Tag: Books
Review 'The Art Of The Box' Celebrates A Time When Cover Art Could Sell A Game
Judge a book by its cover?
When you're looking to make a video game purchase these days, chances are there are many factors which contribute to your ultimate decision. Pre-release hype and online opinion will almost certainly influence your choice, but the image on the cover on the box is unlikely to carry quite as much weight. We're not saying that...
News Kickstarter For New Book About Nintendo's Legendary President Satoru Iwata Goes Live
Introducing 'The Impact of Iwata'
The legacy of Nintendo's former president Satoru Iwata lives on, and while we've already had "Ask Iwata" localised by VIZ Media to commemorate his life and contribution to the video games industry over the years, there's now the possibility of a new book. Nintendo Force - the magazine following in the footsteps of...
News Animal Crossing Is The Latest Game To Get The Boss Fight Books Treatment
Written by co-director of The Video Game History Foundation
Last week, the fantastic Boss Fight Books began revealing Season 6 of its documentary-style books along with the first book, which looks at PaRappa the Rapper. And today, the publisher has announced that the second book will be very much in our wheelhouse by focusing on Animal Crossing...
News The N64 Encyclopedia Offers Nintendo Fans An Exhaustive Overview Of The 64-Bit Era
Over 400 games covered
It seems the hardest-working man in games journalism has struck again! Yes, Chris Scullion — features editor over at VGC, formerly of Official Nintendo Magazine UK, and Nintendo Life contributor extraordinaire (most recently giving EA's FIFA series a fitting send-off for us) — is back again with another entry in his...
News 'Jumping For Joy' Leaps Into Platforming History, With Plenty For Nintendo Fans To Enjoy
Jump up, jump up and get down
If you're looking to explore the history of Nintendo and its games, Chris Scullion, video games journalist extraordinaire and Nintendo Life contributor no less, is a go-to expert in the field. Having worked at Official Nintendo Magazine back in the day, he's already got several tomes' worth of facts and figures for you...
Soapbox Games Go Down Better When Paired With Books, Movies, And TV, Just Like Wine
Well, not JUST like wine. You can't drink a book
I don't know much about wine, but I sure like to pretend I do, and I bet I'm not alone. Who else here — of drinking age, that is — has bought a red wine to accompany dinner, because it "goes well with pasta"? How many times have you been poured a glass of wine to "taste" in a fancy restaurant,...
News Boss Fight Announces New Documentary Book Focused On GoldenEye 007
Based on "exclusive interviews with the developers"
Boss Fight Books are known as the publisher of multiple in-depth deep-dives of beloved video games, from Metal Gear Solid to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, each one written by mega-fan authors, writers, and developers, often with interviews from the people who made the games. And Boss Fight...
News "50 Years Of Text Games" Celebrates Interactive Fiction, Fully Funded On Kickstarter
For Zork dorks
If Zork means more to you than Fortnite ever will, if you know exactly which items to take with you in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in order to escape your about-to-be-bulldozed house, or if you have ever typed the words "SOUTH" and "HELP" into a white-on-black text box, then you may be interested in this book by writer and game...
News Ex-NoA President Reggie Fils-Aimé Addresses Reports Of Worker Mistreatment At Nintendo
"I do believe it is the role of company leadership to set a culture"
Early in April 2022, reports of poor working conditions at Nintendo of America surfaced, accusing the company and a third-party hiring firm of “concerted activities” and “coercive actions” to prevent unionisation, and the struggles of part-time workers and contractors to...
Review The King Of Fighters: The Ultimate History
Bitmap Books' latest epic packs a punch
Capcom's Street Fighter has had many rivals over the years, including the likes of Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Guilty Gear. However, one franchise stands out as the true competitor: SNK's King of Fighters. Since its inception in 1994, the series has offered what many fans consider to be the only...
News Bitmap Books Celebrates The Legacy Of Final Fight, Streets Of Rage And More With 'Go Straight'
"The ulimate guide to side-scrolling beat 'em ups"
Once upon a time, the belt-scrolling beat 'em up was the king of the gaming world. Titles like Double Dragon, Final Fight, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage were some of the most successful and popular of the period; arcade titles would generate incredible revenue while home ports (and exclusives, in...
News Reggie Fils-Aimé's Upcoming Book Gets A Cover And A New Release Date
Reggie Files Abook
Reggie Fils-Aimé is possibly one of the best-known names in gaming, and not even because he did anything scandalous. His upcoming book, "Disrupting The Game", is all about how he got there, documenting his rise "from The Bronx to the top of Nintendo". But we already knew that! He told us that last year! What's new is the cover,...
