Just A Lame Ash Ketchum Ripoff
When Super Smash Bros. Melee came out in the winter of 2001, my friend purchased a copy to play on his GameCube. He, obviously, loved the game. The next time he invited me over to hang out at his house, he excitedly told me how great the game was, and how we should play it multiplayer. Thinking it sounded fun, I agreed. Picking up a GameCube controller for the first time, we started up Melee. Now, back then I was completely obsessed with the Pokemon series, so obviously, upon reaching the "choose character screen" went for Pikachu, but not before I saw Ness for the very first time and becoming annoyed that someone would make some stupid fatso ripoff of Ash Ketchum. I played the game for the first time that day. It only took one play, but I was hooked. I would not stop playing the game. I was constantly over at his house playing because my mom wouldn't let me get a GameCube of my own. Although he, at times, was not very nice about playing multiplayer, (i.e., not telling me how to use attacks beyond pressing B for Thundershock and pressing A for a headbutt, or forcing me to use Mr. Game & Watch upon unlocking him) I still couldn't get enough.
Enter Santa Claus, three years later. Eventually, my mother gave in to my begging and bought a GameCube for me for Christmas, with the games Pokemon Colosseum, Mario Kart Double Dash, and of course Super Smash Bros. Melee. At this time, having moved to a different neighborhood, I went over to my other friend's house for a round or two of Melee. When I got over there, he decided to show me what Ness could do, even though he wasn't very good with him. I marveled at PK Flash and the enormous explosion it could create. I was amazed with his PK Fire and its opponent-trapping capabilities. I wondered how such a little kid could be so powerful. This finally brought me to look at Ness's trophy, for the first time ever.
"Ness is a young boy who has mastered the psychic power known as PSI." The word "psychic" caught my eye. At the time (and to this day) I was fascinated by the idea of psychic power. I was constantly trying to bend spoons with my mind and predict the future. If this kid could use psychic power, then he was certainly not to be taken lightly. I finally decided to try Ness out in battle.
I found I was better with Ness than I EVER was with Pikachu. I loved his PK Thunder and being able to blast myself like a missle at my opponents, and smacking people with his bat just felt so darn AWESOME! Ness quickly became my new Smash Bros. main.
After practicing, getting better and better, and finally being able to SMAAAASH the crap out of almost anyone who challenged me, I finally decided if I wanted to be a true expert on Ness, I needed to play the game he was from. "EarthBound for Super Nintendo," his trophy description read. Now all I needed to do was get actually get a copy of the game, which would be hard considering I had no SNES. A girl at school informed me that EarthBound was extremely rare and expensive at this point. Dang! What do I do now?
After thinking it over, the idea finally hit me like a garbage bag filled with cinder blocks. EMULATION! I had already managed to find and play other games with emulators, so why not this one?
After searching for what seemed like eternity but in reality was only an hour or so, I finally found a SNES emulator and an EarthBound ROM. I started up the game on ZSNES excitedly.
It was love at first sight. I loved the gem of a game from its quirky humor to its great music, from its interesting graphical style to its cool gameplay, from its weird enemies to its sheer randomness. But all was not well. Upon reaching the Fire Spring and dying, I thought "oh, well, I'll just try again later" until I died again--and again--and again, and so on. It eventually got to the point where I was so frustrated that I just gave up EarthBound altogether. It must have been karma or something because soon after, my computer crashed, erasing everything on it.
A year later, I finally decided to try EarthBound again. I started the game over and eventually reached the dreaded Fire Spring. It only took one try. I was finally in Magicant, and I could rejoice, for I had conquered the challenge which had troubled me for so long! And sure to what I thought, it wasn't long before I finally completed EarthBound for the first time. As I watched the credits roll, I decided that EarthBound truly was my favorite game ever.
There was one thing that still left me unsatisfied: I knew not a single soul other than myself who had played EarthBound even once! Of course, this led me to joining Starmen.Net, where I could finally talk to other people about my favorite game and have access to all the EarthBound glory I could ever ask for. I became aware of Mother 3 and the plight of the Starmen (SM.Net members) to have it finally released in America, how EarthBound was actually unsuccessful in the USA for some reason, and of course how devoted we actually are to the great Mother series. I know very well that there is a high chance that Nintendo will never release Mother 3 in the USA. But we will never give up, for we are Starmen.
