{"id":15837,"date":"2016-11-25T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2016-11-25T00:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=15837"},"modified":"2016-11-19T13:44:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-19T13:44:32","slug":"playing-with-power-nintendo-nes-classics-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/25\/playing-with-power-nintendo-nes-classics-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing With Power: Nintendo NES Classics (Book)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NINTENDO1\"<\/a>The 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System was literally a game changer.\u00a0 It helped bring the video game industry out of a slump in the mid-80\u2019s.\u00a0 And for many children at the time (myself included), the NES was a household name.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t just play video games, you played Nintendo.\u00a0 To honor that excellent time in gaming, Prima Games has just released a new book: Playing With Power: Nintendo NES Classics.\u00a0 It features games published by Nintendo for the NES, as well as strategies for select games, probably to coincide with the NES Classic Edition (a smaller NES shaped device with 30 games inside) which was recently released as well (sadly, as of this writing, I have not been able to find one of those).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read that this book comes in hardcover and paperback editions.\u00a0 I got to review the hardcover version.\u00a0 The cover looks like a NES cartridge.\u00a0 It\u2019s even textured in the places where you think it would be.\u00a0 That had to have been expensive to make.\u00a0 I did printing at a place I used to work, so I know how much that stuff costs.<\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the surprise!\u00a0 That\u2019s actually not the cover.\u00a0 It\u2019s a case for the actual book, which is also a hard cover.\u00a0 The actual book has an image of the NES controller.\u00a0 Here is a shot of the case and the real book.<\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first part of the book introduces the NES and the technical power it had.\u00a0 Although it doesn\u2019t get so technical that it\u2019s hard to understand.<\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of the book is split into three sections.\u00a0 Early, Middle, and Late periods of Nintendo\u2019s game releases.\u00a0 For each section it goes over strategies and maps of certain games during these times.\u00a0 Most of the games that have strategies are also on the NES Classic Edition.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a shot of one of the pages featuring games in the Early Period.<\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a page featuring Donkey Kong, one of Nintendo\u2019s first big successes as well as one of the first games on the NES.\u00a0 You\u2019d think they could\u2019ve found a better piece of artwork for the Donkey Kong Classics game other than a chewed up instruction booklet, though.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the things I liked about the old Nintendo Power magazine is they used a lot of maps.\u00a0 They\u2019d make the maps directly from the screenshots of the game, and I wonder how they did it and made it look so good.\u00a0 This book also uses maps like that.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if they lifted the map images directly from the old Nintendo Power magazines or not, though.\u00a0 Games like Super Mario Bros., Kid Icarus, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link all have maps in this guide.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a sample page from Zelda.\u00a0 Although I will say this guide could\u2019ve used a bit more editing.\u00a0 On the top right page, it says \u201cThe Overworld\u201d and the text under it even says, \u201cHere is a map of the overworld.\u201d\u00a0 But as you can see, there is no overworld map, they just go straight to the first dungeon.<\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Speaking of Nintendo Power, I have to say that while it was definitely propaganda for Nintendo\u2019s games, systems, and other products, it certainly had a lot of \u2018firsts\u2019 for video game magazines, and I have a lot of respect for that publication.\u00a0 I enjoyed reading it all through my childhood.\u00a0 In fact, Nintendo Power was one of the reasons why I majored in Magazine Journalism in college.\u00a0 Looking back on it now, that was probably a mistake, but at the time, it seemed like a good idea, especially since I was already writing for The Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n