Retro Remember When Acclaimed Novelist Martin Amis Rubbished Donkey Kong?
"Donkey, your days are numbered. The knackers’ yard awaits you"
One of the most influential and acclaimed novelists of his generation, award-winning writer Martin Amis – famous for books such as Money, London Fields and The Information – isn't the kind of name you'd perhaps expect to see on a site about video games, but in the early '80s, Amis...
News 'Pac-Man: Birth Of An Icon' Celebrates One Of Gaming's Most Timeless Characters
Waka-waka-wonderful
Namco's Pac-Man is a video game that needs no introduction. Toru Iwatani's 1980 coin-op smash-hit has spawned sequels, TV shows, songs, merchandise and much more besides, and the character is so famous he's even included in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster. Plenty has been written about the pill-shaped hero over the past 40...
News Hardcore Gaming 101's Latest Book Takes A Swing At Famous Beat 'Em Ups
Double Dragon! Final Fight! Streets of Rage!
As you'll most likely be aware, we're big fans of Hardcore Gaming 101's series of books, which so far have covered everything from Sega's arcade history to the best shmups of all time. The latest publication takes a similar approach but looks at the many excellent belt-scrolling beat 'em ups that
News Limited Run Games Is Publishing SNES And Virtual Boy Retrospective Books
Download samples now
Well, this is a surprise. Limited Run - the company known best as a physical game distributor - has announced it will be publishing two retro gaming books. Both are by Jeremy Parish and will be available to pre-order on 10th August. Super NES Works Vol. 1 Hardcover Book Super NES Works Vol. I looks back at the early days of...
News This Guide To Japanese RPGs Is Amazing, And Also Out Of Stock
For now, at least
If you're a long-time reader of the site then you'll be familiar with the output of UK publisher Bitmap Books, which has produced the likes of Game Boy: The Box Art Collection and The SNES Visual Compendium. You may also be aware of the talents of one Kurt Kalata, who is a contributor to Nintendo Life via
News 'The Entire History Of JRPGs' Is Available Now From Bitmap Books
Featuring more than 600 reviews!
Update: You can order the book now, using the link below. <products id="15397"> Original Story [Fri 19th Mar, 2021 15:30 GMT]: Bitmap Books, a UK-based publisher known for its stunning retro gaming books, has announced a new project which tackles the entire history of Japanese role-playing games. Fittingly...
News 'Unofficial amiibo Handbook' Kickstarter Settles Nintendo IP Dispute, Changes Name
Update: Now known as 'The Unofficial amiibook'
Update #2 [Wed 26th May, 2021 08:45 BST]: The dispute with Nintendo has now been resolved, with The 'Unofficial amiibo Handbook' now becoming known as the 'The Unofficial amiibook'. The Kickstarter page has been reinstated and the project can now proceed as planned. Update #1 [Mon 17th May, 2021...
News Love Shmups On Switch? Then Check Out 'The Guide To Shoot-Em-Ups' Book Series
From those lovely folks at Hardcore Gaming 101
One of the most pleasing aspects of the Switch's success is how the platform has become a bastion of old-school gaming goodness. We've likened it to an arcade you can carry around with you, and, due to the popularity of the Arcade Archives series – not to mention a flood of other classic titles –...
News 'Ask Iwata' Tribute Book Will Be Translated Into Ten Other Languages
And it launches in April
Back in July of last year, it was announced that an English-language version of 'Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom', a Satoru Iwata tribute book, was set to published in 2021. That launch is still scheduled to go ahead next month, but it's now been reported that it'll release in plenty of other languages, too. It was originally...
News Pokémon Launches Educational Book Series For Young Readers
'Pokémon Primers'
The Pokémon Company International has launched a new book series targetted at young trainers, adding an educational twist to the cute and colourful world of the series. The company's official publishing imprint, Pikachu Press, has launched two books in what will be known as the 'Pokémon Primers' series. The books are...
Random The Author Of World War Z Just Released A Minecraft Novel, And It's Playable, Too
From now on, we're only reading books that have Minecraft maps
Did you know about the official Minecraft novelisations? There are quite a few already, boasting authors who penned the novelisations of Star Wars movies, Dungeons and Dragons quest writers, and multiple New York Times bestsellers. Max Brooks, author of World War Z (which was made into...
Gallery Geeks Line's NES/Famicom Anthology Is The Most Exhaustive Look At The Console Yet
No stone left unturned
French publisher Geeks Line is no stranger to a good book – it has already given us the superb N64, SNES and GameCube anthologies – and it's rounding off this Nintendo-themed selection with an exhaustive look at the machine that started it all, the NES (or Famicom if you're of the Japanese persuasion). Penned by Math...
