Spirited ... Offers acute and entertaining analysis of the company’s many game franchises, but it sidesteps closer examination of the business side ... Although the book occasionally veers into hagiography, it does pull back part of the curtain on a secretive gaming company that mass-produces fun.
The tone of Super Nintendo is effervescent but insufficient. Enthusiasm alone is not enough to distract from grating clichés ... For all the talk of fun, there’s a strange medicinal feel ... An endless sunny cutscene, inoffensive but interminable.
Winsomely enthusiastic ... MacDonald’s conversations with all the gifted (and often eccentric) creative people who actually make the games are full of such wholesome insights, as are her own superb analyses of favourite games.
A deep dive ... Because Nintendo can be famously tight-lipped about its financials, the book lacks broader context around the gaming industry. Still, MacDonald digs up some insights from designers and enthusiasts, and if the book generally shades toward corporate hagiography, it chronicles a company that has time and again delivered games that have enchanted millions. Gaming history written with a fan’s verve, for better and worse.
Entertaining ... MacDonald writes with a gamer’s keen eye for the intricacies of play and a thoughtful appreciation for Nintendo’s commitment to innovate and have fun. This is a must-read for gamers.
