We suspect that a number of gamers, including some of us at Nintendo Life, hope to see video games become an increasingly respected medium in comparison to veteran forms such as the book, film and TV. Even compared to the latter two gaming is a young art form, and due to a variety of factors is still striving for mainstream recognition not just based on sales — which is already being achieved — but in terms of critical appreciation and coverage.
Games don't necessarily get treated with the depth of analysis that they arguably deserve, and one fascinating project seems set to do its part to resolve that issue. Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 is the work of Daniel Johnson, a game design analyst and former GameSetWatch columnist; as the title suggests this eBook will assess Game Boy Advance game Wario Land 4 in comprehensive detail. Below is some detail from the press release.
Author Daniel Johnson, in a radical departure from contemporary videogames discussion, examines Wario Land 4 in its totality—including mechanics, psychology, education, level design, and game feel—calling on evidence-based analysis to understand the player’s subjective reactions to videogames.
Says author Daniel Johnson:
“A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 is unusual in its approach as we begin to understand videogames through evidence-based analysis rather than socio-cultural critique. I’m hoping this book will push against the accepted norms of ‘games criticism’ and open up new avenues for analytical discussion.”
The eBook will be sold on Stolen Projects from Wednesday 18th December, with each purchase providing both .pdf and .epub formats; its standard retail price will be $7.99, but it will have an introductory price of $4.99 until 31st January 2014.
We plan to check this out, do you?
[source danielprimed.com, via usgamer.net]
Comments 41
Utterly bonkers. Count me in!
^ what he said!
A book about the critical analysis regarding everything about a video game? I'm also in!
Since I've yet to play this game, I have no interest in reading...wait a sec...I'm a 3DS Ambassador! I forgot I owned this game! What a pleasant surprise!
Now, I'll have to play this game. If I like the game enough, I'll go ahead and give the book a read
November 18? It's already December.
now Nintendo has to release Wario Land 4 on the E-shop.
I've always been really intetested in game design, and Wario Land 4 was one of my favourite games when I was a kid. Might have to replay Wario Land 4 and give this a read!
That's so cool! ...My English teacher'd get a kick out of this, haha!
Wario Land 4 was awesome and I'm glad I bought the 3DS early and got it. Already plan on picking up the 1st 3 games.
my analysis of the game:
running against the clock is frustrating and it is to hard to navigate through the levels
Wario Land 4 was one of the first games I played, and naturally, I loved it. Yet today, I don't like that game, or any of the Wario Land games for that matter.
To put it simply, Wario's too slow, the presentation is unappealing, and I'm more of a Mario fellow.
With that said, I'm still really interested in this book. And I've always been a fan of looking into game design with a microscope.
Will you be reviewing this?
@ueI Yeah, I meant December, I've fixed that.
I think we may review it, we'll certainly think about it. Naturally any review will take a little while as it's a meaty text
The only thing I can think to criticise about Wario Land 4 is that you have a health bar, yet getting hit by enemies is sometimes mandatory to progress. I guess if you're familiar with the game you'll know which enemies hurt and which enemies bestow effects, but I still think Wario Land 2's method of doing it was better, where you just didn't have a health bar at all and were free to experiment on the effects of getting hit by each enemy.
This is so freaking awesome.
@ThomasBW84 I bet I could finish it in a week if you gave me a copy. Too bad I don't have the professional experience to do a review.
YES, BECAUSE WHY NOT???
Seriously though, I am interested in reading what Daniel Johnson was to say. I just started playing the game several weeks ago thanks to the 3DS Ambassador program and I'm enjoying it despite finding it simplistic.
@idork99 It's DAMN good
I still consider Wario Land 4 to be one of the best handheld platformers ever, so this might be just enough of a reason to get my first eBook.
@ThomasBW84 I'll take one Review please.
So, apparently figuring out what Wario Land 4 is takes as many pages as an entire year at Hogwarts, to explain?
I guess we'll have to see.
A game that is gonna be analysed? And its Wario Land 4 which is my favorite GBA game? I'm on!
A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 is unusual in its existence, I would say.
As a media interaction student I am heavily interested in this. As a gamer I am even more interested.
I don't think I'll be able to get this 'cuz US$ Dollars but I'm really interested in how this book will turn out. Also love the cover. Wario sophisticatedly reading a book? What's not to like?
cool =)
This is pretty cool, but what a random game to do a a critical analysis of. I might have to check this out.
@CountWavula Wario Land 4 does have a hard mode.
Might be worth it for the Daniel Purvis illustration alone.
That said, 600 pages is a lot of pages.
But who am I to critique a book about a videogame? (...) Please support longform writing on games!
@uel - Not to mention the Super Hard Mode after clearing the normal Hard.
I've fully cleared Wario Land 4 and I really enjoyed it. The game was fun, zany, and had great music. I've always felt that W4 had some sort of hidden depths that I just couldn't put my finger on. Perhaps this book will guide my finger to the proper spot.
This game is long overdue for some psychological inquiry, if you ask me. Then again, maybe I'm better off not knowing more about those boss fights.
This sounds amazing actually. Wario Land 4 is one of my favourite GBA games so you better believe I'm getting this on day one
This is awesome! I've played Wario Land 4 to death, and it is a very strange and surreal game as well as being absolutely fantastic. I'll be very interested to read this!
Something about this game did always pique my interest. It always seemed like something bigger and impossible to comprehend was happening within the game. Even after collecting everything, I thought there was still something about this game that kept drawing me in. Lots of mysterious and odd memories tied to this game for me. Count me in on buying this thing.
I love Wario Land 4 so much, but couldn't it be, like... a regular book? I'd be much more inclined to buy that.
Despite being a fan of the Wario series, I can't imagine reading let alone writing 600 pages about a single game. This is coming from someone who has read the 800 page Atari Inc: Business is Fun from cover to cover. There's supposed to be a sequel coming out too: Atari corp: Business is War. But in all seriousness, this is 600 pages about a single freakking game. It sounds to me like the author is putting more thought into the book than the creators did for the original game.
@LittleIrves Hey there, just wanted to chime in and say thanks for loving the cover illustration, however I (Daniel) can't take credit on this account! Good friend Harry Plane provided the cover illustration for Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4.
If you dig his image of Wario, be sure to check out the rest of his work at http://harryplaneillustration.com
As someone who's both talked to the author of the book about game design and matters and does really like Wario Land 4, this book seems kind of interesting to me.
Although you may also want to check out the articles on his site beforehand, since they go into a bunch of stuff, including some more on the game.
At first this sounded... Well, pompous (the actual word escapes me at the moment). After reading the article, I'm interested!
Sounds like a good read to me.
I just found out any this book, too.
Did anybody read it? @damo @ThomasBW84
Tap here to load 41 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...