I would love to do a 16-Bit Gems on Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and several others, but the mission statement (so to speak) of 16BG is to illuminate some of the lesser known great games of the 16-Bit era.

So, I may find a way to work around the rules and give them the treatment someday, but not as a normal part of the series.  :)

If you do Chrono Trigger Roo I would buy 5 of your t-shirts. Ok maybe just one, but Chrono Trigger is my alltime favorite game.

 You could do a spin off: Super obvious 16 bit gems 

Chrono Trigger, I think is a gem, it wasn't as well known by the gaming public at large.  And it is a relatively rare cart to boot.

Final Fantasy?  Not so much.

"Super obvious 16 bit gems" sounds like a fun spin-off.  :)

Oh man, I was so hyped when Chrono Trigger first came out.  Did the preorder and everything.  Once I read about it in Nintendo Power I was hooked.  Time travel?  Square RPG?  Yes, please.  And it didn't disappoint.

Still kinda pissed they didn't carry over the time travel mechanic for Chrono Cross...

 I remember always wanting Earthbound but never could get it cause of the price. Then I stumbled upon this old bike which I used to trade with a guy on craigslist for Earthbound with the box, the SNES, and TONS of other games (one of em was Aladdin)! Your review is what made me try all I could to get my hands on this game. Now I finally have it and I am so pleased!

Rather than a spin-off, why not just do an entire new series for the games EVERYONE knows and loves - "The classics", or something like that. It would be nice to see your take on some of histories most beloved games and characters.

skysamfreeman: I really appreciate the comment.  It's a bit humbling to think I could have any effect on someone so far away, but I'm glad you were finally able to get your hands on this masterpiece!

Young-blood: Well, I certainly wouldn't mind that, but such reviews are a dime a dozen nowadays.  Perhaps that's something I could entertain when I'm super-popular and already have an audience to subject my every whim to.  

 XD! Just got The sword of kings after only about 15 tries! I gots lucky!

 Just beat it! Talk about a perfect end to a perfect game!

Congrats :)

So glad that you beat it!  The ending is quite amazing... I don't think I've ever come across another like it in a video game.

 Like Ocarina of Time is a great game, but all you get for beating it is a "The End" screen. Earthbound on the other hand has more stuff going on after the final boss. It really wraps up the game so well!

 Also, on a random note. The EarthBound history videos were uploaded on my birthday. Like anyone cares. XD!

I'd just like to say that playing games like EarthBound and Mother 1 bring me back to a simpler time, when life was easy. The games have a warmth and depth to them that make any kid who remembers watching Saturday morning cartoons or any other zany or cool thing like that to really feel at home with them...

Plus the music and gameplay is just stellar. I think Roo did an excellent job of summing up this game and why so many people love it, even through trial and hardship.

EARTHBOUND FOR VC!!!!

Earthbound is the greatest written game of all time. Period. It's humor and story go beyond the boundries of anything before and after it. Was truly a masterpiece.  After beating the game and getting a chance to go back and talk to EVERY single NPC just to see what they said was amazing. The possessed Game Developer dog, nuff said.  Just thinking back to every memory I have of playing it makes me want to relive those moments again and again. The first time you drink the coffee in Saturn Valley absolutly life changing.  My biggest complaint about games now adays is none of them can even come close to recreating the emotional rollercoaster that was Earthbound its quite sad to think that after playing it no other game can even compare. 

Mother 3 was fantastic don't get me wrong. It was the only game ever to bring me to tears in my life. It's so awkward thinking back now to cry to a bunch of sprites but thats how amazing the writing is for the series. My only complaint with the game was the chapter based story progression but it wasn't that big of a deal.

I feel as though games will never meet up to my standards after Earthbound. I'm constantly looking for some new game to come out that gets me so excited to play it I can't stop thinking about it but to no avail. Just knowing that Itoi said there won't be a Mother 4 is heartbreaking to say the least. However Starmen's Mother 4 project is looking promising and I know they will do an amazing job writing the games story and dialouge after being such hardcore fans of the series for so MANY years now and how terrific they did localizing Mother 3.

Earthbound is definitely a great, great game, and was also definitely one of the most overlooked games of its time. In some ways, it's sad that more people became aware of it and thus became fans long after its time....Had it done better on the SNES, we'd perhaps have seen Mother and Mother 3 legitimately brought here...Sigh...

There is just something about the emotive factor of Earthbound, like you said, that other games don't seem to entirely have these days. Actually, too many games these days focus most on being Dark, Depressing and Dramatic™, with a focus on destruction, hopelessness and misery. Earthbound was something far different, and in the best possible way. I do wish we'd see more games like it...

Earthbound is in my top 5 all-time favorites, probably even my top 3. Unfortunately, trying to get Nintendo to pay any attention to the mere existence of this game as all is starting to feel like yelling at a deaf person. It's utterly futile. The news (which is now several years old) that Earthbound was rated by the ESRB was incredibly exciting, but there really hasn't been any update on it. I wish Nintendo would just come out and say that they're never going to release Earthbound, because it's æons worse to be in the dark than to know it's hopeless. Better the hell you know. Of course, a virtual console release is the optimal outcome, but I'd rather know that there will never be a re-release than be kept in false hope. As for the game itself, it's just perfect. As a visual artist myself, I must say I adore the graphics despite the usual criticism. Sometimes simplicity is the key to success. The combat is basically the template for good jRPG combat, the same way Super Mario Brothers 3 is the template for good platforming. The maps are always precise. The quirky feeling to the game and surreal environments are simply mind-blowing at points. A definite facorite of mine, recommended to anybody.

As for Chrono Trigger, it's probably my absolute favorite game. There's nothing I can say about it that would do it justice. Every single aspect is amazing. It's accesible but not "stupid" by any means, like many games that attempt accessibility. The game manages to have a great sense of scale without really feeling grandoise, while the sequel, Chrono Cross, felt like it was just trying too hard to recapture that feeling, and lost sight of the other things that made Chrono Trigger great in the process. Besides that little rambling, I can't say much about Chrono Trigger. It's really just a game that you have to play and experience for yourself, which is why it probably wouldn't make a good 16-bit gem (besides the fact that it's obvious). Both games refuse to show a second of age, and just all-around must plays.