Earthbound Player’s Guide Officially Released Online For Free

Earthbound was an absolute classic. An RPG set in the modern world, where instead of potions, we had donuts. Instead of swords and bows, we had bats and yo-yos. It was filled with puns and tongue-in-cheek humor and stands in many gamers' minds as their favorite childhood memories in gaming. While we haven't gotten a new one in a VERY long time, Nintendo seems well aware of the love for Earthbound and has released the official Player's Guide as a PDF.

What makes that so special? This wasn't a third-party walkthrough with awful screenshots and tips thrown in, it was an officially crafted guide from Nintendo that came bundled with the original game. Imagine as a kid, getting not only a game but a piece of treasure that came along with it. The guide was like the prize at the bottom of the cereal box if the cereal was a genre-defining masterpiece.

No, this isn't embellishment seen through nostalgia glasses, this guide was awesome. First of all, the cover looks straight out of 90's Nickelodeon with really well-rendered pictures of the cast. This fits the tone pretty well, considering how "American" Earthbound was portrayed. Take a look:

So why has this suddenly been posted? Well, with the release of the SNES Classic, Nintendo has been officially releasing PDF versions of the instruction manuals of games that appear on the "new" console.

Because Earthbound launched with the epic guide instead of a typical manual, we were treated with this 20-some-odd years later. For those unaware, Earthbound is, in fact, one of the games available on the SNES Classic. The actual, physical guide goes for well over $100 online and it's really something to experience, so a PDF version gets us as close as we can to a physical copy. So now we get to enjoy gold like this:

Have you played EarthBound before? Check out the guide here and remember that EarthBound is available on the Wii U's Virtual Console if you don't have a SNES Classic!