My EarthBound Dilema

EarthBound is such a great game... It's really too bad that they don't make a lot of releases, with EarthBound 64 being canceled, MOTHER 3 never being released in America, EarthBound being confirmed to NOT be released on Virtual Console... you know, that kind of stuff. I've been playing through the series lately and have been having a lot of trouble obtaining the games. The funny thing is, my problems are completely independant of the game not being released. (Well, almost. ;D)

(NOTE: EarthBound Zero = MOTHER 1. EarthBound = MOTHER 2. EarthBound 2 = MOTHER 3. Just avoiding confusion.)

For Christmas last year, I asked my parents for EarthBound and a Super Nintendo. They were at the top of my list, under a flash cart for the MOTHER 3 Fan Translation (which I, unfortuantely, didn't get). I got a console that plays both NES AND Super NES, but no EarthBound. I got three other games (The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, and Kirby's Dream Land 3) only to find out the console didn't work. Sad Christmas, huh?

A few days later, my mom asked if I'd tried EarthBound on the Super NES. I acted as confused as I was, since I hadn't recieved EarthBound. It turned out that I actually was supposed to get it, but it had been misplaced. I tried it on the console and, lo and behold, it worked!! It was the other games that hadn't been working!

I played through that game and had a lot of fun with it. It's definitely one of the best games I've played. I tried to order a flash cart for MOTHER 3 A.S.A.P., but I had to save my money. After I finished EarthBound, I played EarthBound Zero, which was noticeably shorter. I ordered the flash cart toward the end of the game and just waited for a week.

I waited for another week.

Now a third week. This was getting pretty ridiculous. The flash cart I had ordered apparently hadn't been shipped yet, because it was out of stock.

I started to play Kirby's Dream Land 3 as the fourth week came. (It had recently been released for Virtual Console, yay.) One of the same flash cart happened to pop up on Amazon.com, so I decided to cancel the order and buy the one on Amazon.

During the fifth week, I miraculously managed to make progress in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link! (I have it on the GameCube Collector's Edition.) We never got the email saying that the order had been cancled, so I had no money for the cart on Amazon. At the end of the week, I decided to make a deal with my parents that I would be The Cheat for a day (referencing http://www.homestarrunner.com/) in exchange for earning the order of the flash card from them.

Then, it happened. On February 20th, I went on Amazon.com and found that the flash cart was out of stock. Somebody else had bought it.

I moped around the house (and the internet) for a while and tried to find another flash cart to buy from somewhere. I found one of the same that I was about to buy, but learned that it was out of stock. After a bit of reconciling with myself, I settled for the M3 DS Real Flash Card with the Game Boy Advance expansion. That might prove a little problematic since that's made for DS Lite and I have the original blue DS. Luckily, both my brothers broke their fat DS's and now both have their own DS Lite. I could borrow one of those if need be.

Since this flash cart was so expensive, we re- set up the compromize of being The Cheat for a day. It started at about 8 p.m. that day and continued to the same time the next day, the 21st. So, I was working all day that day in order to earn my flash card, that I would soon be into the sixth week waiting, although now more completely sure that this one would arrive.

The next day, Sunday the 22nd, during church, I realized that the previous day had been my half-birthday. I had been working all day on my half-birthday! (My actual birthday is August 21st.) It's not such a big deal, I suppose, since the basement and my bedroom closet, which were both deathly dirty, are now clean AND the flash cart will probably be here at the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

Today's the day after that Sunday. I'm waiting for the sixth week after beating EarthBound Zero to play MOTHER 3. I'm getting to the end of Zelda II and plan to edit (or start editing) the second episode of my machinima, Asui Gaiden. I hope that everything goes well with this series and that I can enjoy the final game. I suppose these past six weeks can be somewhat of a metaphor for the huge gap between releases in the actual series, plus the extra two years for us Americans (and anyone who speaks English, for that matter).

I know Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon came out a week prior to today and that Pokémon: Platinum Version will be released next month. I'd normally take Fire Emblem's release as a cue for me to play that series and Platinum's release as a cue for me to appendage that to my playing of that series. Hopefully, I can play MOTHER 3 fast enough without speeding through it and lacking enjoyment.