When it comes to games of the 16-bit era, few were more underrated than Earthbound. Earthbound isn’t underrated anymore – the game has a fiercely loyal fanbase. Possibly too loyal, but such is the nature of fanboyism.

No matter how you feel about the game (I personally give it a 9.1/10, for the record), Earthbound ultimately deserved more sales. It sold approximately 420,000 copies if you add the American and Japanese sales together. Why?
In America, RPGs weren’t popular. It wasn’t until games like Final Fantasy VII and Pokemon came about when America opened their doors. But even for an RPG, Earthbound sold poorly. Even with the full force of Nintendo’s marketing team, it sold poorly. The obvious reason? Graphics. That’s all Americans cared about. Or so it seemed.
With RPGs like Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger pushing the limits of the SNES capabilities, Earthbound’s simple and cartoon-y art design was a turn off. Today, it doesn’t matter. All 16-bit games are outdated graphically. Earthbound’s fanbase play it mainly for the oddball humor, which is easily the game’s strongest point. The gameplay is still decent, too. Though it’s really just “Dragon Quest – random battles + scrolling health bars”.
Another problem was the worst marketing campaign in video game history. The slogan? “This game stinks.”
*awkward silence*
It’s like Nintendo wanted people to think that their first internationally-released RPG was an experiment to see if they could make the worst game ever. But it wasn’t.
Earthbound’s best marketing came from Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. And… well, the fanbase was created among the millions of Nintendo fans who bought the 4-player smash-fest.
Shame that legal issues are keeping Earthbound from being re-released. That’s a story for another day…

TGM’s VGMs #5 – Earthbound – Snowman

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