Do you still play EarthBound?

Greetings,

Congrats on getting the Mailbag position. I have no idea what it really means, as I'm a veritable newbie to the world that is SM.net, but I'm sure that it's something important. Anyhow, onto addressing the topics of this week.

Yes, I still play EB. Mainly because I'm a not-rich college student that just can't afford to keep up with new gaming systems. So, rather than having a nice elaborate setup with a PS2, Gamecube, and tons of games, I have my ol' SNES hooked up to the tv and stereo at present. Just today I finished a couple of Sanctuaries and moved onto Scaraba. Yey! I don't know about funny occurences within my game...aside from renaming certain items at the beginning. Most recently I named my Favorite Food 'cat.' Having Mom say 'have some Cat and scoot up to bed' was amusing at first, but not for long. It was later, with a random NPC that I heard it used most amusingly. It was the guy that says, "You know what I hate most in the world? Cat. The color, the flavor, the texture...hey, you're drooling!"

This e-mail addy is based in my website, Paperninja.net. I happened to create a Consumer Service department within it a while back...would I incur your wrath if I wrote about a topic through 'them?' It would mainly involve me referring to myself as 'we' and making lots of nonsensical generalizations. Thanks for the time...
-Paper





Congratulations on writing the first ever Letter of the Week!
Now, allow me to quote the great Weird Al Yankovic:

(Sing to the tune of Cat's in the Cradle )

Did you ever think, when you eat Chinese
It ain't pork or chicken, but a fat Siamese?
Yet the food tastes great, so you don't complain
But that's not chicken in your chicken-chow-mien!
It seems to me I ordered sweet and sour pork, but Garfield's on my fork!
He's purrin' here on my fork!
(Chorus:)
There's a cat in the kettle at the Peking Moon.
The place that I ate every day at noon.
They can feed you cat, and you'll never know
Once they wrap it up in dough, boys. They fry it real crisp in dough!

Etc, etc. Heh, I thought of that song immediately when I saw your letter. Oh, right. About the email addy. No, I don't mind if you write something through another entity, but someone else might. I'm not the big cheese around here, no way.

Congrats on the branding,
-STARMANDELUXE-

I usually play my SNES when I play a game. And it's usually EarthBound. I like to play through a game, beat it, start another, beat it, another, beat it. Keep the best game of the 3, and wipe the rest. *Repeat until cart's battery goes dead*. I don't even have a GCN yet, if I did I'd probably have Super Smash Bros: Melee, and kicking butt as Ness.



Whoo! Go Ness-users! Unfortunately, we seem to be a quickly-dying breed. Oh well, there are plenty of Roy-lovers out there, and he's cool too. Heh, I seem to follow a practice similar to yours in terms of file-making stuffage. So, yay for us.

--StarmanDeluxe

Ah, EarthBound. Seems like after a certain amount of time you kinda lose sight on why we're all here. Yes, I do occasionally play EarthBound. My SNES? I value it more than any other piece of gaming hardware I have or ever will have (indeed I still do play it loud ;D). However, I'm still very much addicted to my GCN. What can I say? It's another amazing system with already a good library of games.

Strange happenings while playing EB? Well, one cold day, while I was playing, my parents were heating up the car. Needless to say, later, they forgot that they left the car on so long, and it caught fire (which is a coincidence because I believe I was in fourside fighting a certain taxi at the time).

Pretty strange, eh?



Ack, I hate those taxis. They're annoying and rather powerful. Then again, I've never been big on level-building, so my characters are always pretty weak. I manage, though. My Ness is probably, like level 75 when I killed Giygas.
Your car caught fire? Whoa. Heh. Never seen that before, except in a wreck. Then again, maybe I'm just wet behind the ears.

--StarmanDeluxe

Weird things? Hm...

I was playing Earthbound, when suddenly, Cliff Yablonksi jumped out of the.... sorry, wrong email.. I was playing Earthbound, when the Mr.Saturns told me their plan for world domination. See, the peanut cheese bars they sell secretly contain microchips which latch onto your brain upon swallowing. When all the Mr.Saturns BOING at the same time, Everybody who's ever had a peanut cheese bar will recieve a serious shock to their brain, making them slaves to the Mr. Saturns. At which point, seeing as though the Chosen Four had eaten them, the Saturns will have an army of amazing proportions! BOING BOING ZOOM DING.

