A Missive for Mother's Day

[Phillyman]

I'll be the first to admit that there are very few people more intolerable than the "I liked X before it was popular" elitist. Which is why I live in a constant state of self-loathing over being this type of monster when it comes to the cult Super Nintendo RPG, Earthbound. Thanks to the hype-building effects of Nintendo Power, I was psyched for Earthbound the second it hit the magazine's preview pages; and, a few months later, I picked up the game on its release date, and replayed it all summer long.

I assure you, this information is important for more than just the purposes of bragging alone. You see, during Earthbound's pre-credits ending sequence, you're free to roam about the world and read new dialogue from every NPC in the game -- it's one of the many little touches that makes Earthbound so special. If you enter the drug store in the game's starting town, Onett, the tutorial-spewing dog "Ruffini" encourages you, the player, to write a letter to Nintendo if you enjoyed the game. Not being one to question the commands of a talking dog, I wrote up a page (or possibly more) of unrelenting praise, and mailed it off to Nintendo.

A few months later, I received a response -- which I just re-discovered in an attempt to consolidate the amount of nerd relics I have in storage. In retrospect, Nintendo's letter seems to have come straight from a consumer service template, though they do address at least one of my Earthbound-specific questions:

Strangely enough, this might have been the only time in recorded history where someone recommended Chrono Trigger and Tecmo's Secret of the Stars in the same paragraph. Prove me wrong, Internet.

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