When Super Smash Bros. Melee came out in the winter of 2001, my friend purchased a copy to play on his GameCube. He, obviously, loved the game. The next time he invited me over to hang out at his house, he excitedly told me how great the game was, and how we should play it multiplayer. Thinking it sounded fun, I agreed. Picking up a GameCube controller for the first time, we started up Melee. Now, back then I was completely obsessed with the Pokemon series, so obviously, upon reaching the "choose character screen" went for Pikachu, but not before I saw Ness for the very first time and becoming annoyed that someone would make some stupid fatso ripoff of Ash Ketchum. I played the game for the first time that day. It only took one play, but I was hooked. I would not stop playing the game. I was constantly over at his house playing because my mom wouldn't let me get a GameCube of my own. Although he, at times, was not very nice about playing multiplayer, (i.e., not telling me how to use attacks beyond pressing B for Thundershock and pressing A for a headbutt, or forcing me to use Mr. Game & Watch upon unlocking him) I still couldn't get enough.
Enter Santa Claus, three years later. Eventually, my mother gave in to my begging and bought a GameCube for me for Christmas, with the games Pokemon Colosseum, Mario Kart Double Dash, and of course Super Smash Bros. Melee. At this time, having moved to a different neighborhood, I went over to my other friend's house for a round or two of Melee. When I got over there, he decided to show me what Ness could do, even though he wasn't very good with him. I marveled at PK Flash and the enormous explosion it could create. I was amazed with his PK Fire and its opponent-trapping capabilities. I wondered how such a little kid could be so powerful. This finally brought me to look at Ness's trophy, for the first time ever.
"Ness is a young boy who has mastered the psychic power known as PSI." The word "psychic" caught my eye. At the time (and to this day) I was fascinated by the idea of psychic power. I was constantly trying to bend spoons with my mind and predict the future. If this kid could use psychic power, then he was certainly not to be taken lightly. I finally decided to try Ness out in battle.
I found I was better with Ness than I EVER was with Pikachu. I loved his PK Thunder and being able to blast myself like a missle at my opponents, and smacking people with his bat just felt so darn AWESOME! Ness quickly became my new Smash Bros. main.
After practicing, getting better and better, and finally being able to SMAAAASH the crap out of almost anyone who challenged me, I finally decided if I wanted to be a true expert on Ness, I needed to play the game he was from. "EarthBound for Super Nintendo," his trophy description read. Now all I needed to do was get actually get a copy of the game, which would be hard considering I had no SNES. A girl at school informed me that EarthBound was extremely rare and expensive at this point. Dang! What do I do now?
After thinking it over, the idea finally hit me like a garbage bag filled with cinder blocks. EMULATION! I had already managed to find and play other games with emulators, so why not this one?
After searching for what seemed like eternity but in reality was only an hour or so, I finally found a SNES emulator and an EarthBound ROM. I started up the game on ZSNES excitedly.
It was love at first sight. I loved the gem of a game from its quirky humor to its great music, from its interesting graphical style to its cool gameplay, from its weird enemies to its sheer randomness. But all was not well. Upon reaching the Fire Spring and dying, I thought "oh, well, I'll just try again later" until I died again--and again--and again, and so on. It eventually got to the point where I was so frustrated that I just gave up EarthBound altogether. It must have been karma or something because soon after, my computer crashed, erasing everything on it.
A year later, I finally decided to try EarthBound again. I started the game over and eventually reached the dreaded Fire Spring. It only took one try. I was finally in Magicant, and I could rejoice, for I had conquered the challenge which had troubled me for so long! And sure to what I thought, it wasn't long before I finally completed EarthBound for the first time. As I watched the credits roll, I decided that EarthBound truly was my favorite game ever.
There was one thing that still left me unsatisfied: I knew not a single soul other than myself who had played EarthBound even once! Of course, this led me to joining Starmen.Net, where I could finally talk to other people about my favorite game and have access to all the EarthBound glory I could ever ask for. I became aware of Mother 3 and the plight of the Starmen (SM.Net members) to have it finally released in America, how EarthBound was actually unsuccessful in the USA for some reason, and of course how devoted we actually are to the great Mother series. I know very well that there is a high chance that Nintendo will never release Mother 3 in the USA. But we will never give up, for we are Starmen.
