The Halloween Hack: An Analytical Essay

Channel:

MarioPawner

Subscribers:

350

Published on March 13, 2023 4:24:26 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYk7OIJa6UM

Game:

Earthbound (1994)

Duration: 53:21

11,294 views

550

First I'd like to open by saying this will probably be the last video I upload for some time. I had the idea to make this video and had no idea how much effort it was going to end up taking. To anyone out there who does video essays, especially those who edit themselves, you have my utter and undying respect because holy hell does this take forever.

Just to give some context, I had the idea for this video and began working on it in November 2019. Yes, really. I'd get tired of working on it, let it sit for a few months, remember and feel bad about it being unfinished and then get back to work on it. Happened with the script, with the recording, with the audio editing, and then the video editing.

So I finally decided to give up and just finish it, without all the jokes and edits I had originally wanted to add. You can quite clearly tell the point where I lowered my standards.

I had massively underestimated how long this video was going to be, how difficult and lengthy of a project this would be, how much I would end up wanting to say about this hack. I originally thought this was going to be maybe twenty minutes long, and that was certainly an understatement.

So what have I taken away from this? One is that I still believe in the premise I started writing this with- that even awkward, amateur works are worthwhile to examine deeply, and in fact can be even more interesting because of their flaws. The other is that I truly enjoy the process of thinking and writing about games far more than I do spending hours going on to make videos out of them. I'll probably continue making essays about games moving forward.

If you want to play the hack for yourself/read Toby's Making of:
https://earthboundcentral.com/2009/10/earthbound-halloween-hack/

I took a couple of things from Toby's old site but it's not up anymore and excluded from the Internet Archive. This might or might not be an attempt to bury the past, but if so it's an understandable one. Sometimes, dead is better.

Other Statistics