Yeah, and since plugging stuff is cool
*insert plug here* [Note from StarmanDeluxe: Well, you wanted a plug, so go visit the Mailbag! Wait, you're already there! Oh well! ]



I thought the Mr. Saturns were peaceful beings... Well, they had me fooled. I guess you know more about this evil conspiracy than I do, as I am only an egg. Heh, sorry, I love that book. ;D

--StarmanDeluxe

Yes, I still play EarthBound. It is still very fun to me. I first played the game at my friends house, he had rented it and we were pretty young so we didn't know what was going on. I ended up getting it for my birthday. I of course got my air freshener, and I still have that big book. My original game wasn't so lucky, it got misplaced but I did get another one. I also went through a couple of SNESs but I still have one. When I played EarthBound I got this good feeling I cannot describe. It's like this game was a part of me. It's just was awesome. After time I still love this game, it is my absolute favorite, and I still play it.





DUDE! YOU HAVE AN AIR-FRESHENER! That rules! Heh. I wish I had one, then I could smell good ol' Mach Pizza all day, every day.

--StarmanDeluxe

Actually, I just re-played Earthbound on my handy dandy emulator a few weeks ago. Why, you ask? Well, I wanted to get to the end of the game, to the point after Giygas is beaten, where you can travel anywhere. Sadly, I did this so that when I want to make a fluke or other such Starmen.netty goodness, I have all the sprites I need. It would have been much more noble if I had played the game for fun.

I was addicted to Playstation 2 for about a month or so after I got it for Chirstmas. I didn't get a GameCube, so I couldn't experiance the sure addictiveness of Super Smash Brothers: Melee.

As for EB in real life, I don't think my mom would dish out any sentences with the word "Ey" in them. One time I saw a kid with a hat, and if you are very paranoid, then to you maybe that means I saw Ness. Other than that, no real life Earthbound sightings.

And for the record, I'm not EBROX.



Haha, Wampa does illegal emulator stuff. Well, never mind, I played EB0, so me=hypocrite. :( Heh, I guess that would be a good way to make flukes. Veeerrryyy clever of you.

--StarmanDeluxe

Right now I am addicted unlocking everything in SSB:M. As for the other topic my photographer told me to say "Fuzzy Pickles" ^_^



Heh. "Fuzzy Pickles," is like the coolest phrase ever. I'm gonna have to start saying it even more often, now. Whenever I do photography for my school's newspaper, I always say "Say Fuzzy Pickles," too. Are you sure that wasn't me taking your picture? ;)

--StarmanDeluxe

It's me again. I still play SNES. And one time I was playing and the controller started moving and playing on it's own, then Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones showed up and took it from me and showed me the flashy red light and.....hey guys what's-oh no stop get away! You will never silence starmen.net!!! *flash*



Ack, that has to be like the 307th MiB reference I've heard today. Too much! TOO MUCH! I didn't really like that movie, anyway. Maybe I'm just weird.

--StarmanDeluxe

(Earthbound)I need help! I got up to the Talah's Cave which needs the pencil eraser but when Paula was kidnapped by the alien she had it in her items. I am stuck! What do i do?



Yay! My first job as Mr. EarthBound Helper Guy! OK, here's what you do: Go to a phone. Call up Escargo Express, and choose 'Deliver.' Choose your Pencil Eraser, and voila! If, somehow, Escargo Express isn't on the list of people you can call, call up Mom, and she'll give you the number. There ya go, and thanks for using the Mailbag EB Helpline! *smile smile*

--StarmanDeluxe

Thanks to some searching around, I fould EB at a video game exchange store! So yes, I finally get to play it again! I used to play it when I was younger, but only from renting.. I spent probably 50 bucks on all the rentals, but it was well worth it!



