EarthBound Halloween Hack has been described as a "prototype" of Fox's 2015 game, Undertale, featuring similarities in themes and writing.[4][5] The ROM hack draws inspiration from the Brandish series, directly using its main character Varik as a substitute for EarthBound's Ness[4] and the game's final boss track, "Megalovania," being inspired by the Brandish 2: The Planet Buster song "Gadobadorrer."[2]
Plot
The game takes place in an alternative timeline of EarthBound where Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo don't return back home after defeating Giygas. Varik, the main character, soon enters the lab of Dr. Andonuts, who has been wracked with grief under the assumption that his actions during EarthBound's story killed his son Jeff and his friends.[4]
Reception
EarthBound Halloween Hack has received generally mixed reception by journalists, praising its mechanics and overall writing while criticizing the edgy humor. Miri Teixeira of GamesRadar+ writes that "if you fit into that group of Undertale/Deltarune fans [who] are able to handle a good dose of teenage edginess – I'd still [...] recommend the Halloween Hack today."[4]Hardcore Gaming 101's Jonathan Kaharl calls the Halloween Hack "almost like a prototype Undertale in terms of themes, comedy and tone", but states that "it's not hard to see why Toby Fox looks back on [it] poorly," critiquing its "hit or miss" black comedy.[5]
Legacy
The song that plays during the game's final boss fight, "Megalovania", was later remixed for subsequent projects Fox worked on: Homestuck,[6]Undertale,[7] and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.[8] A fan-made recreation of the first chapter of Fox's 2018 game Deltarune as an EarthBound ROM hack, titled Bound to the Dark World, was developed over the span of two years and released on October 31, 2025.[9][10]YouTuberMatPat theorized in a 2016 video that the Undertale character Sans and Ness were the same person using Toby Fox's Halloween Hack and a secret room in Undertale containing items whose descriptions MatPat claimed corresponded to belongings of Ness as evidence. The video later became a popular meme, being referenced by Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai in 2020[11] and Toby Fox regarding MatPat's retirement from the Game Theorists channel.[12]
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