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naleagdeco's review
5.0
This book is the first in a series that attempts to be the 33 1/3 equivalent for music. For those that are unfamiliar, this means that people write about a game that was deeply significant to them, discussing both its history and the author's relation to the book.
It's very likely that nostalgia is talking, but this book rekindled my love for Earthbound. My friends were playing Earthbound for the first time at a sleepover party, and I spent the entire night playing it after they went to sleep. In retrospect, it may have been my first exposure to homosexuality. Things like that are the sorts of anecdotes reiterated in the book by the author.
The author does a capsule summary of the game's plot and how it relates to his own life. There is some interesting side-information, things that could potentially have influenced the game's development, but other than the localization of the game into North American English, there wasn't much interaction with the principles so you won't get much scoop.
This being said, it's very easy to remember the power of Earthbound as a game, how different it was from games around it (and in many ways is different to games that exist now) and how it's shaped the kinds of games I enjoy, and the reason I tend to lean towards the games I currently do, independent works that touch upon society.
I'll probably break out an emulator now that I've finished writing this :)
It's very likely that nostalgia is talking, but this book rekindled my love for Earthbound. My friends were playing Earthbound for the first time at a sleepover party, and I spent the entire night playing it after they went to sleep. In retrospect, it may have been my first exposure to homosexuality. Things like that are the sorts of anecdotes reiterated in the book by the author.
The author does a capsule summary of the game's plot and how it relates to his own life. There is some interesting side-information, things that could potentially have influenced the game's development, but other than the localization of the game into North American English, there wasn't much interaction with the principles so you won't get much scoop.
This being said, it's very easy to remember the power of Earthbound as a game, how different it was from games around it (and in many ways is different to games that exist now) and how it's shaped the kinds of games I enjoy, and the reason I tend to lean towards the games I currently do, independent works that touch upon society.
I'll probably break out an emulator now that I've finished writing this :)
cortjstr's review
2.0
This is a book about the wonderful SNES game Earthbound. Kind of. Really it's a memoir for an actor I've never heard of that is tangentially about Earthbound. If anything it's more likely to drive readers to the Earthbound fan sites where it's implied the backgrounds, stories, and references are actually explained.
The chapters are divided by areas of the game though some are barely touched on or only mentioned in passing (including the area where you explore then control a giant living statue) yet it includes a several page discussion on Earnest Scared Stupid.
I get that discussing other media, games especially, contemporary to EB and establishing the author's age and state of mind during the original consumption can be useful and interesting but I shouldn't know more about the author's parents' love life than I do about the game's unique Pray command or the significance of The Runaway Five. He needs to write more about the localization process or the other games in the Mother series and way, way less about the first he smoked pot a decade after playing the game.
This book is the first in a series all by different authors and all about different games. I really hope they only get better from here because if things stay the same there's no way I'm slogging through all of them.
The chapters are divided by areas of the game though some are barely touched on or only mentioned in passing (including the area where you explore then control a giant living statue) yet it includes a several page discussion on Earnest Scared Stupid.
I get that discussing other media, games especially, contemporary to EB and establishing the author's age and state of mind during the original consumption can be useful and interesting but I shouldn't know more about the author's parents' love life than I do about the game's unique Pray command or the significance of The Runaway Five. He needs to write more about the localization process or the other games in the Mother series and way, way less about the first he smoked pot a decade after playing the game.
This book is the first in a series all by different authors and all about different games. I really hope they only get better from here because if things stay the same there's no way I'm slogging through all of them.
drdedalus's review
3.0
Weird.
Not particularly bad. Not particularly great either. A lot of movie talk and huge chunks of Bauman's past.
What really transpires well is the attempt to revive a childhood memory through this games, which in turn resonates with the games itself. Sometimes, and it's where the book is at it's best, the poetry is well transcribed and finds a strange echo in Bauman's childhood.
Rest of the book is spent rubbing Bauman's life in your face, with no particular connection to the game. Speaking about his brother or his new college, his life... A lot of meta-talk about the forums concerning the game and such things. Particular dislike for the random connection between Bauman's life and Earthbound, sometimes very random, providing strange transition. Many many paragraphs, which feels a little bit epileptic.
