For the first time ever, Nintendo gave N64 fans and the press a chance to experience the company’s first (and possibly only) turn-based Nintendo 64 roleplaying game: Earthbound 64.

Known as Mother 3: The End of the Pig King in Japan, the game picks up 10 years after the original Mother left off. The player assumes the roles of the Clint Eastwood-like cowboy Flint and the two kids Lucca and Klaus as well as their dog Boney. Although it was a bit hard to gauge how the final game — and more importantly, its story — will come together judging from the still only 50% complete demo version shown at Spaceworld, but the game looks very promising so far.

One thing is already clear: Shigesato Itoi’s Earthbound 64 won’t be cookie-cutter dungeon exploration fare like the glut of recent RPGs that’s coming out of Japan. While the Spaceworld demo didn’t offer much information on Earthbound’s storyline (right now, it could be summed up in one sentence: “Find out why there is a UFO in the forest making strange sounds…”), we were able to sample a few of the game’s areas:

• Desert Canyons: Players control Flint as he makes his way through an arid canyon landscape populated by wild boars and vultures. This demo level perfectly shows off how the game’s battle system will work. Flint, who can run around at fairly high speeds, can see his opponents at all time. Once he gets close, he can either try to go around them or tackle them head on. If Flint manages to hit his enemy, the creature may get stunned. Approaching the opponent then triggers a turn-based battle scene, similar in style to the predecessor’s first-person fights. If Flint stunned his opponent, he gets a chance to attack without his opponent being able to block or even respond. Battles are completely menu driven (for more on the battles, read below).

• Flying the Pork Bean in the desert: Flint’s hovering bean-shaped ship sure looks strange. With the help of the hovercraft, players can quickly zoom about the landscape and explore vast areas. The desert area includes a few huts and water holes, as well as a host of pig soldiers and mechanical attack towers. If you’re not careful and you bump into an enemy while flying the bean, you will get knocked out of the craft and be attacked immediately.

• Snake Dungeon: Simple textures, underground rivers and plenty of snakes highlight this green-tinged dungeon.

• Train Cut-scene: This scene was only shown on video, but it perfectly shows how unusual Earthbound is going to be. One of the main character is riding a giant dragon who gallops through the landscape in front of a setting sun. A futuristic bullet train appears and drives alongside the dragon. Welcome to Mother 3.

• Rain: Another cutscene shows Boney the dog running through a stormy night. As rain pours down on him accompanied by thunder and lightning, he witnesses something in the forest…

• Town: Flint explores Tatsumairi village. This portion of the game is played from a more zoomed out 3D perspective. Flint can walk around and chat with NPCs using the Z button or open doors and go into buildings.

• The Band: DCMC plays some hot tunes in this well-choreographed cutscene that has hundreds of pigs soldiers dancing to the beat. Great sound samples.

• Mine Cart: This is clearly the visually most impressive sequence shown in the Spaceworld Demo. Lucca and Klaus jump into a mine cart and rocket through a series of caves and dungeons. As they speed along, parts of the cave collapse and huge boulders come crashing down behind them, before the cart finally falls off the track and plummets into a river below. Thanks to the silky smooth graphics and perfectly orchestrated music, this may be one of the most impressive cutscenes on N64 yet.

The controls in the game are intuitive and easy to master. The Z trigger lets you speak to people, check for secrets and use a spin attack, R brings up the inventory screen and menus, C buttons are for menu navigation, B cancels an action, initiates a jump attack or accelerates the Pork Bean, and A selects an option, makes your character jump, brakes the Pork Bean or causes a flying attack.

The turn-based battles use a circular command menu that lets players choose whether to attack, use magic, check something, talk, go to the inventory screen, examine the player’s stats or get up (after being knocked out during the realtime sequences). Here, the graphics are much more simplistic and downright psychedelic. As players face their opponents in a first-person perspective, all kinds of color cycling and weird animated stuff is happening in the background. Think lava lamps and you get the picture.

Music plays a huge role in the game. Not only is the sound well orchestrated and memorable to boot, keeping the rhythm of it all also plays an important role during the battle sequences. Listen to the music and hit the button at the right time to pull of a more powerful attack.

So far, Earthbound 64 certainly looks like it will deliver plenty of originality and an unusual RPG quest. The demo didn’t clarify much in the ways of story or character interaction (a quick scene in the demo video did confirm that the party can consist of more than one character), but the interesting graphics, excellent sound and wonderful sense of humor certainly left a lasting impression. RPG fans should already be saving up their money for this one.

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