Game 26: Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a point and click adventure game for the Nintendo DS. It was released early last year and features both interesting graphic styles and gameplay controls. As far as the graphics go, the characters are hand-drawn with a pencil and use no colors except for pencil shadings. The game is actually played quite differently too, instead of holding the DS like normal, you turn it on its side like you're reading a book. This gives you two vertical screens side-by-side that seem like it would be better for telling a dramatic story. It's definitely something to get used to when you first pick it up but it makes sense for the style of game it is. Speaking of the style of Hotel Dusk, something about this game reminds me of the old school scary game, Uninvited. Well, it scared me on the NES when I was eight years old!

Hotel Dusk is actually my first portable first hour review! Not sure why it took me 26 reviews to get to one, as I play portable games just as much as console and PC games. By the way, do you know how hard it is to get good screenshots of a portable game? Nearly impossible. Now let's get to the review.

For my review on the whole game, please see my Hotel Dusk: Room 215 review at Beyond the First Hour.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I click Start and the first hour of Hotel Dusk begins. A typewriter is flashing words on the screen giving me the date and location. Detective style music begins and the opening cutscene starts. The backgrounds look like photos, and then a character appears, he's completely pencil sketched! No coloring at all.

01- The man gets a call from Bradley, the next scene cuts to the docks where our pencil man shoots someone. Then he wakes up, "Just a dream," he says. Next scene, type goes too fast to read all the information. Actually this cutscene is moving pretty fast either way. The phone rings and the chief yells to get Hyde on the phone.
02 - Hyde, our hero, gets a page on his pager (did they have pagers in the late 70's?) Looks like he has an assignment. It's late December of 1979. Hyde is at a gas station returning the page on the pay phone. He's supposed to pick up a package at Hotel Dusk.

03 - The scene cuts to him driving away, even the fringes of the background are pencil drawn, very cool effect. Hyde drives by a woman on the road and then pulls into Hotel Dusk. Kyle Hyde introduces himself to me, I now have to use the stylus to advance text.

04 - The text appears on the right (bottom screen) and the action on the left. Hyde has been out of the force for three years and is now a salesman for Red Crown.

05 - Sounds like his boss doesn't run a totally clean shop as he has Hyde work a few side jobs here and there. Hyde says that this is what he'll be doing until he finds Bradley... I wonder who Bradley is?

06 - On the right is the hotel's front door, looks like I get to open it. I push on it and it creaks open. Chapter 1 begins, it's 5:00 PM on December 28th, 1979.
07 - I'm inside the lobby now, on the right screen I have a first person view of the entryway. Kyle is talking to himself on the left.

08 - Ah, very interesting! Now the first person view is on the left screen and an overhead view of the room is on the right. Looks like I'll be using the stylus to move Kyle around on the overhead map. I approach the front desk and examine it by clicking a magnifying glass icon.

09 - I'm able to examine all the things on the front desk, including a TV, clipboard, telephone, and calendar. Kyle has remarks about everything. I ring the bell. Quite a few times actually (I like being obnoxious in video games)!

10 - A man enters, the two screens feature Kyle on the left, and the man on the right. This guy looks a lot like Rocky Balboa from his latest movie of the same name. Creepy. I get some dialogue options, Kyle demands a room.
11 - The man's name is Dunning Smith, the hotel's owner. He welcomes me to his "little slice'a heaven."

12 - Dunning tries to talk to me into an expensive suite. I think I just need a regular room bud.

13 - He gives me a pen to fill out the registration. I'm able to scribble on the fields and Kyle Hyde's real information is filled out. Nifty.

14 - Dunning questions my name but then gives me my key. The key to room 215... *dun dun dun* The room is named "Wish."

16 - He also gives me a hotel brochure, this guy sure talks a lot.
17 - I tell Dunning that I'm waiting for a package, he doesn't look for it very hard. Says the bellhop will bring it up to me.

18 - I regain control on the overhead map, time to head to my room I guess. Woah, an old woman with an eye patch just walked in asking for a room! Creepy stuff! I'm now listening to her and Dunning talk.

19 - She wants the "special room, the wishing room." I bet I have the one she wants. Sucker.

20 - I enter the lobby area and wander a bit. All of a sudden Kyle starts talking to himself about Dunning and the reaction he had when he heard my name.
22 - Kyle does this thinking out loud bit two more times. I guess I should have questioned Dunning while talking to him!

