Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life

Author - Chris Kohler ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from BRADY GAMES was reviewed on 24-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:0744004241 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life Reference Book. Classifications : General AAS Games & Strategy Guides Computers & Internet Subjects Books Video & Electronic Games Puzzles & Games Entertainment Subjects Books General Puzzles & Games Entertainment Subjects Books Gener . Click the following link to view the cover of Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life.

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1) Paperback Book Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life by BRADY GAMES. This book was an excellent read. Kohler does a terrific job of showing the culture links video games have created between Japan and the Western world. It also shows the stark cultural contrasts. It made me reflect on how much Japanese culture I´ve been exposed to without knowing it.¤

2) Paperback Book Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life by BRADY GAMES. This is a good book about japanese videogames and their impact in the western world. The problem, and I agree with the other reviewers, is that the focus deals only with the mainstream and most popular games like Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy. Sure it talks about Dragon Quest(relatively unknown in America until recently) and ICO, but still left many open holes.

But if you forget this flaw, it´s really a great and satisfying reading, and the author constructs the text very well. Worth your time. It´s a four star book, but I´ll give four and half stars (five in Amazon) because it´s a good and very little explored theme.

¤

3) Paperback Book Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life by BRADY GAMES. History in the eye of the beholder

The boot has very useful information for video game collectors and researchers who are looking for information related to mostly Nintendo oriented lore. I stress its for game collectors and researchers vice enthusiasts. Enthusiasts are looking to be entertained as well as informed and this book does very little entertaining. I found my self reading parts of the book over the course of several months. It just wasn´t the page-turner that some other visual treats like "High Score" were. All in all it was worth 13 bucks, however I liken it too a History book on the 20th Century, with key events missing like World War II! Sega is not even mentioned as a footnote! Phantasy Star, Shining Force and several other important events in Gaming History never even captured the interest of the author, and it painfully shows here. Three Stars.¤

4) Paperback Book Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life by BRADY GAMES. other people have commented thoroughly about the generalities of this book, and i by-and-large agree. i´d like to add, however, that some of the most interesting parts of this book are the omissions.

for example, they author segues straight from talking about Ninja Gaiden to NOJ/NOA´s localization process and standards for content. he mentions that religious iconography, drug use, etc, are all prohibited from being portrayed in Nintendo software, and the list of prohibited content includes cigarette smoking.

the author fails to note the irony, however, that in the aforementioned game there´s a bad guy leaning against a light post smoking a cigarette he throws aside before dashing at you. i can only assume it slipped past the censors without them catching it, but my friends and i had noticed it years ago and marvelled that it had been made it through the review process intact.

it´s these kinds of things that make me feel like this book is a good general source, but anything deeper than a surface look at the topics covered would require some additional reading/sources.

there are quite a few nuggets of interesting trivia in here - more than enough to make a gamer smile (dragon quest being legally prohibited in Japan from selling on any day except Sunday or a holiday, for example). my copy was a gift; i can attest that it makes a fine one.¤

5) Paperback Book Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life by BRADY GAMES. I enjoyed this book, mostly. Within its scattershot set of chapters about Japanese games in general, there´s a fascinating, albeit sketchy, history of Nintendo that contained many small revelations for me, despite that I´ve been playing video games incessantly since 1987 or so. But the rest of the material was less compelling for me. The chapter about music games and music in games actively frustrated me--it gave only a brief survey of either topic, and seemed to spend most of its words on a tedious, obsessive examination of Final Fantasy albums. A chapter about Akihabara, Japan´s premier consumer electronics marketplace, pushed the trivia-to-insight ratio similarly high. In his effort to treat video games as if they deserve the attention of artists, Kohler concentrates too much on material that is only interesting to fans.

Still, on the whole I´m glad I read this book, and I hope Kohler´s stated desire to encourage further such works is satisfied; there is clearly much more to say.¤

6) Paperback Book Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life by BRADY GAMES.

BradyGames´ Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, by Chris Kohler, is a unique book that gives readers an entertaining and authoritative look at the indelible influence the video gaming, particularly, Japanese gaming, has had on the world.Power-Up is the first English-language work of its kind to examine the reasons behind the success of Japanese video games, rather than focusing on the history of video games. Just some of the features readers will find in this book include:

This product is available for sale worldwide.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 21-Nov-2008, 0744004241752073004248, 410-340-710-950-550-060-811-521-8

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