1. Earthbound is something of a cult classic and there's a reason for that: it's great. It is sort of a self-aware console RPG w/ a great sense of humor. It comes off as ahead of its time even today.
2. Graphically, it is cute but not exactly beautiful. It works.
3. This is a humorous RPG but it's not just a RPG w/ jokes. It's a pretty subtle send-up of the genre, while still being a very good game in that genre.
4. The story is ridiculous. A young boy assembles a team of other children to save the earth from the ultimate evil. Even the main character's parents don't really take it seriously. This gives the whole thing an air of just being a child's fantasy. I mean, seriously, if your kid was actually on a mission from God or whatever, wouldn't you follow along and try to help?
5. There is zero customization available in this. Equipping your party goes as follows: find a better piece of gear, equip better piece of gear. There is almost no ambiguity.
6. Number 5 keeps you out of menus and focused on playing so it's fine I guess.
7. This gets pretty tough at times but the penalty for your whole party being KOed is pretty minor so you can just keep cracking at the tougher dungeons and don't have to backtrack and grind.
8. Every time you save your game you have to click through like ten boxes of text. This is not the most charming thing about the game.
9. The middle of this drags a bit, not gonna lie.
10. Even at its worst though, Earthbound is sprinkled w/ enough little jokes to keep things palatable.
11. You get to pick your favorite food. I picked pizza.
12. Using the first teleportation spell you get is the most annoying thing in the entire world.
13. This ends on a teaser for another game... but then they never localized the next game for my area. Booo!