History

Street Fighter’s shotokan style was an important first archetype for a 1v1 fighting game and introduced Ryu and Ken to the world, but the game had too many weaknesses to sculpt a complete, well-rounded martial artist. Like a body maturing, its strength multiplying and nervous system connecting every part, it wasn’t until Capcom’s arcade hardware improved that it could fully realize the fighting depth and dramatic spectacle to which the original game aspired. But three and a half years would prove fruitful training time to address SF’s faults, and the result revolutionized videogames forever and debuted an iconic cast of diverse fighting styles. With its improved animation system, new character archetypes, and a third core mechanic that brilliantly merged the gameplay, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior’s eight playable fighters helped solidify Street Fighter’s martial art, and took its digital dojo global.

Nintendo has defined videogames. Since it first threw its glove into the ring of arcade games in the 80’s, the company has changed the way people view, build and play games and Jeff Ryan’s Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America chronicles their rise from card game manufacturer to ubiquitous icons of the industry.

This book offers 280 pages of well-organized content that profiles the games, tech and personalities that set the standard for the medium. Covering everything from Nintendo’s days as a card game manufacturer to their successes with the Wii, Ryan introduces us to Hiroshi Yamauchi, the savvy entrepreneur who took his business into game cabinets, to his son-in-law Minoru Arakawa who put those machines in American arcades to Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary game designer and Mario, his creation that he made the face of fun and quality. Continue reading “Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America”