Yay, um... my third Review! And my second Comparison! I love Comparisons for some reason. Here are two good RPGs for the Super Nintendo and also made by Nintendo, almost. Well, Earthbound was worked out by APE and Super Mario RPG by Squaresoft. I know I haven't played Final Fantasy, which is that series everyone I know rants and raves about its excellence. I really want to bet that these games are better. I'll be MAD if Final Fantasy 7 and later turn out to be better. So on with the Review.
The score is on a basis of um... 16, for the system Super Nintendo or something. Nah, I'll make it easy and do 10. Got it? The top score is 10.
Storyline:
EarthBound: 10
Super Mario RPG: 8
BEWARE! Unlike Lemmy, I might be a bit more spoily on storyline. Both games did pretty well in my opinion. I'll start with Super Mario RPG. Mario is going to Bowser's castle to rescue Peach (typical) when suddenly, a GIANT SWORD comes out of nowhere (not so typical) and crashes into the Keep and scatters the seven Stars! I made it sound more ludacrist that it really is, but as it turns out, this machine gang of Smithy has put the sword Exor into the Keep so that they can have a headquarters and conquer Plit. Anyhow, they complicate things with party members, causing Mario to go on unrelated and intertwined quests. Really in-depth. Not bad, but I think EB did better.
EB, like Lemmy said, is so very unique. In the 1990s, some alien force or entity named Giygas is causing Ness' universe to go "bye bye". It all starts one night when Ness is awoken by a fallen alien meteorite. He meets someone who tells him of a prophecy that three boys and a girl will somehow unite and save the universe. Ness first has to gather power from eight spots called "Your Sanctuaries" and then explore his mind for something like the true meaning of power, and then travel ten years into the past as robots to confront Giygas! I know what I said probably doesn't make incredible sense, but EarthBound has even more inlaid unique twists to it than Super Mario RPG had limits on. For example, um... Yeah, I'll spoil it. Someone on your team calls for help at the final battle with the evil entity Giygas, and previously in the game, it asked the name of the video game player, so let's say my actual name is Lisa (it isn't since I'm a guy; if you really want to know, you could Email me), it is like "*i*a prayed for the safety of Ness and his friends. Giygas takes 11,234 damage!!! L*sa prayed for the safety of Ness and his friends. Giygas takes 20,9351 damage!!! Giygas was defeated!!!" That probably was not an exact quote, but get my point? REALLY unique!
Characters:
EarthBound: 10
Super Mario RPG: 10
YAY! Everyone did awesome here! They had great variety. I don't know if I can really fit it all without being too detailed, but I'll try. This section will be easier to read. You'll know what I mean right...now! *dramatic index finger point*
Starting with SMRPG:
Mario: The hero! YAY! He can jump! He's famous! He's the strongest when he jumps on enemies in battle or uses his fireballs! What can't he do? He can't talk! GRRRR!!! But sign language is funny! Defeat an army of intelligent rebelious robots? He sure can!
Mallow: The citizen from Tadpole Pond, "who doesn't at all look like a frog" (actual quote I think), joins Mario before anyone else. He is a cloud thingy from the sky that can use lightning, and he's a good healer early in the game, but also powerful when attacking multiple enemies, although second weakest physically. He joins when you get his coin back from a thief, and stays because if he's not a frog, he wonders where he comes from (which is already spoiled right now).
Geno: A Star Haven protector in the guise of someone's wooden doll (sounds like a reference to Pinocchio), he is defensively weak, but he's fast, has good melee bullets, and is a real powerhouse with Flower Points when he summons heavenly blasts of energy. HEAL HIM AT ALL COSTS!!! He joins because the Seven Stars scattered and they are needed or wishes will never come true. LIKE I EVER HAD A WISH GRANTED!!! GRRRRRR!!! But yeah, at least they give a good reason to collect the Seven Stars which otherwise are useless.
Bowser: He's a good guy? YAY! Strongest melee obviously. High defense, but not against special attacks. His special attacks aren't that bad, so YEAH! Keep him alive! He needs his Keep back, but he doesn't want to need you. I know I said it very badly, but that should explain it.
Peach: Wow, second chance since Super Mario Bros. 2. She's the best healer, but otherwise weak, except she seems to be strong with special moves and against them too. Poor Mallow. She sneaks out of the castle to help Mario.
Smithy Gang: This group of machines wants to conquer Plit, so stop them!
