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Shop nowSuper Mario
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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 he was considered expendable;
–Minoru Arakawa, the son-in-law of Nintendo's imperious president, who bumbled his way to success; and
–The unexpected approach that allowed Nintendo to reinvent itself as the gaming system for the nongamer, 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.
Jeff Ryan, a lifelong gamer, has been featured in Salon and on NPR’s All Things Considered. He reviewed over five hundred video games and covered four console launches as the games editor for Katrillion, a popular dot-com-era news and entertainment website. He lives in Bloomfield, New Jersey.
Ray Porter is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator and fifteen-year veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Almost Famous, ER, and Frasier.
Reviews
“Fascinating…Jeff Ryan’s Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America delivers illuminating details…It’s almost surprising that the chronology of a Japanese video game company could be this entertaining, but Ryan makes it so.”
“One of America’s favorite pastimes is covered in exhaustive, enthusiastic detail.”
“Ryan explores the history of Nintendo and the evolution of video games through the iconic Super Mario. Ray Porter has a great voice for this production since he sounds largely like the primary demographic: a twenty- or thirty-something male with a passion for video games. Ryan argues that the success of Nintendo is not the power of its graphics but the fun factor, made explicit through the icon of Super Mario and his appearance in many great games. Porter’s delivery is lively and enthusiastic; he maintains a good energy throughout the reading. His strong projection helps navigate the sometimes ridiculous game descriptions as well as punctuates Ryan’s insights. Porter’s joviality makes one wonder if he himself has also been a fan of Nintendo.”
“Nintendo’s thirty-year history in the gaming business is long and convoluted, and Ryan does a game job of narrowing it down while cramming everything into a single, readable tome.”
“A fascinating read. While much of the information may be known to those who have read other gaming history books, in Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America, it is all brought together and more detail added to give you a full timeline of events…If you have any interest in Nintendo, then this is certainly a book to add to your collection…And following reading it I’ll guarantee your first desire will be to pick up a Mario game and start playing.”
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