I remember being naturally attracted to EB by its large box, back when I was 10 at Blockbuster's. I went there every weekend for a two-day rental, and played with no player's guide or any other resources. I got to about Belch before I got tired of it (and N64 came out, if I remember). Then I got it again and again and again, and probably rented it about 20 times (about $100 worth). Heh.

--StarmanDeluxe

Yes, I love Earthbound, and no, I'm not addicted to GameCube. Strange things happen in Penguin Land!

1.) No GameCube. We do get PS2 and Xbox, for more than 1500 fishes (PL currency) that is.

2.) I started playing EarthBound and translating it to Penguinese for my Mother. She said she'd like it if it wasn't for the "Horribly long, annoying number battles" and if "Ness didn't run around in the same place looking for those weirdo sanctuaries".

3.) But then I hook up my N64 and pop in SSB. She also hates Super Smash Bros., because it's "Too violent". To her it is, because she loves running around with Jigglypuff picking up random items, and I love smacking her using Ness to show the true power of Earthbound :)

4.) My mom will get me SSB:M, tho, because she thinks "Ness is cuter, Kirby is round, Jigglypuff is strong" and "the Temple stage is for what SSB:M is truly about: Hide-and-seek".

5.) As was showed somewhere, someone thinks EB0 was sold to GameFreak and turned into Pokémon. My mom also thinks so, except she thinks it was EarthBound who was turned into Pokémon. Note, she never read the Mailbag.

6.) And finally, when I convinced my mom to PLAY Earthbound, she called Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo: "Pepe", "Cake" because she thinks Paula looks like a birthday cake, "Jeff" (Whee! Lucky Jeff!) and "Pupu".

7.) I am so much depressed.



WOAH! If I don't misunderstand you, your mother calls Ness "Pepe." WTF! Scary! I really hope you're kidding, heh.

--StarmanDeluxe

Yes, I do still play EB and SNES, seeing as I DON'T HAVE A GAMECUBE! But anyhoo, I just recently started a new file in EB where I was at level 6 when I fought Starman Junior and I was at the level where you learn PSI Rockin Alpha when I fought Frank. I'm currently in Twoson at level 14, and I'm just about to go into the Peaceful Rest Valley and rescue Paula from Carpainter and the Happy-Happyists. So yes. EB never gets old. Even if you're like me and have beaten it 1 trillion times.



Isn't that just the beauty of EarthBound? It never gets old, especially after you've beaten it 1 trillion times! It just makes me feel all fuzzy inside every time I pop that cartridge into my ol' SNES.

--StarmanDeluxe

I still play EarthBound. I consider it to be the greatest Super Nintendo RPG of all time. I am addicted to the GameCube however and I also like to play Harry Potter on my GameBoy Advance. One of my favorite games to play on the SNES is Super Mario All-Stars.



Yeah, Super Mario All-Stars ruled. It was quite fun.

--StarmanDeluxe

I don't have Game Cube. I am one of the few who doesn't usually get the new systems until they're, well, old. I was lucky there was a sale on N64. It was the only way I would get one before GC came out. However, I am not bitter or angry over this. I am 15 years old, and I grew up with Nintendo and Atari. I didn't get a Super Nintendo until I was 11. This gave me a chance to play and grow to love classics such as Mike Tyson's Punch Out (my favorite NES game), Duck Hunt, Mario Bros. (some people don't even know that there is a Mario game that doesn't start with super!), and Legend of Zelda. Since I was used to playing Nintendo and Atari, graphics never meant that much to me. this set me up to look for a good funny game, and graphics didn't matter. I am, of course talking of my favorite video game, EarthBound. In fact I am in the middle of both that and Breath of Fire at the moment. This just goes to show you that maybe my generation really isn't completely spoiled. Some people like me still remain.



I'm with you all the way, although I didn't really like Breath of Fire, heh. I play old games probably more than I play my GCN, and I like it that way.

