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BY JACK KEEFE

In print | Published December 4, 2008

It’s been a long time since pixels made me cry. I mean, in the end, no matter what game you’re playing, what you’re seeing are simply pixels on a screen … but, since the advent of the PlayStation and the dedicated 3D card, those pixels have (mostly) been hidden and glamorized with increasingly advanced attempts to skirt the Uncanny Valley and resemble reality as we know it. So, when I’m getting misty-eyed over pixels here, I’m talking about pixels that are unabashed about being pixels — “Super Mario World” and “Final Fantasy 3” and “Megaman” — and try to be art as much as they can be. “Mother 3”/”Earthbound 2,” (GBA) which I’m ostensibly reviewing here, continues the good fight for pixels to approach art, and, I imagine, comes as close as anything else to giving a game-loving film & media student a trump card whenever arguments about the artistic value of video games arise. ¹ And it made me cry. ^{2 3}

As the weird, heartwarming, and heartbreaking story of “Mother 3” defines much of its character and appeal, I’m loath to describe much of it for fear of ruining any sense of discovery, but I suppose that it’s requisite. ⁴ The heart of the game is Tamzily Village, an idyllic hamlet isolated by mountains on a small island, where people live in what is more or less a communist paradise.

However, and I am being purposefully vague here, visitors come to the island and, whether the residents realize it or not (and their mileage varies), begin to raze their Eden. As odd and increasingly dark (if not at all times obviously so) events transpire, Tamzily begins to resemble more and more what we could consider a modern society — currency is introduced for the first time, and entertaining boxes pop up in almost every home. Through the first four chapters (taking place over the course of four years), the narrative shifts its focus from different characters who live or come to this village, before settling on a boy who up to this point has had a largely unremarkable character, but who is now driven to heroism by his circumstances.

While in the original “Earthbound” there was no area necessarily core to its virtual world that grounded your travels, the hamlet your characters all call home becomes not so much a base of operations as a nexus from which to access the imaginative world of “Mother 3.” New avenues of travel open up from the familiar scenery and old characters apply their well-foreshadowed talents to take you one more step along the way. The centrality of the town throughout the game also places it near the center of the game’s heart — returning again and again probes one to ponder what has changed since the beginning of one’s journey. ⁵ The attitudes and lifestyles of its residents evolve with great direction and continuity of purpose as the world changes around them; you’ll be both crushed and warmed by the townspeople’s responses to the often banal evil that descends upon their village. The play of these personalities on the game’s stage ends up conveying robust societal and ethical commentaries and criticisms without seeming preachy or insincere.

Even if “Mother 3” (and, in another state of mind, I might eliminate the “even if” to rid this sentence of its negative connotation) is host to a standard turn-based RPG battle system, it is given some welcome depth and character with one mechanism individual to the game.

Each enemy (from robotic roadblocks to flying mice to deadly maids) has an associated, specific musical theme that can be exploited in battle. When issuing normal attacks, you can tap the “A” button in time with the beat of the music to score additional blows (up to 16) — you can even wait to begin your attack at a part of the song where the beat is clearer or more stable. Music becomes power. The majority of the battle-beats are introduced early on and evolve in complexity (and, as a result, difficulty) as the game progresses, encouraging increasing mastery of the base songs concurrent with your rise in strength. If you’ve ever played the drums, “Mother 3” might be very easy for you … if not, it may take a bit of level “grinding” to get past certain rough spots. While the nature of Gameboy emulation means that on some computers there may be occasional imperceptible slowdowns that will interrupt your timing, faster computers should experience minimal issues (it’s nevertheless worth the warning). Overall, even with the GBA’s limited aural capabilities, the soundtrack is a delight.

“Mother 3” also employs an offbeat odometer-style hit point meter; in most games, damage from an attack occurs all at once, whereas in “Mother 3,” a hit to your character starts a meter counting down from your original health down to your subtracted health. At face value, this may seem minor, but the key to this is that if you can erase the damage (either through healing or by quickly ending a battle), you can either avoid or mitigate the ultimate harm done. In practice, this injects a rapid intensity to battles rarely seen in the often lackadaisical combat of traditional RPGs, forcing rapid decisions to maximize your gains and minimize your losses as the numbers tick down.

At the end of this rambling review, I ask (in what at first seems to be a rhetorical manner, but which eventually resolves itself as genuine): why the hell didn’t this game officially make it to the States? Its criticism of capitalism and charming glorification of communal lifestyles? (I mean, the frogs run a pretty tight currency system, so it’s not totally socialistic.)

The pandimensional gypsy transvestites? (I love this fucking game so much.) An innate aversion by Nintendo executives to games that Rule and Are Unique (this one) as opposed to games that Fucking Suck? (I want Mario to fucking bash koopas, not provide his own fucking tennis color commentary.)

Whatever these assholes’ problem was that kept this game from us, forget it — those are their own personal neuroses that they’ll have to deal with for many years to come. However you get it, enjoy “Mother 3,” my fellow gamers. BOING!

Jack is a junior. You can reach him at jkeefe1@swarthmore.edu.

¹ Mother 3 was actually released in 2006 in Japan, but was never published in the U.S. Fortunately, the excellent fan-translation came out a few months ago (mother3.fobby.net).

² This is entirely self-defeating, but if you’d care for a more lit-crit take on “Mother 3,” I’d invite you to check out the related review on the blog “Press the Action Button,” which I can both derisively and adoringly summarize as “hipsters writing about video games.” In this, I admit that I’m more or less writing a love letter here, something of a puerile plea to Swarthmore in the hopes that anyone who could possibly love this game will find it and love it, too.

³ A second note: You do not need to have played “Earthbound” to love this game as much as I do. If you’re one of the rare few who had the unique pleasure of playing that masterpiece (please tell me there’s someone else who enjoyed the surreal scratch’n’sniff card in the back of the included strategy guide —having an olfactory impression of protagonist Ness really added to my immersion), you’ll appreciate the throwbacks to it, but this metaknowledge is in no way requisite for your enjoyment.

⁴ Unless you’re willing to rush into playing this with little more than my fanboyish squees — in which case, drop this newsprint/close that browser and get the game without any other preconceptions burdening your enjoyment.

⁵ The original “Earthbound” did this through slightly strange sessions where the game would quite literally request that you cozy up with a cup of coffee while it recapped your accomplishments to date.

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