but not dead yet.

Mother 3, GBA, 12.2 MB

This might be the first game on here that I've actually finished. (Well, almost. One more fight.) Mother 3 is the sequel to Mother 2, which know may know as Earthbound for the SNES. Mother 1 was a NES game. Smash Brawlers are already familiar with its protagonist, Lucas. The series is know for having very simple graphics, a near-real world setting, and generally being balls out insane.
You may wonder why you haven't heard of these games before. When Earthbound was released here, it came with the whole strategy guide because Nintendo wasn't sure at the time how mainstream gamers would take to RPGs. It still didn't do that well. Fortunately we have the internet and it has graced us with a fan translation of the game (more on that later).
So, it's already an established franchise and features one of its characters in the biggest-selling single console game of the year, so where's the love, Nintendo? Hmmm, well, the game starts out with the destruction of a family: the death of the mother, the disappearance of your big brother, and your father's almost total consumption in his grief. Oh, and capitalism is introduced into your small village, and if you don't own a TV your house will be struck by lightning. Repeatedly. And your village alternately pities you, calls you a crybaby, and blames you for the demolition of their way of life. Where is that love...? Oh! What about the race of millenia-old transvestites who assist and inappropriately flirt with you along your way? Or the "O2 Machines" built to resemble Merman Freddie Mercury that you have to suck face with to survive in the underwater level? Wait - the key attack spell you gain upon realizing your psychic powers is called "PK Love..." unless you named something else as your favorite thing in the introduction. Which you did. And now maybe you feel a little guilty.
Basically, the ESRB rating system is not prepared for this game. There's nothing that's outright vulgar or unwholesome, but the cute, cartoony nature of the graphics and the age demographic of the system of release make this strange little game a no go in the USA. At one point, you slalom off a mountain in a refridgerator. Bad Nintendo.
But for those of us who have successfully passed the median age of Darwinian circumstance, it's one of the most fun RPG experiences you could have. First off, the quirk pervades pretty much everything. No other game could have you scrambling so fast to wolf down a bag of chips while fighting an angry cyborg caribou. One of the things that made Earthbound so memorable was the plethora of strange monsters to fight and the inscrutable actions they took in battle. Here is no different. Most everything is either cyborged or a Chimera, so look forward to getting your ass handed to you by a Cattlesnake or a Kangashark or a Muttshroom. If not that, then it's just trange, like the Negative Man, who wails about how worthless he is, or the Big and Lil Bros. Or the Men's Room sign (it knows PK Starstorm!). There's lots of weirdness for weirdness' sake, and many shoutouts to Earthbound
Fighting these things rarely gets old, thanks to the battle system. First off, damage is ticked down point by point when dealt. Healing immediately reverses this count. So you can be dead, but still have 100 HP and falling on the ticker. One heal and you're right as rain. Managing this is a key strategy for many bosses. Also, each background tune has a "beat" you can tap the button in time to build combos. Putting monsters to sleep exposes this beat, but you can't always rely on that ability. Also, emulators have timing issues that make this tricky to pull off reliably, but it's not such a key compnent that you can't beat it not doing it. One point I don't like so much is item management: each character holds their own items and only so many. You can trade items between characters, and the game is not shy about giving you healing stuff, but having to sort through and remember who has what and choose what to drop or use to free up room for a new weapon does bring things to a halt more than once.
The plot progresses through 8 chapters, the first 3 of which focus on side characters. The story is interesting and rich with subtext, and plot twists range from "seen it coming a mile away" to "why didn't I piece that together" to "Umm, right. Fine." My favorite is where you play the monkey who's been captured by the alien capitalist pigs (No, really.) and forced into servitude being a performing monkey to win the people's hearts. You're controlling the character, but not really in control, and your master is a cruel, vicious bastard. You will be electrocuted and taunted many times by him, but he's also the msucle in your party. Conflicted! Aside from Lucas, there's a PK-packing tomboy princess, a shy thief with a handy set of tools, and the family dog who sniffs out enemy weaknesses. It's easy to get into a rhythm once you have the full party, but the bosses get progressively tricky and you must adapt your PK use, healing duties, even item dispersal to match. Oh, and when you get killed and elect to "try again," you are without all the items you used in the previous attempt. Yay save states! Just to let you know, I'm about 22 hours in, lvl. 60 and I missed a few things. It pays off to stop and grind every once in awhile, but you can more or less maintain steady progress the whole way through.
You'll start playing for the WTF factor, and you'll keep playing for it too. But also the story does have a lot of heart, and nicely subverts the cliche RPG trappings is wears. Gameplay is simple but deep and fast-paced.