...What was the promotion? I mean, I know it came with a player's guide, but...
"This game stinks." I know, I had Nintendo Power back when EarthBound came out. To promote the game, the magazine had some scratch-and-smell stickers. One smelled like old pizza. Another like... I think smelly gym socks. And something pungent for the one with the picture of Master Belch on it. I think the Player's Guide had scratch-and-smell stickers too, I don't know since I never got it.
In hindsight, I don't know why the heck they chose to promote EarthBound that way. Maybe it was to make the game seem as weird as possible. I know I found it interesting since the promotion stood out from anything else the magazine had ever done (but then, I was the kid who eagerly snatched up all the super player power whatever cards at the end of some of the magazines).
So, Nintendo seemed enthusiastic about EarthBound at first. Then through disappointing sales, they buried it under the sand.
Although this doesn't explain to me why they later decided to have one issue with two pages of coverage on EarthBound 64. Granted, that's a pitiful amount of coverage, but they recognized the game at least.
