Ken Baumann (1) (–1989)

This book is the first in a series that attempts to be the 33 1/3 equivalent for music. For those that are unfamiliar, this means that people write about a game that was deeply significant to them, discussing both its history and the author's relation to the book.

It's very likely that nostalgia is talking, but this book rekindled my love for Earthbound. My friends were playing Earthbound for the first time at a sleepover party, and I spent the entire night playing it after they went to sleep. In retrospect, it may have been my first exposure to homosexuality. Things like that are the sorts of anecdotes reiterated in the book by the author.

The author does a capsule summary of the game's plot and how it relates to his own life. There is some interesting side-information, things that could potentially have influenced the game's development, but other than the localization of the game into North American English, there wasn't much interaction with the principles so you won't get much scoop.

This being said, it's very easy to remember the power of Earthbound as a game, how different it was from games around it (and in many ways is different to games that exist now) and how it's shaped the kinds of games I enjoy, and the reason I tend to lean towards the games I currently do, independent works that touch upon society.

I'll probably break out an emulator now that I've finished writing this :)

… (plus d'informations)