23 - I enter the Central Hallway and take a moment to look at the map Dunning gave me. I poke at the first floor and can scroll around the map. Lots of areas are staff only, but it all doesn't seem that large. Wonder if the game can really keep it interesting with such a small area or if it'll expand? Guess we'll see (well, you won't in this review).

24 - I head for the stairs to the second floor, a young girl is sitting on the steps. I tell her to move it or lose it but she's being uncooperative. Kids these days.

26 - This kid sure is annoying, get off the stairs already! Or just go around her, she must way like 70 pounds.

the bane of my existence

27 - I finally get by her to the second floor, time to get to my room... until someone comes out of room 213 and stops me. There sure are a lot of people just wandering the halls. This ain't a bed and breakfast.

28 - Okay, the guy went back into his room already. Guess he didn't want to talk. Halfway down the hall and Dunning comes up behind me. He's pissed at me for hassling the little girl on the stairs.

29 - He tells me to get out before he throws me out. Holy crap, did I lose?! Sad music begins to play with the girl crying to herself again.

30 - Well, it really is Game Over. Geez. I click Retry and I'm back heading up the stairs...

31 - Guess I have to be nice to the girl this time.

33 - Still talking, she says she can't finish her puzzle. What the...

34 - It's a twenty piece puzzle with like five pieces not in place, this girl is pretty stupid if she can't finish this (or the game thinks I'm stupid and don't know how to use the DS). I use the stylus to drop the pieces in place.
35 - Now the girl is upset that she didn't finish it and throws it on the floor.

37 - My Lord, this is seriously the most obnoxious conversation ever. She finally runs off laughing that she tricked me with her crying. She left a puzzle piece behind, mysterious.

38 - I walk down the hallway and the guy from 213 stumbles out again. The guy introduces himself as Jeff Angel.

40 - I ask him a few questions about the girl on the stairs, he tells me her name is Melissa, from room 219. I also ask him why he said something about looking for a cop. He says it would be cool if there was a real violent crime here. Foreshadowing?

42 - I finally get to my room, but the game doesn't just let me in, I have to use my key.

43 - I set my suitcase down and the phone rings. I walk over to it and pick it up. It's Rachel, a cute woman that Kyle must work with. They talk for a bit about trust and rumors.
45 - She asks if the package has arrived yet, I'm supposed to give her a call when it does.

46 - I regain control and check out the room.

48 - When I reach an interesting part of the room, I can examine the surroundings more carefully and the overhead map becomes the first person view of the area. There I can click on objects and either collect them or listen to what Kyle has to say.

50 - The room and bathroom are all pretty grungy, not exactly high class. The shower is clean though and there is plenty of toilet paper.
51 - Not sure what else to do so I head back out to the hallway.

52 - I decide to knock on a few doors, something I would never do in real life, but then again I would never be a traveling salesman either or be such a jerk. I knock on 219 and Melissa's father opens the door. Well, he's already shut it, doesn't want to talk I suppose. Don't blame him. I did make his daughter cry in an alternate universe.

54 - Well, not sure what else to do so I head downstairs to question Dunning about those thoughts Kyle had before.

56 - He says another guest had the name of Kyle Hyde once. Odd. Kyle says it sounds like Bradley... He was in six months ago. But why would this guy pose as me?

58 - Next, Dunning tells me about the magic of room 215. Guests get their wishes after staying there a night. I wonder what Kyle's wish is? To find Bradley? To finally get with Rachel? To actually be colored in by his artist???