Smithy: He is not an immobile forge. He does have one. Yeah, he looks like Saint Nick, but the only things he has to offer is an iron fist and a mallet of steel, and you're not exactly buying them. Obliterate him!
I feel I gave a pretty good idea here of what's going on. Now for EB:
Ness: GRRRR! NO TALKING! NO SIGN LANGUAGE!!! He is the apparently Asian leader of the group and the hero who collects "the power" after collecting a melody from eight sanctuary places and exploring his mind. His HP and Psi Points are the highest, especailly after exploring his mind, and since he's the leader, he also has the highest nearly everything. He gets a powerful attack move named after his (or your) favorite thing, a sensory disturber called Psi Flash which is also dangerous, and he is a good healer. He wields powerful baseball bats to attack, and is identified by his lucky red cap. Yeah, I haven't seen many Asian heroes wearing red hats, and I don't know if Ash Ketchum is Asian.
Paula: The only girl. Rumor says Ness and Paula really like each other. She has low HP, low attack, and low defense. She has powerful Psycokinetic attack moves including Ice, Fire, and Thunder, she can raise attack power and protect everyone with psychic shields, and she can pray for random effects. You NEED to use this sometime. She seems to like frying pans. She joins after you free her from some HAPPY HAPPYISTS, who are under an evil illusion of painting everything blue caused by an evil illusion statue. Odd, huh?
Jeff: My favorite guy. He is smart. He is relatively good offensively. He can't use Psi, but he can create machines, fortunately not ones that will come alive and attack him, but that do other nice things for his friends and nasty things to enemies. He shoots guns of the sort, and can use powerful bottle rockets. He can also spy on enemy attributes and collect their items. He saves your butt from zombies after breaking out of his dormitory in Winters, a snowed-in town.
Poo: Yes, his name is easy to ridicule, but try ridiculing it for thirty seconds while fighting against him. If Ness and Paula were ever put together in terms of power, this is the result. He isn't quite as strong as Ness, but he is strong. For the most part, he fights unarmed and unarmored, so he's weaker when you get him, but when he gets his unique equipment later in the game, which includes the only weapon he can wield, he is then easily seen as much more powerful. Yeah, his weapon is the only sword in this game, and it isn't easy to get, so you may as well forget that I said this sentence. He uses Ice, Thunder, and an EXTREMELY powerful move called Starstorm. He is your other healer, and he can also assume the form of enemies.
Your Dog: Not important, but you get to name him. I called him Mario! He joins you early in the game to help, but runs home after he sees the meteorite.
Mom: She heals you. And if you talk to her, Ness can get over homesickness and fight better! It's true you know.
Dad: He gives you money for killing monsters. He also saves your game.
Tracy, your sister: She works with a delivery/storage buisness. That is good.
Pokey: Like Lemmy said, he's no walking cactus, although that sounds like a likely enemy in this game which is weird anyway. He's an obnoxious fat kid who is Ness' neighbor, and turns out to be evil and WORKING FOR GIYGAS!!! The question is, if life is destroyed in the process of time warping, which Ness does as a robot to fight Giygas, then how did Pokey get to that time in one living piece?
Giygas: Some alien entity from another time and planet. He's the cause of the plot conflict. I think he may even have been created by my UE from Super Smash RPG in the Fun Fics, so... DEFEAT HIM!!!
So to conclude, as you can see, the characters in both games provide great variety. Each character and where they are coming from makes big changes to the entire story idea.
Graphics:
Earthbound: 4
Super Mario RPG: 10
Lemmy was right about Earthbound. The graphics could have been almost done by an NES. However, it is the additional color that keeps it from getting a 1. I mean, the characters look well drawn. Still, it doesn't change my opinion of anything really unless the display hinders the gameplay. Super Mario RPG, however, did FLAWLESSLY for a Super NES. I mean, it really is a well-displayed 3D environment. Everyone moves pretty fluently. This category is important, but not one I normally care about, so ON WITH THE REVIEW!!!
Sound:
EarthBound: 7
Super Mario RPG: 8
So this time, no one got a 10. Well, in EarthBound, the music really fits perfectly, like the theme on this page with skyscrapers. Yeah, and I'm obsessed with the Kraken battle theme and Giygas's theme. The point loss was for not having a huge variety of other sound effects for other actions. Sure, the sound is fine, but I think there could be more. Super Mario RPG did better soundwise, but slipped a bit on music, and some of the themes I just don't really like where they are. Some of the music, such as in battles, was TOO happy for the situation. No, they did well, and the sound effects really gave it a boost. I could have given them even scores, but I decided to side with Mario here.
