Casually stumbled across this ROM out of pure memory. Earthbound is a classic that will never lose it's spark, and these Roms make it even better! The Halloween hack and all that, but what truly caught my attention was this one. EquestriaBound is the classic RPG but with a changed up script and the big elephant in the room: It's my little pony themed. Whether you like or hate the show, this is still something you shouldn't look over. Let's go over what we have here.

GRAPHICS - 8/10
To this very day, Earthbound remains a gorgeous looking game, and this hack is no different. The new sprites are lively, the overworld is as fresh as ever, and it's just a beaut overall. Honestly, this game looks like it would belong in a fashion show with how good the new additions look. The only problem? Sometimes the enemy sprites look...weird...like, REALLY weird. Other than that, it looks great!

SOUND - 10/10
I LOVED the new songs they added in, as well as some of the sounds. This Rom knows what it's doing and does it to the finest degree, truthfully. From the very moment I step foot into the world I hear that gorgeous music and think to myself, "This is going to be a great adventure." There's zero problems with this beautiful soundtrack that speaks to me on so many levels. Honestly, I could be here all day talking about the music, but where would that get us? Basically, music is absolutely amazing, moving on.

ADDICTIVENESS - 10/10
This is honestly the most self explanatory situation I have ever been in. Why would I not play this again?

STORY - 8/10
Beauty at it's finest. What is there not to like? The story has it's own changes in this Rom and even if there are some bad mixes, there's still good ones to keep it from draining. The story keeps itself fresh and new while still sticking to the Earthbound formula. The references to the show, the classic enemies of old and new, all that good stuff. In short, this is a case I'm not missing out on.

DEPTH - 7/10
If difficulty wasn't the weakest trait, this would probably be it. The game has it's great secrets, and sometimes special, new fights! However in all seriousness it's kind of just a re-skin of Earthbound with ponies and a changed up script. There's not much else to talk about in this subject because that's the main problem here. It's pretty much a re-skin with some changed elements.

DIFFICULTY - 6/10
Earthbound is known to be a semi-difficult RPG. The tough enemies and bosses greet you with a fierce challenge while at the same time still giving you a chance. Here in EquestriaBound...its literally the same thing. Bosses are great, oppose you with a decent challenge, and still give you a chance to win. ESPECIALLY if you've level grinded, because they then become such a hard joke that I could even swear. But I'm not going to because I know this site is meant to be family friendly.

OVERALL - 8.2/10.0
This Rom is a perfect definition of what a great Rom hack should be. Interesting changes to the story, good sprite work, clever new sounds/music, yet it still keeps that old charm the original has. EquestriaBound makes it's mark as a powerful competitor to the Halloween Hack. Even if it is just a pony re-skin.

This Rom is one heck of a theoretical ride that pretty much just gives zero thoughts about a little thing we call gravity.. Here in this hack, the only things you'll notice have changed are likely minimal. Mario's blue instead of red, the audio has a faster pacing to it, and the big elephant in the room: Mario says screw you to gravity and flies off! By holding the jump key Mario will ascend to the heavens and make pretty much almost all the levels impossible to fail at. You can skip over pretty much anything with the few exceptions of Bowser rooms, overshooting the flag, and mistiming your descent. Other than that, the game is a complete breeze to beat. This is where the shortcomings arrive, unfortunately. You see, with the fact that you can jump over everything means there's bare bones difficulty in the game and that really bums me out. I would have loved to see some kind of changed level design to be better suited for the jumping mechanic, but it's just Super Mario Brothers with zero G's given. This comes off as rather disappointing to my view. The game is also literally the same story so there's nothing to cover there. The music's faster pacing however is a fresh brew to bring into this world. I like the faster pace to give it a sense of wonder to how the hell Mario just FLIES OFF into the unknown. The classic style is the same as always, and like everyone says, "Don't fix what isn't broke." Truly, this is an interesting Rom to behold, but only for the first time playing. You'll get the gist of it pretty quickly and find it stupidly easy to win the entire game considering almost all of the levels aren't roofed. This comes off as a gigantic problem considering the failure in difficulty, the lack of depth and variety, and the story is pretty much just the same thing except Mario becomes superman for some reason. It was fun the first time, but it got old quickly. I apologize, but I have to give this game a 5.5, as it's only worth the first time playing in my eyes. Don't let my review stop you though. Go ahead and play it as many times as you want.