60 - I finish talking with the owner and that's the end of the first hour of Hotel Dusk: Room 215. I really feel like I have no idea what to do at the moment.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 4
Because Hotel Dusk is such a story driven game, I really have to be critical here. Hotel Dusk does very little to develop itself within its first hour. It does a good job eluding at things such as Kyle's past as a cop and his history with Bradley and the mystery behind room 215 at the hotel. However, this is offset by the extremely slow pace at which things develop and the agonizingly long conversations between characters. I really think the game could have focused less on the long conversation with the owner, Dunning, and let me explore the hotel and let the setting tell its story. I won't even mention the 13 minutes it took to successfully get past the little girl on the stairs (with a game over in between). This is disappointing and makes me leery on how the game will present the rest of the story, it will no doubt be doled out very slowly and in small increments.
Graphics and Sound: 8
First things first, I really like the graphical style of Hotel Dusk. The backgrounds are static but the characters are hand-drawn and sort of have that Beavis and Butthead style shake to them (or if you're more of a gamer, The Last Express), which surprisingly works in this 1979 detective drama too. On the other hand (or should I say the other screen?), we have rather ugly looking 3D graphics representing Kyle Hyde's first person view of the hotel. I guess they have to be polygonal due to being able to walk around and check things out close up, but I think maybe trying something less realistic like Okami did would have been a better decision. Sound wise, the music is really good and fits the setting and the sound effects match your actions well. Not much else I can say about them. Once again, a little voice acting would have been nice but I recognize the medium, so I won't complain any more.
Gameplay: 6
A mixed bag here considering I spent more than half an hour just clicking an arrow to go to the next piece of conversation. I have to give them credit though for trying out something different with the way you hold the DS. It works great for Hotel Dusk. Walking around the hotel is a breeze because you point at an overhead map with the stylus to direct Kyle. There doesn't seem to be much variation though in the actions you can do, but it's nice to be able to zoom in on a part of the room and check out every object in it individually. Goes to show how much time the developers put into the small things. It's pretty obvious the game is a plodder but it works for the first hour at least.
Fun Factor: 3
Hotel Dusk's first hour is not that much fun, a little below average, honestly. Investigating the hotel is enjoyable, but there's only so many lamps I can poke at to keep things interesting. Seriously though, the game throws way too much dialogue at you right away and it's boring, uninspired writing! Okay, I'll give the writers some credit for the opening scenes and Kyle's background, but I don't want to spend 10 minutes talking to a seven year old girl on a staircase! It's a blatant waste of my time and honestly sucks. Getting a Game Over screen in a point and click adventure game also makes little sense in this day and age, we're not playing King's Quest anymore people!
Minutes to Action: 8
Overall: 4
The bad outweighs the good here, unfortunately. Hotel Dusk's first hour is a drag to play. The story has some inspiration going for it but is blown out by the bland and never-ending dialogue. This adversely affects basically every other aspect of the game's first hour, except for the graphics. Once again, I'll note that they're very good and the pencil sketch characters are a nice change from the anime style we're seeing so much of on the DS (Trauma Center and Castlevania of note). I really had high hopes for Hotel Dusk but it seems like the game may disappoint overall. Let's hope it turns itself around.

Game 14: Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a cult-classic barely recognized by most gamers, but much like Streets of Rage 2, ZAMN (maybe the greatest gaming acronym ever) looks like it will soon get a release on the Wii Virtual Console. This will undoubtedly expose the game to a much wider audience whose only experience with run-and-gun games is Alien Hominid. Well, hopefully they're able to appreciate this oldie enough to check out some of the other greats in the genre, such as Metal Slug, Contra, or Gunstar Heroes - all of which are available on the Wii or Xbox 360. Actually, let's hope this game appreciates the modern gamer.

Anyways, Zombies Ate My Neighbors was actually developed by Konami and published by Lucasarts (a rare pairing). It was released for the Genesis and Super Nintendo in 1993 and features two player multiplayer. I'll be taking advantage of this and playing simultaneously with my friend Hylas. Let's see how the first hour of one of the original zombie games turned out...

For the record, we are playing the Super Nintendo version of the game (I just like the Genesis cover better), so the score I assign is specifically for the SNES version, but is no doubt indicative of the Genesis version too.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - We start a new game of ZAMN! But there's a password option too (it's been a long time since I've seen a password entry option)! I pick the guy with 3D glasses, Hylas is stuck with the girl. Level 1 starts off right away: Zombie Panic.
02 - We finish the first level with no problems. The objective is to rescue all your neighbors in each level. You rescue them simply by running into them. There were cheerleaders, babies, and even a fat man floating in the pool. Pretty fun so far, but very simple. Zombies went down in one shot.

03 - Time for level 2: Evening of the Undead... This level is bigger than the first, but still pretty easy. Hylas gets hit a couple of times by zombies, but nothing too bad. Once again, I nearly rescue all the helpless by myself! I also got a rocket launcher instead of a simple super soaker like gun.

