July 5, 2026
EarthBound, but make it drama
A gender-swap EarthBound for my daughter (2025)
Dad remixes a classic game for his daughter, and the comments instantly turn chaotic
TLDR: A dad changed parts of the old game EarthBound so the main character would resemble his daughter, hoping she might play it years from now. Commenters promptly split into three camps: praising the handmade effort, arguing over gender, and cracking jokes that nearly stole the whole show.
A dad lovingly rebuilt parts of the classic Super Nintendo game EarthBound so its young hero would feel more like his daughter one day: new girl-coded sprites, a bow instead of a cap, tweaked names, rewritten lines, even a dog recolored to match the family pet. Sweet? Yes. Quietly nerdy? Also yes. But the real fireworks were in the comments, where the internet did what it does best: turn a wholesome gift into a mini culture war with a side of memes.
One camp was almost disappointed the story was so human-made. One commenter joked they were shocked this wasn’t yet another “I asked an AI to do it” post, then wished for more juicy details—especially whether the daughter has actually played it yet. Another commenter came in swinging with the hottest take of the thread, basically accusing the dad of pushing old-fashioned gender ideas onto his child. That instantly changed the vibe from “aww” to “uh-oh.” And then, like a perfect internet palate cleanser, the joke brigade arrived: “There ain’t room enough for two Nessies in EarthBound” became the thread’s cowboy one-liner, giving the whole debate a weirdly delightful energy.
So yes, this is a story about customizing an old game. But it’s also about how even the most personal, heartfelt project can summon three classic online tribes at once: the AI skeptics, the gender discourse crowd, and the pun merchants. Naturally, the pun merchants may have won.
Key Points
- •The author created a custom gender-swapped EarthBound ROM for the SNES over about a week using CoilSnake.
- •The project included sprite edits for Ness, including replacing the baseball cap with a red bow and updating multiple sprite variants.
- •The game text was modified to change pronouns and gendered references, and preset name and preference lists were customized for the author's daughter.
- •The author recolored King the dog to match the family dog, using a repurposed palette because EarthBound sprite palettes are shared and restrictive.
- •The credits font was edited to support accented characters for a French message, and the author chose this custom build over pre-made hacks to avoid unwanted added text.