--StarmanDeluxe

I still play Earthbound regularly. I don't know how to explain it either. It's weird. I would think that I would get tired of it, but I don't. I love this game as much now as I ever did. When I play Earthbound, I just feel right. I feel like I'm doing something completely natural, like breathing or eating. I don't get an amazing rush from playing EB, like I do when I play a new RPG, but I feel comfortable. Playing EB is almost like meditating or praying for me. I know it probably sounds like I'm being melodramatic right now, but none of this is made up. I really love this game. I've played through it about 30 times and I haven't gotten sick of it. That's saying something.



Yeah, you're right. You DO sound melodramatic. ;)

--StarmanDeluxe

Forget EarthBound and the Super Nintendo, what about the Famicom with my Mother cartrage. I can't read it.. but that's okay. I used to play up to 4 hours a day but then I got hooked to SM.net so now I only play two. I guess I'll start playing EarthBound again once the EB Fest happens this spring :D



Eh, I didn't like Mother 1 as much as Mother 2. Oh well.

--StarmanDeluxe

Are you kidding? Of course I still play with my SNES! It helps that, because of his addiction to Gamecube and Gabe Boy Advanced, I was able to steal it (and my PlayStation) from my little brother and put it in my college dorm room. I beat EarthBound for the first time this fall, and, after finishing Final Fantasy 3/6, I intend to play it again. Retro gaming is fun!



Well, good luck with FF6, took me a long time to finish that one. I loved it, though. It was probably my most favorite RPG ever. EarthBound was a close second, of course. *Waits for rotten vegetables to be thrown*

--StarmanDeluxe

This morning, my dad was driving me to a debating tournament, and there were a lot of pidgeons hanging around on the road. They wouldn't move until the bumper was practically on them. I muttered under my breath, "Crazy birds."
It's not quite EB-related, but any fanfic reader should know what I'm talkin' about.



Anyone who guesses who wrote this letter gets a cookie. Heh, it isn't that hard ;)

--StarmanDeluxe

You know, some of us are addicted to Playstation 2 instead. And some of THOSE people are too poor to afford to be addicted to both PS2 and Gamecube. You should be more considerate to me, I mean, those people in the future.



Alright, fine. Although Playstation 2 is vastly inferior, I guess I'll let you guys have some spotlight... AHHHHHH! *Is mobbed by insane PS2 lovers*

--StarmanDeluxe

How did you come up with your names?

-DarkCid



That's a very good question. Frankly, I have no idea. I thought that the Starmen were the coolest enemies ever, I guess, and maybe I just thought "Hmm, Starman... StarmanDeluxe! That's it!" I dunno about the other staffers, though.

--StarmanDeluxe

I have not played EarthBound in about a year. I belive though that all three of my files are completed games with Ness at level 99. So I really do not want to delete a file to start over.

On the topic of GameCube, I can say I am a little disapointed. I have SSBM (of course) and Rouge Squadren II. Both this games kind of get old after a while. You just don't have 3 other friends to play SSBM with every time you want to play. So, I'll just have to wait for Enternal Darkness and Soul Calibur 2 to breath life into my already-collecting-dust GameCube.

Yes, something very strange happened while I was playing EarthBound. After I beat Giygas for the first time I jumped up and pumped my fists in triumph while throwing my SNES controlled into the air. Not only did my SNES fall off the entertainment center, but the controller also broke through on of the cieling tiles in my ceiling. And to top it off, on its way to the ground, the SNES cord yanked out of wall cutting the power off to my SNES. Which shut the game up, losing my unsaved data. Needless to say I had to beat Giygas again.

-Colin



I think I have to honor this letter, as it was very well written. Yay, 2nd place for you, Colin-. Even cynical people do good things! ;)

--StarmanDeluxe

ME, EH!
WHAT YOU SAY, EH?
ALL YOUR EB ARE BELONG TO US, EH?
EB IS FUN, EH?
EH, EH?
EH?????????????????
funny how eh sounds like "AE", eh?
arf.
OMG I WROTE THE LONGEST THING I EVER WROTE




I've never seen someone who was both Canadian* AND insane before.

Well, that's all for this week's mailbag. Lots of letters, huh ;)? See ya'll next Sunday.

--StarmanDeluxe

*No offense was intended by this announcement. Just being stereotypical.