October 1st, 2011 | EarthBound, Fan Games

A fan by the name of The Author has created a new EarthBound hack called “The Rat Race”. Here’s a snippet of the description:

This game, which you might think of as EarthBound for girls, is a project that took several years and a lot of work with JHack and Hex Workshop to complete. Most of what I’ve changed is character names and the text, although I’ve also thrown in a few changes in the graphics I hope you’ll find to your liking. There is no “adult” content in this game unless you count a few items I’ve de-censored from Mother 2 that might get a mention on an Internet Movie Data Base parental guide but wouldn’t earn any movie so much as a PG rating (i.e. references to dating, death, and drugs).

This was originally a birthday gift for a young relative of mine who is about the same age as the protagonist and even looks a bit like her. While the game story will likely seem rather familiar from EarthBound, I’ve added several twists and put my own spin on things as you’ll see when you play it. While Shigesato Itoi’s affectionate parody of America ca. 1995 has aged remarkably well in the past 16 years, there’s always been room to augment and improve upon some of the story’s themes.