robots. It's quite clear that this game asks for a little bit of grinding. Not much mind you, the level ups are strong enough that there is an immediate improvement in combat. I grinded a bit here because there were some enemies that would drain my magic points. Because I wasn't able to kill them in one shot, I ended up with no magic points and wouldn't be able to heal enough to survive. I was also slowed down by mushroom enemies that would leave a spore on Ness's head. That would screw up the controls like crazy until I found a healer.
After all that, I finally made it to Happy-Happy village. I quickly discovered that the local residents were under the cult leader's curse. That's where I cleared another dungeon (and grinded some more). I fought bears, ants and moles until fighting an enraged giant mole. I then infiltrated the cult's church, fought some delusional folks and knocked out their leader, which gave me the key to the hut where Paula was held.
Back in town, now with Paul in tow, we met the Runaway Five. This blues band owes so much money to the owner that they are pretty much stuck working for him for life. Since I rescued Paula, I also removed the blame from a local business man who paid us back with a wad of bills, which was used to pay off the band's debt. Why would we do that? Well, ghosts of course!
See, there are these ghosts that are haunting the tunnel to the next town, Threed. Regular buses can't get through, but the Runaway Five's blues pumping tour bus is so loud that it scared the ghosts away. Yep. Earthbound is fucking awesome. We are now in Threed, let's see what happens!
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10
I played a ton of Earthbound! The memories are flooding back to me as I play through the early portions of the game. I defeated the giant ant that was terrorizing Onett, which got the attention of the police. The pigs brought me in for questioning because I ignored a "no trespassing" sign... for fuck's sake. Then I fought the testosterone fuelled police officers. My victory opened up the road to Twoson.
Twoson is a quiet town. There's not much going on except for a preschool and the Runaway Five show. It all started with local residents asking for my help in finding Paula, the blonde girl who volunteers at the preschool. It seems she was kidnapped by a local cult, the Happy-Happy people. This led to a large battle area, filled with UFO's and robots. It's quite clear that this game asks for a little bit of grinding. Not much mind you, the level ups are strong enough that there is an immediate improvement in combat. I grinded a bit here because there were some enemies that would drain my magic points. Because I wasn't able to kill them in one shot, I ended up with no magic points and wouldn't be able to heal enough to survive. I was also slowed down by mushroom enemies that would leave a spore on Ness's head. That would screw up the controls like crazy until I found a healer.
After all that, I finally made it to Happy-Happy village. I quickly discovered that the local residents were under the cult leader's curse. That's where I cleared another dungeon (and grinded some more). I fought bears, ants and moles until fighting an enraged giant mole. I then infiltrated the cult's church, fought some delusional folks and knocked out their leader, which gave me the key to the hut where Paula was held.
 |
| Paula joins the crew! |
Back in town, now with Paul in tow, we met the Runaway Five. This blues band owes so much money to the owner that they are pretty much stuck working for him for life. Since I rescued Paula, I also removed the blame from a local business man who paid us back with a wad of bills, which was used to pay off the band's debt. Why would we do that? Well, ghosts of course!
See, there are these ghosts that are haunting the tunnel to the next town, Threed. Regular buses can't get through, but the Runaway Five's blues pumping tour bus is so loud that it scared the ghosts away. Yep. Earthbound is fucking awesome. We are now in Threed, let's see what happens!
