PSA: Earthbound now available for Wii U eShop

Classic Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound is available on the Wii U eShop today, for $9.99.

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The Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound has finally hit the Wii U eShop today, for $9.99. Though the main eShop page doesn't feature the game as of the time of writing, it can be pulled up and purchased by searching for it.

We heard from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in April that it would be coming later this year. The decision was apparently made to meet the demands of vocal fans, as Earthbound has gained cult classic status. Don't get your hopes too high for another installment, though, as the series creator has referred to a sequel as "impossible."

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  • reply
    July 18, 2013 8:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, PSA: Earthbound now available for Wii U eShop.

    Classic Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound is available on the Wii U eShop today, for $9.99.

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      July 18, 2013 8:36 AM

      i wonder why they don't release these to both of their eshop platforms? for 9.99 for a SNES game, i guess it doesn't matter.

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        July 18, 2013 9:02 AM

        To be fair at most stores that would sell you a Snes cartridge, you'd be paying $40+ easily.

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          July 18, 2013 9:03 AM

          Apparently Earthbound is going for $150+ on ebay... great.

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            July 18, 2013 9:16 AM

            Only because of rarity. $10 for a game that old feels way too high.

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              July 18, 2013 9:22 AM

              Maybe to you, but not to me.

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                July 18, 2013 9:55 AM

                Obviously everyone's price tolerance will vary. But to me, and old SNES game for the same price as games that are maybe 6-12 months old on Steam right now? That's not good value for my dollar.

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              July 18, 2013 12:22 PM

              Its not really rare, its just priced high because no one sells their copies because the game is too awesome.

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            July 18, 2013 9:56 AM

            $200+. It's expensive.

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            July 18, 2013 9:58 AM

            we're talking virtual console titles being bought digitally, working natively on that platform, not fanboy collector's items. 9.99 still seems up there for a game that's 20 years old but for 10-20 bucks you'd expect a full HD remake, no?

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              July 18, 2013 3:13 PM

              Hotline Miami is regular price $10 and appears to be about the same graphical quality.

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                July 18, 2013 3:17 PM

                hotline miami has an intentional look. that's different than just buying some old game.

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                  July 18, 2013 4:15 PM

                  To be fair, earthbound was doing the old look before it was cool. Its particular low res sprites are also on purpose.

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        July 18, 2013 9:07 AM

        [deleted]

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      July 18, 2013 8:39 AM

      FFS Nintendo, release Mother 3 for VC already. Just give a cut to the fan translators.

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      July 18, 2013 9:50 AM

      Nintendo VC games are so overpriced. Wouldn't they pull in more revenue overall if they knocked the price down a little? It's all digital so it's not like they have to deal with storage and inventory costs.

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        July 18, 2013 12:16 PM

        Kinda curious there, but how can the Shack say VC games are overpriced while GOG has relatively same prices for old games?
        (Personal note: I find both overpriced)

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      July 18, 2013 10:07 AM

      Sucks this is only on Wii U. The Wii U doesn't display in 240p (native res for SNES games), only 480i. So Earthbound and other old games are going blurry for those of us with nice CRT's or XRGB's for old-school gaming. The Wii actually does 240p by default for virtual console games.

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        July 18, 2013 12:16 PM

        The Wii doesn't display in 240p, either. It's not a valid video mode for output. They probably use a 240p render target internally and scan convert it to 480i/480p, but there's nothing stopping them from doing the same thing on the Wii U.

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          July 18, 2013 9:08 PM

          Google it. It definitely does a progressive, 15hz scan rate like the NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. The Wii U currently does not do this, I imagine it could only be capable with a patch.

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            July 19, 2013 2:49 AM

            Ah, looks like they added this funky double strike render mode since the last time I worked with the system. It outputs "240p" by what looks to be cloning each scanline to make it 480p. The scan conversion would convert that to interlaced/progressive for output to the TV. There's still nothing stopping them from doing this exact thing on the WiiU virtual console. It'd probably be easier to do, given they'd be able to use the pixel shader to handle the conversion rather than trying to hack around with the hardware.

            Just to clarify, there's two subsystems at work here. The graphics library and the video output library. The video output library only supports proper NTSC/PAL formats (480i/480p/576i) and lets you specify scan conversion settings. The graphics library lets you specify the dimensions of the render target (amongst other things), which can really be anything so long as it fits in the dinky amount of embedded framebuffer memory they have.

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      July 18, 2013 11:59 AM

      Impossibru!

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