GAC #2:Mother series Part 2/Earthbound

WHERE WE LAST LEFT OFF: Mother 1 is ok, but kinda washed out.
NOW, PART 2.

After Mother 1, a sequel was inevitable,so Nintendo released Mother 2, which would become Earthbound in the US. Earthbound, though a commercial flop at the time of its release, went on to gain a massive cult following.

The game half-picks up from Mother 1. The alien that was beaten by Ninten in the first game somehow comes back to Earth, and a new boy named Ness and 3 others are meant to defeat him once and for all.

Before I begin, I will say that this review may contain slight spoilers. Anyone who does not want to be spoiled please cease reading this at this point.

So,the first thing you'll notice in the game, is that the battles are no longer random-enemies walk around like NPCs. The only difference between NPCs and enemies is when you make contact with an enemy, the screen shows a swirl depending on how the enemy and your character made contact (this can give you or the enemy a surprise attack).

And speaking of enemies, this game takes the award for some of the most ODDBALL enemies to be featured in a game. Depending on where you are, you get attacked by either the local wildlife, crazed hippies and cultists( I kid you not), zombies, corrupt politicians (I still kid you not), beach bullies(still not kidding),mummies, the legendary Kraken, a giant vomit pile(Am I kidding? Nope), and aliens until you finally get to the final showdown.

Mother's battle system was essentially a blatant ripoff of Dragon Warrior/Quest at the time. In this game, they took it in a seperate direction. There are 4 main characters, each with their own set of skills and a unique skill to each of them. Ness takes the role of "brute force attack" and learns one of, if not the strongest set of PSI in the game, named after what you call your "coolest thing". Paula is the game's "mage", having access to lots of Offensive and defensive PSI, as well as a Pray command which causes random effects to occur (and comes in handy during the final battle). Jeff is the "item user",because while he has no PSI, he can create items out of broken parts while in hotels (you heard that right, hotels), and use them as powerful attack items. Poo is interesting because he vanishes for some of the game,but comes back with an intense attack called "Starstorm" which can hold one over until getting the Omega version of the Favorite spell.



As for out of battle PSI, the telepathy has been combined into the talk command, and a new command, Teleport, takes its place. Teleport is very useful because you can warp to almost any place in the game (barring certain exceptions),as long as you have a running start.

Earthbound took what Mother had and created a game experience that became celebrated for years. But, sadly, it would take until 2006, and the GBA's twilight until Nintendo would release what would seem to be the last link in the Mother Series...

NEXT:MOTHER SERIES PART 3:MOTHER 3!