I'm just here to say I'm amazed that you still frequent these boards, and that you're at over 77,000 posts now.

And in the interest of full disclosure... "This guy" is me. Please pardon the vanity. I just figured this is one of the only places on the web where people might appreciate such a totally bizarre talent. I can play music by biting my teeth down. It's obviously useless for anything orchestral, but it's perfect for melody-heavy songs like old game music. So, uh, lemme know if you enjoy it or are just horrifically grossed out?

What you are all saying is painfully true. I joined these forums around the time that the first Metal Gear Solid 3 trailer "leaked" to the Internet, and GameSpot was always my number one source for game information. But now? This new design is an illogical mess, and nothing I ever enjoyed about this website, whether in usability or content, remains intact anymore. I think I'll just be getting all my game news from Destructoid anymore.

Bringing Earthbound back to the US or publishing Mother 3 at all in the US would probably require several music tracks to be rewritten to not sound like the music it sampled, which is a bigger deal with Mother 3, considering the music itself factors into the gameplay. Then of course there are all the various graphical edits that might be necessary to make people/things look less similar to real-life inspirations. It's not impossible that Nintendo would go back and make all those alterations, but at the same time, this is the same company that couldn't even be bothered to give a green light to Xenoblade Chronicles for the US until XSeed was finally like, "No, seriously, we'll do it." I don't think the Mother series would sell well enough, even in a collected edition, to be worth making all those alterations to properly localize it for US release. I don't think enough financial incentive exists for Nintendo to do this.

That being said, I love Earthbound and Mother 3, so it's not like I'd be sad if an "Earthbound Collection" really did see the light of day in the US.

Terranigma is the biggest game in the series, but the story kind of goes nowhere. The graphics are gorgeous and you have a good amount of combat options as far as action RPGs go.

Frankly, I prefer Illusion of Gaia for its succinct story and soulful soundtrack (it's my overall favorite video game in general). It's an extremely linear game, especially by comparison to Terranigma.

But both games are much better than Soul Blazer, which is a little bit archaic by today's standards.

Good God yes.

Super heroes just can't get a break anymore.

Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and add a belated #4 to my list.

To reiterate:

#1. Lunar: The Silver Star
#2. Illusion of Gaia
#3. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
#4. Mother 3

There were a lot of odd choices made with the narrative of Mother 3 (I'm talking structurally; I'm not talking about all the hilarious and bizarre situations that litter the game), but the beginning and ending of that game were both just WOW moments. The campfire scene near the end of Chapter 1 was genuinely disturbing to witness and I experienced very specific emotions watching it--that is no easy feat with GBA graphics! Similarly, the final battle of the game was just... man. I feel like the narrative didn't properly build up to such a dramatic and incredible scene, but all the same, taken on its own merit, the final battle scene of Mother 3 is one of the most powerful moments ever captured in a video game. I only finished Mother 3 recently, but I have a feeling that game is going to stick with me for a long time.

Well, yeah, of course haha. Link's Awakening was incredibly well-designed.

Aaahh, here's a nice "list" thread that won't instantly demand everybody to mention the same bunch of SNES or PS1 games. :P

In chronological order...

1. Lunar: The Silver Star

2. Illusion of Gaia

3. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (played it on the Xbox)

If I really racked my brain, I could probably think of two more games, but the fact that I had to put a lot of thinking into it would imply that they didn't have as large an effect on me as the above three games. It's hard to even say how severely Lunar: The Silver Star must have influenced me in my formative years. :P Before I ever played it myself, I watched my brother play the game when I was probably 4 or 5 years old, and the whole idea of a kid on an adventure battling evil to save the girl he loves is something that has stuck with me ever since. I've spent most of my life conjuring up fantasy scenarios along those lines in various degrees; heck, it might have been one of the early elements that set me down my path as a writer.

Illusion of Gaia had a similar effect on me, though above being another boy's adventure, the game instilled a sense of empathy in me, teaching me that we really are "all in this together." We're better off playing co-op than constantly going into deathmatch, so to speak. Incidentally, all of that was something I attempted to inject into my novel as well. (Jeez, these games really did have a big effect on me, eh?)

As for MGS2... Well, that game just exploded my mind unlike any other game. That last hour of the game where the philosophy of information restriction/proliferation breaks out just rattled my brain, and that it was delivered via an awesome Metal Gear Ray fight/Solidus George Washington statue battle just amplified the effect several times over. Everything else about the game was just freaking great too. I started writing the most freaking bizarre YuGiOh fan fiction in middle school that somehow incorporated MGS/espionage elements. :lol: MGS2 is just... well, it's MGS2.