07 - Level 3 is Terror in Aisle Five! This level was much harder, mostly because it features some crazy ax-wielding terror toddlers! These little kids were freaky and when you "killed" them, they turned into little fire demons! I was able to extinguish these with my fire extinguisher though. Speaking of demons, I was able to drink a potion and I turned into a huge purple monster! That was awesome.

13 - Chainsaw Hedgemaze Mayhem is the fourth level. And holy crap was this level hard! Basically you're running around a hedgemaze the whole level fighting off near invincible chainsaw wielding crazy-men! Sometimes you'd have like three of them chasing you at once, and Hylas and I found out way too late that their weakness was the fire extinguisher. We each lost at least one life, it was hard to keep track during this disaster.
20 - We received a password! VHRV! Level 5 is Weird Kids on the Block. This level was easier, we were provided with weed whackers pretty early on that let us mow through our enemies - which were actually dopplegängers of the two of us! There were also a few plant enemies, but nothing too scary in this level. I also found a few health packs for myself because I've been sucking it up!

26 - Pyramid of Fear, another maze-like level, but this time with tough mummies roaming the area. A lot of the doors shut down when you pass through them, making this a difficult level. Hylas and I both end up getting killed and losing all our lives. Time to enter the password.

34 - We enter the password and start the fifth level over again. We're able to beat that stage without trouble, and grab a few health packs in the process.
38 - The pyramid level again. Hylas asks me why the girl has boobs, this is not the time for such deep questions!

41 - Phew! We beat that level pretty easily this time. Knowledge of the layout helps a lot. Next level is Dr Tongue's Castle of Terror! Which didn't turn out to be too terrible. We were actually stuck for a few minutes until Hylas had the genius idea to use the fire extinguisher on the fireplace! It always comes back to the fire extinguisher...

47 - Titanic Toddler! This is actually a boss level, and the boss was a 20 foot tall baby! This toddler was tough, luckily Hylas had multiple super demon potions on hand and he whomped him almost single handedly! Awesome!
52 - We got a new password: NBGW! Level 9 is called Toxic Terrors. This level was pretty short and kind of easy. Hylas called it "sucky" though. Basically we were getting balls of goo launched at our heads the whole time which was pretty obnoxious. We saved everyone except one baby who got eaten by a goo monster. Too bad for him!

55 - Level 10 is called No Assembly Required. Geez, another insane level with the ax-throwing babies. This game is obsessed with making levels hard and maze-like. Anyways, this was our final level in the first hour. Peeking at the next level, it's called Weeds Gone Bad. I'm actually really glad we don't have to play another weed whacker level.

Now for some scores from the first hour out of 10.
Story: 1
The only story this game has is inherited by the title itself: Zombies Ate My Neighbors. It's a sweet and original title (ZAMN), and the game doesn't bother trying to explain why there are zombies, and why they are trying to eat your neighbors (I know it's something zombies do, so maybe that's an inappropriate question). Run-and-gun games aren't really known for epic storylines, so I'm glad ZAMN didn't bother trying. This score will have little effect on the final score.
Graphics and Sound: 3
The game looks okay. The sprites are drawn decently but there's so few of them, I'm pretty sure I saw nearly every sprite in the game in the first hour (never mind within the first 10 minutes). The sound is kind of lacking though, there's no zombie growling and the music is... lame. I honestly can't even remember a single riff from the entire hour of playing. One last note on the graphics though: the giant baby sprite was a nice surprise and looked really good.
Gameplay: 4
Ugh, this game is sometimes very obnoxious to play. Zombies nearly spawn right underneath you and being limited to shooting at the typical eight angles makes fighting back difficult at times. There's a wide range of weapons which is nice (no boomstick though) and a few interesting utility objects like distraction clowns. However, this game is hard and cheap. Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a kick-in-the-pants reminder that older games are pretty tough and modern gamers are hand-held by tutorials and quick saves. At least the game features a password system. I could go on and on about the difficult levels ZAMN throws at you very early on (that frakking chainsaw level was one of the most annoying and difficult levels I've played in a long time - and that was the fourth level!), but I think you get the point by now. The gameplay score gets an extra point for featuring a radar system that shows you where the neighbors are around you.
Fun Factor: 4
The game is still fun though, but it's just mediocre fun injected with frustration. The first hour of ZAMN doesn't really do anything that cool except for the giant baby fight, which would have been pretty tough if Hylas wasn't carrying super potions though. I was really looking forward to playing this game and enjoying the first hour of it, but it never really kicked off. I really can't see myself playing this game anymore than this. Kind of disappointing.
Minutes to Action: 0
Overall: 4
Hylas mentioned after we were done that he felt Zombies Ate My Neighbors was neither good or bad, and quickly gave it an overall score of 4. I would agree with that score (after so many more words though). No doubt when this game came out it was so original (I can't think of a zombie game that came out before it) and the gameplay was decent enough to get by (if I had my Nintendo Power collection with me I would totally look up the score they gave it). Nowadays, it just doesn't cut it. I wish I could give it a better score but the game just didn't age well in my opinion (though I consider a 4 a just below average score). Either way, I would recommend Zombies Ate My Neighbors to fans of survival horror games as the horror is more comedic, you definitely have to learn how to survive in this game! It's a great alternative to the too-serious genre these days (though from what I hear, Stubbs the Zombie sounds like fun) and I'm sure run-and-gun gamers have already eaten this one up.

