Occasionally, I take a look at myself and I wonder about how people perceive me. I tell myself: "Guillaume, you're a pretty damn big Nintendo nerd, but are you truly the biggest Nintendo nerd you can be? And how can you make sure that people will know just how much you obsess too much about Nintendo and its games?"

When these thoughts present themselves... I start a Nintendo podcast.

But you can only do that once. What is the second best way to shout at the world: "Hey, look at me! I really think about Nintendo a lot more than someone with no stake in the company should!"?

These babies.




The first book, The History of Nintendo Vol. 1, is over 230 pages of text and pictures all about Nintendo and its products as a company up until they started the Game & Watch games. Yup, it stops there, because the G&W era needs its own volume.

The History of Mario chronicles the life and times of the plumber, from his conception (in graphic details) to his legal troubles, not to mention his legacy.

No one will dare raise doubts about my status as a Nintendo fan ever again (which people constantly do, in my head).

URL to share (right click and copy)

Wow, that's truly hardcore! They even wrote it in Hylian or something!

@nate38

When I read French it sounds like Alex Trebek in my head.

@nate38

Haha, posts like these make me wish I could give a thumbs up.

The links I provided lead to the English localizations for those books, BTW.

I was confused for a bit about why Mario was wearing a sombrero but speaking in French. That's a big Mario hat he has on there.

If I could read them, I would.

For those of you who want a very good English book on the history of Nintendo, I have to recommend Game Over by David Sheff again... it's intriguing stuff that even dives into some surprisingly personal things about Yamauchi. You can get it used or download an ebook on the internet.

@Hinph

All Your Base Are Belong To Us is another fantastic gaming read.

@Hinph
This is indeed a great read, although I think a full second book could easily be written using 1994 - modern-day Nintendo, there's a zillion things to cover.

I'm jealous!

@Secret_Tunnel

Uh, the new internet slang term for being jealous is now "jelly." Please get with the times, good sir.

*ahem*

After seeing the pics Gui posted, I am totally jelly.

@Secret_Tunnel
@GameDadGrant

Yesssss. The real reason I made this thread.

I received that first book as a Christmas present last year. But en Anglais.

Have you read "Game Over" by David Sheff? I echo Hinph's sentiments.

Nice, let us know if they are a good read.

In semi-related news, I'm doing some art for characters that will be used in a French foreign language program, haha.

So I started with the book that I heard the least good about, The History of Mario. I'm up to the chapter where they're starting to work on Super Mario Bros. Chapter 7. Nearly halfway into the book! The preceding chapters were more about Donkey Kong and Nintendo's arcade days.

And you know, I'm not the biggest DK fan, or the biggest arcade fan, but the history of DK is more interesting to me than I would have expected. Basically, the book answers a lot of questions I always had about Donkey Kong and the original Mario Bros game (the arcade one where you compete to kill a dozen creatures). It basically gives me the context I was lacking since I wasn't there in those days.

It describes how the Donkey Kong arcade game sprung out of a Popeye Game & Watch concept. It explains how Mario really wasn't the star of the game, how it's really thanks to the Universal Studios lawsuit that DK took the back seat and Mario got the spotlight, although Mario Bros didn't impress that much. How Nintendo itself was also part of the problem when the video game market crashed, with its arcade and G&W rehashes. Etc.

The book basically shows how unlikely it was initially that Mario would become Nintendo's mascot, and then proceeds to show why he did.

It's a pretty good read so far and I'm enjoying it. He does quote Game Over a lot and I wish I had read that book now so I could compare, and be able to point out what this book covers that Game Over didn't. I'm also disappointed that the author relies on other people's Japanese translations (some taken from Neogaf!).

The author of The History of Nintendo at least is fluent in Japanese, I think it's going to be the superior book, or at least I'm sure I'll find its information more trustworthy.

Yeah, these books are supposed to be pretty cool. I should really read Game Over, although I feel like I've heard so many of the stories already.

I think Donkey Kong Jr. is the most disturbing and interesting entry into the series. It shows Mario for the evil asshole that he really is. This time, it's personal.

Seriously, can you imagine modern Nintendo using that premise?

Would have thought this would be localized as "Sew-Pair Marcel Bru-Theres"

@Anand I was sooo hoping you would have to battle a Mario type boss character in Donkey Kong Country Returns

@Anand

Mario... an "Evil asshole?"

In the previous game, Donkey Kong stole Mario's lady, wrecked a construction site and nearly tried to KILLED him while he was trying to undo the whole thing. Clearly the world is better (and safer) with DK behind bars.

Heck, DK is even destructive in his jungle home - think of all the statues, ancient castles, pyramids, etc that DK absolutely DESTROYS in the Donkey Kong Country series (especially in Returns) just to get his bananas back. I mean, seriously? He does all that for bananas. Bananas! Why is he so worried about a bunch of bananas? It's not like those are a limited commodity.

They LITERALLY GROW ON TREES.

DK's a dangerous character.

@GameDadGrant
He took that child's parent away. You should sympathize with that, GameDadGrant! And how many perfectly innocent flora and fauna has Mario snuffed the life out of?

Plus, bananas are awesome.