Gallery Check Out Bitmap Books' Game Boy: The Box Art Collection
We're game if you are
UK publisher Bitmap Books is famous for its high-quality tomes, and we've got an office packed with them here at Nintendo Life. The company has previously covered the likes of the SNES and NES, and even did a book dedicated to the amazing artwork seen on Super Famico
News The SNES Encyclopedia Is An Exhaustive Resource For Nintendo Fans
Penned by Chris Scullion, no less!
As long-time readers of this very site will be aware, Chris Scullion really knows his stuff. That's why we get him to fill these hallowed pages with lovely words; he's something of a boffin when it comes to the world of Nintendo, having worked at Official Nintendo Magazine during its heyday. Scullion has been...
News Beyond Donkey Kong Digs Deep Into Nintendo's Often Overlooked Arcade Heritage
New book sheds light on a coin-op legacy
While Nintendo has long been a major force in the realms of domestic and portable video gaming, it's important to remember that the release that truly put the Japanese firm on the map was an arcade one: 1981's Donkey Kong. Shigeru Miyamoto's first masterpiece transformed Nintendo from a coin-op also-ran into...
News Relive Nintendo's Glorious Past With This Game Boy: The Box Art Collection Book
Update: Pre-orders open September 28th
Update: Bitmap Books has confirmed that pre-orders will go live on the 28th September at 17:00 BST. Original Story [Wed 15th Jul, 2020 15:30 BST]: If you've been keeping up with our Box Art Brawl series, where we pit various game covers from different regions against each other to see which is the prettiest,...
News Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution Gets An Official Western Manga Adaptation
Available now
An official manga adaptation of the movie Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution, previously only available in Japan, has now launched in the west. 128 pages long, the book retells the story of Mewtwo and how it was created by a team of researchers based on the fossil of the Mythical Pokémon, Mew. As you'd expect, it closely...
News New Book Charts The Oral History Of Street Fighter II, And It's On Kickstarter Now
Over 60 people interviewed
UK book publisher Read-Only Memory has announced that it is releasing a book which charts the history of Capcom's Street Fighter II, as told by the people who made it happen. "The culmination of several years of research by acclaimed games writer Matt Leone, Like a Hurricane gathers together over 60 voices, spread across...
Guide The Best Video Game Books
Slim volumes, huge coffee table books, the lot
The only thing more fun than playing video games is reading about them, and in the past few years, we've seen the number of game-specific books explode as players seek to learn more about the industry and writers strive to catalogue and analyse what has become one of the world's most popular forms of...
News Zelda's Wonderful Hyrule Historia Book Is Getting A Digital Release
At a fraction of the price
A few years ago now, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia burst onto the scene as an absolutely must-own book which covered the history of the Zelda series. It was so good, in fact, that it ended up being the number one best-selling book in the US soon after launch. If you never managed to get your hands on it, or didn't...
Gallery This Gorgeous SNES Pixel Art Book Will Make The Perfect Christmas Gift
272 pages of pixel-perfect goodness
Award-winning specialist publisher Bitmap Books has just announced an English-language version of Robert Bannert and Christine Bauer's Unofficial SNES Pixel Book – and you can order it today. Translated from the original German in collaboration with Elektrospieler, this 272-page tome is packed full of lovely...
Gallery Finally, Metal Slug Has The Official Book It Deserves
"Thank you!"
Metal Slug is arguably one of the few series from the '90s which has managed to endure and persist despite the passage of time and the advances of technology; it seems that blowing up 2D sprites has a timeless quality to it, and we've personally been really enjoying revisiting these classic games on Switch. If you're a fan of the...
The first of its kind
Remember when we told you about Bitmap Books' upcoming Metal Slug release a couple of months ago? Well, pre-orders are now live, so what are you waiting for? Metal Slug: The Ultimate History is an officially-licensed book which documents the franchise's creation and
News Unauthorised Translations Of The Satoru Iwata Book "Will Be Subject To Criminal Charges"
An official translation could happen
Recently, a book celebrating the life of late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was released in Japan. Featuring words shared by Iwata-san on the official Nintendo website and contributions from the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, it has understandably been subject to high demand from gaming fans around the world...
News Shigeru Miyamoto, Like All Of Us, Still Dearly Misses Satoru Iwata
"We never fought about anything"
Four years ago, Nintendo lost CEO Satoru Iwata, arguably one of the most important people in the company's long history. Under Iwata's watchful eye, Nintendo rose to heights it had never before experienced; he oversaw the development of the DS – the company's most successful piece of hardware – and the Wii – a...
