EarthBound: They call me Mr. Saturn
EarthBound is not lacking in the quirky characters department in the least. This is a good thing, as it is one of the game’s strong points. There are plenty of What the French Toast? moments in EarthBound.
Case in point, Mr. Saturn.
That is to say, all of the Mr. Saturns. Yes, there is more than one. In fact, there is a whole village. The beings known as the Mr. Saturns inhabit a village on the other side of Threed, that town full of zombies. They are short, bulbous pink-things with large noses, beady eyes and a single piece of hair decorated with a ribbon.
Yeah.
Oh, and the Mr. Saturns all have their own font for speech and talk all wacky (adding words such as “boing” and “zoom”). But, these attributes are all endearing, even if they are very strange.
Adding to the strangeness of the visit to Saturn Valley is the next stop: taking on Master Belch — a living pile of vomit. Yes, vomit. With a face and capable of speech. He uses burp attacks against the party, perhaps marking the first time I ever heard a burp sound effect in a video game (which was pretty high-tech in the mid-1990s).
Better still, Master Belch commands smaller piles of living puke in his Fly Honey factory (where a few Mr. Saturns are enslaved and need rescuing). They also use burps and stench attacks against the party.
I ran into a bit of a snag while fighting Master Belch — Ness became Homesick, which renders him nearly useless in a battle. Not what you want to happen in a boss fight. It was especially challenging, since Ness carried the Fly Honey I needed to distract Master Belch during the battle. After a few tries, I was able to use the item, but I cut it close — and had I died, I would have had to start the factory all over again (EarthBound‘s lack of a save system similar to the likes of Final Fantasy causes a lot of frustration).
After besting the pile of puke, I returned to the Saturn village, where I was treated to some kind of mind-altering, psychedelic coffee. This game gets stranger by the moment, and that is why I love it.
Where You At?: Saturn Village
Sanctuary Songs Recorded: 2
Party: Ness, Paula, Jeff
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Read Gavin Craig’s week 6 post
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Daniel J. Hogan is the geek half of Ginger and the Geek. He is also a photoblogger and host of the Magic of Eyri Podcast. He stinks. Follow him on Twitter, @danieljhogan.