Gameplay:
EarthBound: 5
Super Mario RPG: 5
Yeah, in Earthbound, Ness can't jump by the gameplay restrictions, and he can't "run" unless he eats a Skip Sandwich. Yeah, it's not bad how you can see what's coming and decide whether or not to fight, but you can't run fast, so really, in order to progress, you have to fight every enemy you see. There weren't quite as many puzzle elements as there were strategic battles, but the characters were applied very well for each situation, such as Jeff fixing items and objects, and the battles were good, and in fact I think better than SMRPG because you can heal someone before their HP scrolls down to 0 when they take MORTAL damage, and avoid having to revive them. It's funny, you never kill anything, but simply subdue the enemy. And some enemies have funny moves, like "Frank said something nasty! Ness's Guts go down by 2!" The playable characters have greater battling variety that makes each one much more essential in their own way.
With Super Mario RPG, I am totally amazed at how many ways they could make jumping part of a puzzle. Still, the selection was limited, and the game was too battle oriented, and you couldn't switch partners during battle. The battle system I have issues with since you can't switch partners during battle, there is no "early strike", and recovering seems a bit too much item oriented like in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, but it isn't bad in the sense you need those action commands to survive... almost... But yeah, the other thing I complain about, why couldn't Geno blast his way through puzzles, or more accurately, why wasn't anyone else besides Mario really involved in puzzles? Too much Mario oriented puzzle, but more than EB, but everyone is even, and 5 really isn't bad if you consider the Fun Factor.
Talking about the controls, EarthBound is easier in how it requires less dexterity to get around, but some may actually find jumping around fun, so it depends on how you like your gameplay. SMRPG required precise jumping, and I think the jumping is too fast, although I'm an expert gamer, but it can be frustrating. At least you can run in SMRPG at will. EarthBound is the better "RPG", but SMRPG is a better platform-adventure type for constant dexterity. If only I could have both!!! And better puzzle elements too! That's why they created Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi!
Humor:
EarthBound: 10
Super Mario RPG: 9
BOTH GAMES WERE HILARIOUS!!! ^o^ EarthBound was funnier in my opinion, I mean it was such a selfless game. Like someone asks Ness "Are you going to work for APE?" Or the chief polieceman says after you beat him "I'm having trouble in EarthBound." I also slightly spoiled something about beating Giygas, although I didn't say how to do it. You really have to play EarthBound to see how unique, funny, serious, and even how dumb it is! Now yes, SMRPG was also funny! I mean Mario's about to jump into a killing spree on Bowyer and Mallow grabs him, saying "Who do you think you are?! Bruce Lee?!" Or when Mario decides to go somewhere else besides escorting Peach to the Mushroom Kingdom, it's like:
Peach: Um, Mario! The castle is the other way. Are we going there?
(Says No)
Mallow: We just have to go back! I'm sure the people back there are very worried! Isn't that right?
(Says No)
Geno: Hey! If we don't bring the princess back, we'll be accused of kidnapping the princess! That would be bad, right?
(Says No)
Bowser: HEY! *Bowser noise, STOMP!* I mean, it just wouldn't be right! I'm the only one who's allowed to kidnap Peach. You'd better bring her back to the Mushroom Kingdom or else!
(Says No)
Suddenly, Mario notices he's surrounded by four very angry party members...
Recommendation:
Actual Averages:
EarthBound: 7.7
Super Mario RPG: 8.3
Personal Scores
EarthBound: 8.5
Super Mario RPG: 8
Super Mario RPG in some ways may be of higher quality, but I believe the general Fun Factor, which is part of the recommendation in this Review, made EarthBound a much more remarkable game. HEY! Buy both games if you can so you can get the prestige of showing them off! EarthBound, however, you'll want to play on an emulator because it can be REALLY REALLY long without the fast forward function. Both games are long for a first try, but EB is especially in depth.
By now, I probably made my point. Sorry, Lemmy; Mario and Bowser did well, but Ness did AWESOMER!!!
So here you have it! My third review! And I'm totally amazed if anyone really read every word of this Review and didn't knock themselves out, unless of course you like Comparisons...
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