The first two games in the EarthBound series are now available on Nintendo Switch Online, as was revealed during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, and Nintendo has given out a link to a free copy of the EarthBound Player’s Guide. This guide might be helpful to newcomers, as EarthBound is very much an RPG of the 16-bit era. This means that it may be lacking in some of the QoL features that modern gamers might expect.
EarthBound is the second game in the Mother series, which is a trilogy of JRPGs that are set in an idealized version of the United States. The protagonist of EarthBound is a boy named Ness, who will be familiar to fans of the Super Smash Bros. games, as he is been in the series since the beginning. In EarthBound, the world is being invaded by aliens, under the leadership of the mysterious Giygas. It’s up to Ness to gather the other destined children and learn the Eight Melodies and save the world.
EarthBound is available on Nintendo Switch Online, as is EarthBound Beginnings, which is the localized version of the first entry in the Mother series. When EarthBound was first released on the Super Nintendo, it came bundled with the EarthBound Player’s Guide, which was an incredibly well-made strategy guide for the game. It has been speculated that this book is what caused EarthBound to sell poorly when it first arrived in North America, as the cost of the guide bumped up the overall cost of the game. A pristine boxed copy of EarthBound with the EarthBound Player’s Guide can fetch ridiculous prices from collectors.
The QR Code For The EarthBound Player’s Guide
Nintendo also released the EarthBound Player’s Guide at the same time as a pdf. When the announcement regarding EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings coming to Nintendo Switch Online was made, Nintendo released an update to the Home menu of the Nintendo Switch. This update told fans about the games arriving on Nintendo Switch Online. The update also included a QR code that leads straight to the pdf of the EarthBound Player’s Guide, which can be seen in the screenshot above. The EarthBound Player’s Guide can also be accessed on the official Nintendo website.
The EarthBound Player’s Guide contains detailed breakdowns of every aspect of the game. It even describes the method for defeating the final boss, which has to be dealt with in an unusual manner. The pdf also has the scratch and sniff cards that came with the book, as these were something that was occasionally bundled with comics in the ’90s. There are detailed EarthBound guides all over the Internet, as EarthBound inspired a lot of RPGs and creators over the years and earned a cult following, but it’s nice to be able to enjoy the original strategy guide for free.
Source: Nintendo