News A Book Celebrating The Life Of Satoru Iwata Announced For Release In Japan
With words from Shigeru Miyamoto
A book aiming to celebrate the life of late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has been revealed. It will be released in Japan, although no launch date has currently been set. The book comes from Japanese company Hobonichi - which was founded in June 1998 by EarthBound creator, Shigesato Itoi - and will collect words...
News The NES Encyclopedia - Everything You Wanted To Know About The NES, But Were Afraid To Ask
Over 870 games detailed within...
There are certain video game platforms that stick in our memory longer than most, and these are often the systems that we cut our gaming teeth on; not necessarily our first, but certainly the ones that had the most impact on our formative years. You never forget your first love, as the saying goes. Video game...
News New Book Aims To Chronicle The Unseen History Of SNK's Metal Slug Series
Metal Slug: The Ultimate History will go behind the scenes
UK publisher Bitmap Books has announced that it is producing an officially-licenced history of SNK's beloved Metal Slug franchise, and has been given "unprecedented access" to the company's archives in order to compile the publication. Metal Slug: The Ultimate History is the first...
News New Book Delves Into The History Of Star Fox And F-Zero
Otherwise known as "the franchises fans really want"
Star Fox and F-Zero. Hearing those two names – assuming you're of a certain age – will probably force you to come out in fits of nostalgia, your mind flooded by memories of the good old days when the SNES and N64 were the hottest tickets in town. Today, neither franchise really seems to be at...
Feature Dark Horse On Creating The Ultimate Companion To The World Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
"I played it like an archaeologist"
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was perhaps the perfect launch title for Switch; not only is it a critically-acclaimed classic in its own right, but it also took the beloved series in an exciting new direction, something which could also be said about the Switch itself, thanks to its unique hybrid nature...
News It Looks Like The Official Super Mario Encyclopedia Plagiarised A Fan-Made Wiki
Dark Horse by name, Dark Horse by nature?
Update: One of the translators involved with the book has explained on Twitter that they often use online wikis as sources when an accepted or official name doesn't exist: Original Story: Dark Horse Publishing recently released an official Super Mario Encyclopedia, which, according to the publisher's...
News This NES Encyclopedia Catalogues Every Game Released For The System In Lovely Book Form
Will be available worldwide
Whether you're old enough to remember buying your very own, or you're simply interested in gaming history, you'll no doubt be aware of the NES. The Nintendo Entertainment System - to give it its full name - first found its way into people's homes during the '80s, introducing players to the likes of Super Mario Bros. and...
Gallery This Dead Cells Book By Third Editions Looks Beautiful And Informative
Out February 2019
Dead Cells is a beautifully designed game, so how about a special book to go with it? The Heart of Dead Cells book, produced in collaboration with the game's developer Motion Twin, is part "making-of" and part art book. It offers a plethora of illustrations and exclusive behind the scenes information about the game's universe,...
Feature Wild Gunman And The Unlikely Story Of Sega And Nintendo's Early Coin-Op Alliance
Before they were enemies...
They didn't call it a 'console war' for nothing; the titanic struggle for domination of the living room that took place between Sega and Nintendo in the 1990s has gone down as the stuff of video gaming legend. The two companies fought tooth and nail during the 16-bit era, with the SNES and Mega Drive (Genesis if you're in...
Random Admit It, You Need This Sega Pop-Up Book In Your Life
Hang-On! Space Harrier! After Burner! Cardboard!
Sega's classic '80s arcade machines are works of art; they were designed to attract your attention and tempt you to part with your spare change, and as a result were brightly-coloured, exotic creations that even today possess an undeniable aesthetic charm. Sadly, unless you're like Nintendo Life...
News Kickstarter For The Sega Master System Visual Compendium Is Now Live
And it's got Sega's blessing, too
Our pals over at Bitmap Books are at it again, this time focusing their attention on the Sega Master System, the 8-bit console that took on the NES and failed (unless you were in Brazil or Europe, in which case it emerged victorious). The latest entry in the popular Visual Compendium series - which has already...
Competition Win A Set Of Third Editions Books, Including Zelda, Dark Souls And Final Fantasy
Book worm
French publisher Third Editions does a fantastic line in deep and engaging video game books, and has previously released titles focusing on the likes of Zelda, Dark Souls and Metal Gear Solid. The company is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to translate more of its books into English, and has kindly prov
News After The NES And SNES, Bitmap Books' Next Tome Tackles The Sega Master System
To be this good takes ages
UK publisher Bitmap Books has confirmed that its next "Visual Compendium" will switch focus to Nintendo's rival, Sega. Bitmap's last two compendiums focused on the NES and SNES, and showcased loads of lovely screenshots, artwork, features and exclusive interviews. The next book will highlight the talents of th
