During an introspective moment, EarthBound

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EarthBound entertainingly wraps traditional RPG tropes in its 1990s setting. The party wields children’s toys like yo-yos, baseball bats, and toy guns to do battle against stray dogs, hippies, skateboarders and plenty of other foes. Rather than using a sparkling point on the ground or a plume of mystical blue light to save your game, Ness finds the nearest payphone to call his dad and record his progress. Money must be withdrawn from the nearest ATM, rather than retrieved from a stash. A number of references to the Beatles, the Blues Brothers, the Who, and plenty of others are dropped throughout, making Earthbound feel like a love letter to 20th-century Americana.

The dichotomy between the serious and the irreverent also carries over to gameplay. While full of bright, cutesy sprites and charming music, EarthBound makes no apologies for being a very traditional (read: difficult) Japanese RPG. It might actually be at its most challenging in the beginning, when Ness is alone and under-equipped. It becomes less brutal as the party grows, but never easy. Inventory space remains incredibly limited, grinding XP is virtually a must, Ness and his friends have frustratingly low combat accuracy, and dying can invoke a pretty steep monetary penalty. While I found the challenge rewarding, it runs the risk of sending newcomers running for the hills.

It'd be nice to at least have some visual stimulation while we're getting beat up on, but there's not much action. All you see is a still image of each enemy and spell effects against pretty psychedelic backgrounds. It isn’t the most exciting thing to watch, but thankfully each character is unique enough to keep decision-making interesting. There are refreshing deviations from RPG tropes, such as Paula's combination of powerful offensive spells with almost no healing ability whatsoever, and Poo's ability to mirror enemies and adopt their attacks. Even if there isn’t much visual feedback, maximizing the group’s abilities is a rewarding experience.

Despite its age, EarthBound introduces innovations that, even today, feel incredibly smart and unique. The party’s health, for example, is represented by scrolling number wheels. Rather than having hitpoints instantly deplete with each enemy attack, the character’s wheel slowly spins down until all the lost hit points have been deducted. So if a character is dealt a fatal blow, there is actually a small window to heal him before he dies – to stop the bleeding, as it were. Watching that wheel spin toward zero while frantically trying to cast a healing spell is nerve wracking, and it amplifies the sudden calm that comes each time the clock is beaten.

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And, in a departure from JRPG tradition, there are no random battles. Enemies are always visible on the map, so you won’t have to worry about triggering battles at a bad time (like on your way to heal). Better yet, if the group vastly overpowers an enemy, it'll run away in fear. If you catch it, you'll simply automatically win. This makes revisiting earlier areas an absolute breeze, free of pointless lopsided battles.

However, the ability to avoid battles is really just an illusion of choice, as dodging combat will leave you vastly under-leveled when it comes time to fight bosses. Also, enemies respawn at a punishing rate. I can't tell you how many times I cleared an area of enemies, only to have them all reappear when the area went slightly off-screen.

It's also a little surprising that the Virtual Console re-release doesn't smooth out some of EarthBound's technical hiccups. When more than two or three enemies are on the screen at once, things begin to stutter and slow down. I always know a large group of enemies is approaching because suddenly Ness is moving at half speed.

But kudos to Nintendo for putting up the entire Player's Guide text online, even if it's a little unfortunate that it isn't included in the actual game itself. It does look nice on the GamePad, but I found that suspending EarthBound and switching to the Wii U's Internet Browser took a little too long. I was better off pulling the guide up on my nearby tablet.