EarthBound

Mother (also known as EarthBound Beginnings or EarthBound Zero outside Japan) is a turn-based RPG released by Nintendo for Famicom in 1989, directed by Shigesato Itoi. It is the first entry in the Mother series. Set in a quirky version of late 1980s America, the story follows the boy Ninten. Strange paranormal events break out all over the country. Ninten inherits his great-grandfather’s psychic powers called PSI and travels across America together with Ana, Lloyd and Teddy to uncover the alien mystery behind the anomalies. Instead of swords and magic, characters fight with baseball bats, frying pans and psychic PSI abilities. It uses random encounters and first-person battles, introducing the famous rolling HP meter and SMAAAASH critical hit effect. The English localization was cancelled back then; the prototype ROM spread online and the official global release came much later. With warm yet melancholic storytelling, its slogan is “No crying until the ending”.

These are the default keys. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player toolbar, then “Remap keys” to open the emulator’s own control settings (keyboard and gamepad, saved automatically). Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.