Wild West Earthbound: A Look At Boot Hill Bounties for Nintendo Switch

Earthbound is one of my favorite SNES rpgs. I liked the game before I was even a rpg fan! I couldn’t stand other rpgs then, but Earthbound reached me because of its unique humor. There has never been a game exactly like Earthbound. Many have tried to be like it and many have failed. And now there is Boot Hill Bounties. Its set in the Wild West but there are aspects of it that feel like Earthbound.

Boot Hill Bounties is set in the Wild West and features a group thats on a mission to stop a bad posse. The story is heavily inspired by spagetti westerns and other Wild West genre influences. It doesn’t take itself too seriously though because there is plenty of humor in the game.

The humor is found in the game’s story and its battle system. Many of the random fights that the characters have gotten into so far are pretty outlandish. For instance, I fought a bunch of raccoons who thought I wanted to take away their barrel. Oh and one time some mice and a cat teamed up to fight me.

The story and the humor is uniquely its own. That said, the game does feel like Eartbound, the classic SNES rpg, in some ways.

When I first started the game, Boot Hill Bounties felt like nothing I had ever played before. A Wild West rpg with wonderful graphics and a first person battle system. The Vantages are a pretty unique concept too.

Then as I continued in Boot Hill Bounties world, I saw how the rooms in buildings felt designed in a similar manner to Earthbound: square, enclosed, and a small aspect ratio. Also the first real town I came to reminded me of the first big town in Earthbound. Its very obvious that Earthbound was an inspiration for Boot Hill Bounties.

Even without the design aspects of Earthbound, Boot Hill Bounties could be considered a Wild West Earthbound. It has humor and a unique setting, with interesting characters and a first person battle system that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Boot Hill is a bit of a Wild West parody like Earthbound was a “modern day” parody.

I think fans of Earthbound and rpgs in general might want to check Boot Hill Bounties out.

We hope to have a full review of Boot Hill Bounties next week. The game is currently available on the Nintendo Switch eshop!