July 15, 2011 5:00 AM | Danny Cowan

Depending on who you talk to, Nintendo's EarthBound is either an above-average 16-bit RPG or the greatest video game that will ever exist. A recent discovery at fansite EarthBound Central supports the latter theory.

In EarthBound, players can store and retrieve inventory items via the Escargo Express service, which summons an in-game delivery man character. What EarthBound Central discovered is that the delivery man actually has a dedicated pathfinding routine tracing him to the player's location, which accounts for physical obstacles and avoids any movement that would be impossible for the player to duplicate.

So committed were EarthBound's creators to the cause of making the Escargo delivery man a believable part of the game world that they coded special dialog in the case that he would be unable to reach the player by normal means. It's unlikely (though very possible) to occur during regular gameplay, but as EB Central demonstrates in a hacked ROM, the situation is addressed in a unique way.

[via @frankcifaldi]