EarthBound has become a victim of its own legacy, in that the vast amount of pale imitations it spawned have made it seem less remarkable as a result.

You have to take yourself back to 1994, when there was -nothing- like this. I was fortunate enough to have played it when it was fairly new, long before it exploded from niche title, to cult classic, to the mainstream. It felt like a game from another dimension.

Despite some minor complaints regarding pacing and obtuse puzzles, it has held up. Try as they might, no ambitious indie developer has managed to capture this same essence -- and they never will, because contrivance kills it.