EarthBound (1994)
EarthBound is a 1994 role-playing (rpg) video game made by HAL Laboratory and Ape.
Ness wakes to a meteor crash near his suburban home and sets off across a country that looks a lot like small-town America, complete with cults, con artists, and talking road signs. This turn-based RPG sends four kids after Giygas, a cosmic horror curdling the friendly world around them. The battles stay conventional; the writing does not. Its towns run on deadpan comedy, its enemies range from angry taxis to piles of goo, and its tone slides from goofy to genuinely frightening. Coming-of-age dread hides under the bright colors, which is why people never quite forget it.
Quick answers
What is EarthBound about?
Ness wakes to a meteor crash near his suburban home and sets off across a country that looks a lot like small-town America, complete with cults, con artists, and talking road signs. This turn-based RPG sends four kids after Giygas, a cosmic horror curdling the friendly world around them. The battles stay conventional; the writing does not. Its towns run on deadpan comedy, its enemies range from angry taxis to piles of goo, and its tone slides from goofy to genuinely frightening. Coming-of-age dread hides under the bright colors, which is why people never quite forget it.
When was EarthBound released?
EarthBound was released on 27 August 1994.
Who made EarthBound?
EarthBound was made by HAL Laboratory, Ape and Nintendo.
Similar games
Explore EarthBound guides
EarthBound in our writing
- Companion guide: JRPGs: The Complete Guide to the Japanese Role-Playing Game
A few thoughts on EarthBound
Anyone charmed by its warped small-town America should try Undertale, an indie RPG built in Earthbound's image, where mercy matters as much as damage. Twin Peaks shares the trick of hiding cosmic evil beneath a friendly surface, and Stranger Things sends ordinary kids against a threat far larger than they are.
Sleepy American towns hiding something cosmic underneath
EarthBound sends Ness from a cul-de-sac chase after a meteor into a fight against a cosmic horror curdling the world's cheerful surface. Stranger Things and Twin Peaks work the same trick, dressing small-town America in bike rides and diners before something ancient breaks through, Supernatural sends brothers hunting that same rot down back roads, and American Beauty's score hums under every manicured lawn.
Kids' adventures that turn genuinely dark up close
EarthBound wraps coming-of-age dread in cartoon colors, sending four kids across a friendly country that keeps turning threatening. Lord of the Flies and The Outsiders strip away the safety net, letting children face cruelty with no adult to soften it, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas lets a child wander toward horror he cannot name, and Flowers in the Attic locks its kids inside danger of their own family's making.
Teens who get powers just as a cosmic threat arrives
EarthBound turns four ordinary kids into the only line of defense against Giygas, a horror curdling the world from somewhere beyond it. Sailor Moon and My Hero Academia hand their teenagers powers just when a cosmic threat needs fighting, Avatar: The Last Airbender sends a reluctant kid across a world to face down the same scale of danger, and Inuyasha pulls its heroine into a feudal world under demonic siege.