“Man, I tore through this book. What a great story. There are a handful of really fascinating stories that are coming out of the video game world, and this book captures one that’s gone mostly untold, or at least hasn’t been condensed into a single spot until now.
More than the other Boss Fight Books, this one is a great read for gamers and non-gamers alike. It covers the story of Wisdom Tree, a company created to make non-Nintendo-licensed games for the NES that had a basis in religion. I mean, sort of.
Within that story, we get a lot of great questions. I mean, what is a truly Christian product, anyway? Is there any way to sell something with every link in the chain being Christian? Why can’t we play a video game AS Jesus? What is retro and what is nostalgia, and why is it becoming such a powerful force in recent history?
And how does a single game company go from making weird games like Robodemons to making Bible Adventures, and then to starting in on a Hellraiser game? How do the building blocks of Wolfenstein, a game about shooting Nazis and ultimately Hitler, become transformed into a game about Noah, as in big-ass boat Noah?
WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS ——> FREEFALL!?
It’s a great little book that covers a very niche part of gaming, but also isn’t afraid to expand into the larger world.
This book also had the best ending of the books I’ve read in the series. It ties everything up with some questions. If video games, it turned out, really did make you dumber, if gaming was worse than a night of hard drinking, if there was a real toll to pay, would gamers still game?
Read this book. And I am so goddamn pumped to read Metal Gear Solid, the next installment in the series, I think, that it’s hard to describe.”