Doesn't really do much for me now as an adult like it did to me as a child. The game mostly relies on a charm that I think has entirely worn off, both with me having seen this game for a decade at this point and the sheer amount of stuff that's just ripped it off, and once that charm is gone this game doesn't really have much. I wasn't engaged through most of it. This is, until the ending. The entire final act of this is absolutely phenomenal in basically every aspect, and it amazes me that such a great end was tacked onto this thoroughly middling and boring story.

Combat's cool! The mechanic of the rolling hp bars is super unique and it'd be cool if other games did something similar. Game's insanely easy tho if you know what you're doing, basically nothing can't be beaten by just spamming PK Freeze and bottle rockets. After the department store nothing's really very difficult or engaging. Also, the music's good.

Frankly I just kinda think that Mom 3 is an improvement on this game in basically every way; Better characters, a story worth caring about, better gameplay, better humor, better music. Earthbound's still good, just not really for me.