With 2020 marking its 25th anniversary, fans now have an exciting and challenging new way to experience the world of Earthbound again.

One of the fundamental pillars of the experience of Earthbound - colorful and memorable enemies, bosses that make you smile or laugh with their one-liners, and not to mention the incredible battle music - is often marred by a lack of difficulty and a sameness that carries throughout most of the game. PSI abilities that impart status effects can be largely ignored. Shields can be ignored; after all, why use a shield when you can simply do more damage that turn instead to end the battle sooner? The lack of challenge presented by combat takes away from the gravity of the Chosen Four’s quest and their goals overall.

Mother 2 Deluxe seeks to address these longtime qualms held by fans and reworks many areas that may have stagnated over the years. Enemies now provide a healthy amount of challenge, bosses require strategy and forethought in order to succeed, and character abilities have been augmented in such a way to differentiate roles in battle while still feeling true to their original designs. The script has been reworked to better match the tone and feel of Itoi’s original work, and fans of the series will be delighted to see extensive visual enhancements in the way of enemy sprite enlargement, unique enemy overworld sprites, tie-ins from both Mother 1 and 3, and much more.

Perhaps most interesting is the new Your Place upgrade mechanic. Most players know that in Earthbound, it is possible to skip Lilliput Steps, Milky Well, Magnet Hill, and Pink Cloud until whenever it is convenient for you to clear it. What used to be a cakewalk resulting in often one-shotting the boss is now far more interesting. The dungeons grow as you progress through the game, and provide not only upscaled stats for the enemies but brand new enemies as well. This feature alone provides replay value for curious players, as the order in which you tackle the dungeons will vary your experience greatly.

Smaller quality of life improvements improve the flow and feel of the game. Jeff’s tools are now extremely useful and exist in their own unique inventory. Equipment now display relevant resistances in a customized window as well. Most items in the game now feel different in their use cases and will require some thinking regarding their implementation.

Overall, I cannot recommend this version of the game highly enough. If there ever was a hack that could breathe new life into a time honored classic, this is it.