Jeff Ryan

Nintendo has continually set the standard for video game innovation in America, and 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.

How Nintendo Conquered America

Super Mario

Felipe Gamez

** spoiler alert **
           It is quite fascinating to see Nintendos footprint in the United States and how no one so much as batted an eye at their original arcade games, to becoming the Disney of the video game industry. Once again proving that with perseverance, creativity, and a great team, any organization can prosper. what struck me particularly were the few completing sentences of the book; where Jeff Ryan states that Nintendos team will make a huge comeback. As you ay know this book was published back in 2011, and since then, the Wii U was released which got a very "meh" reaction. After that, the Nintendo Switch released, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with it. The Switch was and still is very quick to sell out, and Breath of the Wild is considered one of, if not the, best games in History. How Jeff Ryan predicted this, I don't know. As we see today, his prediction was very accurate.

Nico J

This was a solid read, but though the author wanted to go deeper, I don't know if he met that mark. While my sibling and I grew up on Mario games, and the other classic worlds like Kirby and Zelda, I can't proclaim any in-depth knowledge of the history of gaming and consoles, and, not being more than a casual fan of other platforms like the XBox and Playstation (I know a bit about GTA and Final Fantasy, and that's where my knowledge sputters out), it's difficult to criticize any details for being incorrect or misleading. Another franchise I'm familiar with is Poke'mon, which is mentioned in passing in here but more in the context of handheld devices. What did this book do well? It gave me a good enough timeline of when and where Mario was conceived, and how games, in general, began. I'm a little young to be immersed in arcade-type games, and any time I played them they were already carrying the veneer of nostalgia. In comparison to say, my father, that's the type of thing he grew up on, along with 25-cent sodas. 

It was casual, and I think if that's the the way this was meant to function, that's enough for me. The origins of Donkey Kong, Mario himself, his brother, and the ongoing themes in the games created, were all unknown to me, so it was informative. The author's tone did not personally detract or otherwise bother me, though it seemed to do so to others. As someone who tends to end up doing additional research anyway, any details that are wrong I won't be taking as gospel. It was written from someone else who is a fan, but not working alongside executives at Nintendo - and I imagine they keep their secrets and history and nitty-gritty things on lockdown, which was explained clearly throughout the the book. Secrecy was (is!) important when consoles are all trying to copy one another for the next best thing to outsell the other. This definitely has his opinion in this, not that I think there's anything wrong with that. I would guess without us having a front-row seat to production, development, and research, some assumptions will end up being made. If anything, this was a good foundation to introducing us "casuals" to the consoles, the basic history, and major players, and all it means for me is that I have more reading to do.

Super Mario How Nintendo Conquered America

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