I love almost everything about this game except actually playing it. The setting was novel and ambitious for the time, the world map is huge, the storyline has some interesting twists to it, and the music is among the absolute best on the NES. It's also a slog of an RPG mechanically, with underpowered player characters, constant random encounters, and hilariously imbalanced battle abilities.

If you've never played a Mother game, I recommend starting with EarthBound rather than this. That said, if you're willing to push through the difficulty and repetitive encounters, there is a fascinating game with a lot to like here in the end. You definitely will feel like a kid trying to fight an alien invasion, at least.