A review by solargalaxy6
Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America, by Jeff Ryan
4.0
I really enjoyed reading this, though I’m a long-time Nintendo fan, and so I’m in the niche.
The book covers to history of the Nintendo Entertainment Company, along with their interactions with other game system companies, from the start of their prescience in the industry with coin operated machines up until the launch of the Nintendo Wii.
Solidly describing the development of the industry including the mentality behind he development of some systems and games, it was quite enlightening to discover why things were done the way they were.
Rightly so, the book does have a lot of focus on the Mario empire, but honestly, that was more a side effect of Mario being their most successful line at the time. The book’s true focus seems to be the development of the new games and game systems to best support their company’s goals, knowing that Mario games were for a long time their biggest draw.
I honestly wish I’d looked at the book’s publishing date before I had read it, so I’d know going in that Wii would get very little coverage, and there would be no mention of the Nintendo Switch - not to mention the other gaming developments of the 2010s, but hat leaves me interested in a follow up book should the author ever choose to write one.
The book covers to history of the Nintendo Entertainment Company, along with their interactions with other game system companies, from the start of their prescience in the industry with coin operated machines up until the launch of the Nintendo Wii.
Solidly describing the development of the industry including the mentality behind he development of some systems and games, it was quite enlightening to discover why things were done the way they were.
Rightly so, the book does have a lot of focus on the Mario empire, but honestly, that was more a side effect of Mario being their most successful line at the time. The book’s true focus seems to be the development of the new games and game systems to best support their company’s goals, knowing that Mario games were for a long time their biggest draw.
I honestly wish I’d looked at the book’s publishing date before I had read it, so I’d know going in that Wii would get very little coverage, and there would be no mention of the Nintendo Switch - not to mention the other gaming developments of the 2010s, but hat leaves me interested in a follow up book should the author ever choose to write one.