Did you know that if you press the right buttons in the right order, you can manipulate Earthbound’s random enemies into doing whatever you’d like? No? Now you know.
Last night, as part of the annual Summer Games Done Quick marathon, speedrunner Aurilliux showed off some of the incredible things he can do in the classic Super Nintendo game, successfully beating it in just under an hour and a half thanks to random number generator (RNG) manipulation, sequence-breaking, and a whole lot of skill.
It’s all worth watching, but if you want a good example of this RNG manipulation, go to around 11:50. To cut to the most significant sequence breaks, skip to around 45:00. Also, skip to 56:15 for a special shoutout.
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