“Just finished this one, which is the last book I had left from season one of Boss Fight Books.
I thought what might be useful is to put down a short thing about each book and a reason to recommend each, or to list a type of reader that might enjoy each one. Because I enjoyed all of them, but in different ways.
Earthbound: Possibly my favorite. I think this book, more than the others, made me really want to play the game. It’s a nice balance of explaining how weird the game is while also not spoiling the whole thing. Great example of the way in which “spoiling” a game is hard to do. The fun and surprise of it comes after you dive in and are immersed, not from the list of events. This is a great intro to the series, especially if you are familiar with video games and somewhat interested in them.
Chrono Trigger: I think the most interesting part of this book, for me, was the discussion of localization. How they take something that’s distinctly Japanese and make it work in America. For culture nerds, a great read.
ZZT: This one has a lot to say about gender and identity, but I think this is also a great read for anyone who doubts the positive power of the internet and gaming. Or, maybe a good read for people who feel like the internet is a hellscape wasteland with nothing but negativity to offer.
Galaga: A great book by a fantastic writer. This is the one I’d recommend to anyone who is not particularly interested in video games. Galaga is pretty easy to understand, and you don’t have to understand it to understand and appreciate what goes on in this book. Probably less game-oriented than the others, but a really great read.
Jagged Alliance 2: This one is heavily oriented towards the development side, though it’s explained really clearly. Ultimately, the result is a book that kind of explains the limitations and limitlessness of games and gaming, and it makes for a really fascinating look at the way games are programmed and how, in some ways, the more sophisticated programming and business aspects of today can be a really limiting factor.
Super Mario Bros. 2: I think I was a little hard on this initially, but that’s only because I already knew a lot of the Nintendo history contained here from reading other books on gaming. I learned a lot from Jeff Ryan’s book, but if you are just a little curious, I think SMB2 presents a nice, bite-sized piece of video game history at a really pivotal point. It does contain one of the more interesting little stories in Nintendo history. If nothing else, you can read this book and people will be impressed when you reference Doki-Doki Panic.
The series, as a whole, is pretty great. It’s hard to know what to expect when you’ve got different authors writing such different books. But there wasn’t a book in here that left me displeased, and each one offered something unique.
These are must-reads for video game fans. I’d start with Jagged Alliance 2. For non-fans? I’d still pick one up, or possibly pick up the Continue anthology, or maybe even a book from season 2 (I just got Bible Adventures in the mail, and I’m super-pumped). Super Mario Bros. 2 and Galaga are, in my opinion, the most likely points to jump on for a non-gamer. SMB2 if you’re a non-fiction person, if you like a good true story. Galaga for a book nerd who likes some experimentation and tight prose.
If you really want to know what the series is about and don’t go in with a gamer/non-gamer mindset, then it’s Earthbound all the way. This book does a great job with the game, and it does a fantastic job as an encapsulation of how this series works. If you like this one, you’ll probably like all the others, and I would suspect you’d rank them differently than I did.
Keep up the great work, Boss Fight, and I can’t wait to start in on Bible Adventures.”