Art by Mario González - used with permission.

Game 2: EarthBound

Game number two in The First Hour series is the quirky Super Nintendo RPG, EarthBound. One of the most popular classic console role playing games, EarthBound sports an odd sense of humor and has a huge cult following. But the real question is what I ask: is the first hour any good? I can tell you one thing, it's not as violent as God of War 2.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - The game starts when I hit 'Start New Game'. The game is sporting some funky music and a very unique background. I choose 'Strawberry flavor' for my text box colors, nifty!

02 - Phew! I just finished naming just about everything in the game! My main characters are Greg, Amy, Gob, and Bruce (but I have a feeling I won't be seeing much more than Greg in this first hour). My dog's name is Dog (yes I know, but I needed to speed things up). I also like Pizza and Games! Now, on with the game!

04 - The year is 199X. Uh huh!

06 - We see a fly over of the town I must live by. Then the game cuts to me, Greg! I'm sleeping like a little babe. Suddenly there's a loud crash and I finally get to move!

07 - I raid my house for weapons and settle for a cracked bat that I find in my sister's room.

09 - I say good bye to my mom, after changing out of my "jammies", and head outside. I start wandering my way around and find a path up a mountain. I walk up it only to run into a police barricade right when I find the meteorite!

11 - The police won't let me go through so I guess I need to walk back home? The game isn't very clear on anything at this point. I'm sleeping again and are woken up this time by some loud knocking.

12 - Turns out to be Pokey, the neighborhood fatty. He says his brother is missing so my mom sends us out along with Dog, to find Picky.

13 - The phone rings, no one answers. I guess I will, obviously. It's my dad who must be a good for nothing bum if all he can do is call. Well, turns out he's not a bum because he just gave me 30 bucks! Score!

14 - I finally get to leave the house again, but I run into a crow! My first battle! And the first real action of the game, only 14 minutes in... I handily beat the crow with my cracked bat, and then collect a magic butterfly who calms me. Reminds me of other magic things.

15 - There's another crow, and another. Pokey just stands there and scratches himself, my dog sometimes attacks. I level up and learn a spell, lifeup. How am I able to cast spells, there's no explanation.

16 - I keep getting cookies from crows, why do crows drop cookies?

17 - A snake! My first non-crow enemy, quite the milestone.

18 - We get to the top of the mountain again and my dog takes off. Probably too many people in the party or something lame. Picky joins me and his older brother and then a bee pops out of the meteorite (one of the first of many things that makes absolutely no sense). He blabs on about the future and some bad guy named Giygas (undoubtedly the final boss).

20 - Buzz-Buzz (the bee if you didn't realize) joins up and we wander back down the mountain. This is getting kind of tedious. All of a sudden we encounter a man shaped as a star, the game calls them starmen for some reason.

21 - Speaking of tedious, this battle consists me of pressing the A button over and over again. We finally win with absolutely no danger to me and I ding level 3.

22 - I bring the neighbor brats back home and their fat dad chases them upstairs. The parents babble on about how noble they are, etc. But then the super deformed mom just swaps Buzz-Buzz! I approach the dying bee and he gives me his dying message.

23 - I must go to Giant Step, to collect something no doubt. He gives me a sound stone to collect things in. I'm not sure where he was carrying this sound stone but it must have weighed him down.

24 - I walk outside and get my picture taken. Odd.

