Super Mario
How Nintendo Conquered America
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4.3 • 120 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The story of Nintendo's rise and the beloved icon who made it possible.
Nintendo has continually set the standard for video-game innovation in America, starting in 1981 with a plucky hero who jumped over barrels to save a girl from an ape.
The saga of Mario, the portly plumber who became the most successful franchise in the history of gaming, has plot twists worthy of a video game. Jeff Ryan shares the story of how this quintessentially Japanese company found success in the American market. Lawsuits, Hollywood, die- hard fans, and face-offs with Sony and Microsoft are all part of the drama.
Find out about:
*Mario's eccentric yet brilliant creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, who was tapped for the job because was considered expendable.
*Minoru Arakawa, the son-in-law of Nintendo's imperious president, who bumbled his way to success. *The unexpected approach that allowed Nintendo to reinvent itself as the gaming system for the non-gamer, especially now with the Wii Even those who can't tell a Koopa from a Goomba will find this a fascinating story of striving, comeuppance, and redemption.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The history of how a Japanese video game featuring two Italian brothers became one of America's favorite pastimes is covered in exhaustive, enthusiastic detail by video game reviewer Ryan. The author takes readers through Nintendo's early business machinations; the story of Mario's eccentric creator, Shigeru Miyamoto; and the game-changing emergence of Nintendo's motion controller for the Wii, with a breezy journalistic style. At times the tone slips into the white hat black hat morality employed in most video games, often painting Nintendo's business competitors or detractors with broad reductive strokes "hardcore gamers sneer at Wii" and paeans to new Nintendo releases get smattered with exclamation points, so that some pages read like Nintendo promo material. All of this is distracting but not fatal, and the book is a thorough history of Nintendo's victories, written by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable fan.
Customer Reviews
Great book
If you get through the spelling error (there is only one time of this the Famicom one and that does not matter because it is just simple that one letter does not make it a bad book) and read the whole book and don’t give up like those losers in the bad reviews you will see how great this book really is.
What I think
I really liked this book. Explained how Nintendo made MARIO and why they did. Please write another one about Mario. Just mario
Very well written
I really enjoyed this. It covered a broad swath of history, and seemed extremely well researched.