Overall, the book is okay and a quick read. I would have liked more talk about the game itself and it's history and less intimate details of Bauman's Life, the two not being connected by much (he indeed played other games during his childhood so why come back to this one in particular? I have not figured it out). It still intrigued me enough that I might pick up the game, having never experienced it before other than playing Ness in Super Smash Bros Melee.
I really hope that next book in the series will step the game up. I understand that this one was somehow a very personnal book and I do not expect every book to be a simple enlarged game review either. But the props were clear as day here and I would very much like to read another way to write about games.
Not particularly bad. Not particularly great either. A lot of movie talk and huge chunks of Bauman's past.
What really transpires well is the attempt to revive a childhood memory through this games, which in turn resonates with the games itself. Sometimes, and it's where the book is at it's best, the poetry is well transcribed and finds a strange echo in Bauman's childhood.
Rest of the book is spent rubbing Bauman's life in your face, with no particular connection to the game. Speaking about his brother or his new college, his life... A lot of meta-talk about the forums concerning the game and such things. Particular dislike for the random connection between Bauman's life and Earthbound, sometimes very random, providing strange transition. Many many paragraphs, which feels a little bit epileptic.
Overall, the book is okay and a quick read. I would have liked more talk about the game itself and it's history and less intimate details of Bauman's Life, the two not being connected by much (he indeed played other games during his childhood so why come back to this one in particular? I have not figured it out). It still intrigued me enough that I might pick up the game, having never experienced it before other than playing Ness in Super Smash Bros Melee.
I really hope that next book in the series will step the game up. I understand that this one was somehow a very personnal book and I do not expect every book to be a simple enlarged game review either. But the props were clear as day here and I would very much like to read another way to write about games.
gabedurham's review
5.0
I edited this book and am as far from objective as you can get. But it's moving and hilarious and its sharp observations have micro-changed the way I see the world. (Tiny example: I will never again look at a Super Nintendo without thinking, "Pallid tank.") I'm proud that EarthBound is the first book in our series.
helpfulsnowman's review
4.0
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.
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.
rardk64's review
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting Earthbound by way of this book's narrative recap alongside relating to real life stories and experiences. While the author indulged a bit too much in the real life experiences at times, overall I found the stories interesting as a relation to the game's events and I'm glad it was written in this way. I was left emotional by the end, as Earthbound's story hits hard in its events and metaphors, and the author clearly understood that and conveyed the final chapters in a way that had me feeling the weight of the ending of the game all over again,
gengelcox's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I knew nothing about this video game before I read this book. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and my formative video game experience therefore is a bit more basic: Mattel’s Intellivision or Atari 2600 games, or even Commodore 64 games, rather than Nintendo. So why did I read this book about a game I had never played or even heard of? Because I enjoy discovery, and this book paid that back in spades. Not only does Baumann do a great job of explaining the impact of Earthbound on himself and his brother, and from that imparting how it affected a cult of followers, it also introduced me to Baumann himself, whom I had never heard of before this book. Hey, it’s impossible to keep up with every bit of entertainment being made, so forgive me if I didn’t even realize there had been a TV series called The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Which, as Baumann notes, is an apt description of Earthbound, as it follows its main protagonist (whom you can name as you will, but is called Ness if you choose the default) and his attempt to save the world from a devouring evil name Gygas. The description of the game illustrates just how insane, and insanely hard, it is. I was able to pull up an emulation and played about 5 minutes of it, and decided it was better to read about than actually play. Baumann agrees at times, especially those points of the game where he had to repetitively kill things in a certain way to obtain a certain weapon, unsure why he’s doing so.
The point of the book is a rumination on childhood and being. What memories we keep from these things we obsess on when we were younger. And the theme of the game and Baumann’s life: how we are indebted to those we encounter along the way.
I enjoyed the book and I’m looking forward to reading more in this Boss Fight Books series.
jeansnow's review
3.0
This was quite enjoyable to read, and I've never ever really played the game (I just played an hour or two when it was rereleased on Wii U), but I've always enjoyed the aesthetics and characters, and have owned quite a few Hobonichi agendas with Mother graphics. At first I wanted the focus of the book to be more on the game, and to read more development stories, but by the time I got to the end I quite liked how the author mixed in his personal experiences (and not always related to the game) with what he was writing about.