OK sorry to go off topic there.\u00a0 Another thing I like about this book is it uses a lot of artwork that I have never seen before, or art that I had only seen in Nintendo Power.\u00a0 Case in point: when Nintendo Power first featured Super Mario Bros. 2, they had a different artist draw some of the pictures of the characters.\u00a0 I remember that to this day, because it was (and still is) unusual for Nintendo to have different artists draw their Mario characters in a different style.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if this guide lifted text directly form Nintendo Power (my memory\u2019s not that good), but I know some of the artwork is from that magazine.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a shot of the Mario 2 page with some of the artwork I was talking about.<\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s further proof that they used art from Nintendo Power.\u00a0 At first, Nintendo Power was a bi-monthly magazine.\u00a0 Before it went monthly, they would alternate between a magazine and a strategy guide each month.\u00a0 Some of the strategy guides included Final Fantasy, Ninja Gaiden, and Mario 3.\u00a0 I remember the Mario 3 guide in particular because when they would introduce each world, they had a full-page picture with Mario in that world.\u00a0 Those pictures stuck out in my mind for some reason, and they\u2019re in this guide as well in the Mario 3 section.<\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hey wait a minute, is this an ad for Nintendo\u2019s current products?\u00a0 This guide really is a lot like Nintendo Power!<\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO9\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another cool thing this guide does is in between some of the game pages, they break things up with other sections that were also in Nintendo Power, like \u201cClassified Information\u201d (game codes), or \u201cCounselor\u2019s Corner\u201d (game hints).\u00a0 On one of the final pages, they show all the Nintendo-made accessories.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad they had the NES Advantage joystick in here.\u00a0 I actually hated the classic square Nintendo controllers as a kid, so one of the first things I did when I got my NES was get the NES Advantage.\u00a0 They also had the NES MAX, which my best friend swore by.\u00a0 I\u2019m also impressed they had the \u201cHands Free\u201d controller, which people who couldn\u2019t move their arms or hands could use.\u00a0 You controlled the game with a chin joystick and inhaled and exhaled for the A and B buttons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NINTENDO10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the whole book!\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty decent book, and at only a little over 25 bucks, not a bad price either.\u00a0 It has a few flaws and could\u2019ve used some more editing, but that\u2019s all the problems I could find. \u00a0I read that some people complained about some of the images being lower-res, but I didn\u2019t notice anything, (although I do have low-res eyes).\u00a0 Some may say they were a little lazy by using assets from Nintendo Power, but I personally thought that was kind of cool.\u00a0 I\u2019m surprised they didn\u2019t use some of the Howard and Nester comics, though!\u00a0 Maybe Prima Games should make a collection of the Howard and Nester strips!\u00a0 I actually met Howard Phillips in person as a kid at the Nintendo World Championships in 1990<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 He gave me his business card and signed it, which I still have somewhere.\u00a0 He was pretty trusting to give his business card to a kid he never met before.\u00a0 I could\u2019ve called him at work for all he knew (but I didn\u2019t of course).<\/p>\n

While on the subject of the NES, I thought I\u2019d share a few of my own NES memories.\u00a0 I actually didn\u2019t get a NES right away.\u00a0 Super Mario Bros. was the big game for a while, but it didn\u2019t get me to want a NES.\u00a0 Sure it was a great game, but I had already played it in arcades first, and I was perfectly happy playing Pengo on my Atari 5200.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get a NES until after The Legend of Zelda came out.\u00a0 That game really impressed me, especially how you could save your game and come back to it later.\u00a0 I do wish this book covered more than Nintendo\u2019s published games, but I can understand why they did that because otherwise this guide would\u2019ve been several volumes long.\u00a0 But as a kid I didn\u2019t really get into many of Nintendo\u2019s own published games.\u00a0 Sure I enjoyed stuff like Mario 2 and Zelda, but I mostly played games like the Adventures of Lolo series and Capcom\u2019s Disney titles and Mega Man series.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, I still haven\u2019t been able to get the NES Classic Edition, and I\u2019m pretty disappointed about that.\u00a0 But like I said, it doesn\u2019t have all the games I enjoyed as a kid, and I think it still uses those square controllers, which I never liked (I wonder if I could hook up my old NES Advantage to it).\u00a0 If you were lucky enough to get the NES Classic Edition for you or your kids, you could get this guide to go along with it, and show your kids how WE used to have to get our strategies and tips for games before the Internet came along!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System was literally a game changer.\u00a0 It helped bring the video game industry out of a slump in the mid-80\u2019s.\u00a0 And for many children at the time (myself included), the NES was a household name.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t just play video games, you played Nintendo.\u00a0 To honor that excellent time in gaming, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15839,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837\/revisions\/15839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}