25 - I call my dad and find out he's giving me 44 dollars for killing crows and snakes! When I was growing up I would have made 44 cents for killing hundreds of dandelions. I'm jealous.

27 - I take another nap and then head south into town, Onett.

28 - Hey! A garbage bin! I inspect it only to find a perfectly delicious hamburger! Mmmm... my hit points are maxed out!

29 - I run into another road block at the south end of town, looks like I'll need to figure out what to do here before I move on. It probably has something to do with these punk kids attacking me!

30 - I get into a brawl with a skateboarder and he calls for help, the wuss. Well, turns out I start getting tag teamed and almost die on the streets of Onett.

33 - I wander around town some more and find Giant Step, northwest of town. However, the door is locked and it appears to be two mimes guarding it too, scary.

34 - I head to the library and get a map of the town.

36 - Getting mobbed by some more pogo stick people, but I prevail. Hit level five, but I think the game is slightly unbalanced.

38 - I just got called a twit and spanky. This game has a great sense of humor.

39 - Okay, I just got killed by a man in a hula hoop costume. I come back to life in the hotel with full HP but no PSI so I decide to sleep there a night. Only 35 bucks and I'm rolling in the dough thanks to my dad and my street cleaning career.

40 - I find the boss of the street punks, Frank. Time to take him down.

41 - Or not, as Frank just destroyed me. I have a bad feeling I'll be leveling for the rest of the hour.

42 - Another night at the hotel to recover.

43 - I get mobbed by a bunch of punks and die, again.

45 - Dead.

47 - Mobbed. Tried to run. Dead.

49 - This time a guy chased me down and caught me by surprise, so he got the first turn. Dead again.

51 - Finally won a battle, level 6!

52 - Quickly die due to low health from the last battle.

54 - Dead again.

55 - I get some revenge and take down a pogo-sticker in one hit! It feels good to SMAAAAASH!

57 - I get mobbed and die again. These bad guys calling in their friends is getting really obnoxious. I think I have just enough time to try and fight Frank again.

59 - It's an epic battle against the feminine Frank! He keeps saying nasty things and makes my Guts go down. I'm not even sure what Guts do so I guess I'm not worried! After tapping A enough, I finally take Frank down!

60 - But of course, Frank's got a toy! It's a giant mechanized robot who shoots bursts of steam in between his punches. The steam does nothing so it gives me time to recover in between attacks. One time he hits me for over 42 hit points! I only have 62 at max! Luckily, I had just healed so I survived. After bashing the robot enough, I win! My first real boss battle is complete, and just in time as I take out Frank and his cohort at exactly the hour mark!

Time's up! Now for my ratings on a somewhat difficult first hour of EarthBound.

Story: 6
The story so far is only semi-original but very quirky and light-hearted. The game doesn't throw a lot at you right away which is nice. What it does present is funny and has lots of potential, if somewhat derivative at times.
Graphics: 6
I will be rating this category by what is out at the time, and it's artistic style. EarthBound presents very simple drawings, part realistic and part whimsical at the same time. The game is fun to look at but its simplicity hurts it. There's not a lot of flair in the first hour to really impress me. The game does have a unique psychedelic tone which I enjoyed, though.
Gameplay: 4
EarthBound moves at a plodding place. The main character walks slow, people talk slow, and battles are very tedious with mostly just you pressing A over and over again while you hope you don't get smash attacked. The town fights against the punk kids seem highly unbalanced as some guys can take out half your health with one hit pretty easily. As I got more hit points, I became over-confident and started getting teamed up against, getting killed just as easily. This was part my fault, but I feel the game is too difficult in the beginning and may scare off some younger players who aren't willing to tough it out and just level up.
Fun Factor: 5
The first hour of EarthBound is simply not that fun. It can be difficult and trying, forcing you to level up for the game's first real boss. That's not very fun. The game redeems itself, however, with its unique sense of humor and style. This is definitely one game that pulls off humor well.
Minutes to Action: 14
Overall First Hour: 4
EarthBound's first hour moves slow and can be tedious. I should admit though, I've played EarthBound many times before and can testify that the rest of the game is very fun. The fan overlap between this game and God of War 2 is likely small, though somehow I fall into it. The games are very different, and for different audiences. For RPG fans, EarthBound is well worth playing and a refreshing change from the games today. However, the first hour just doesn't cut it for an RPG.