- Table View
- List View
Kingdom Hearts II (Boss Fight Books)
by Alexa Ray CorrieaLight and darkness. Heroes and villains. Final Fantasy epics and... Donald Duck? The Kingdom Hearts series has always walked a fine line between masterfully executed crossover and nonsensical fan mashup, but Square Enix and Disney's intercompany franchise remains beloved throughout numerous sequels, prequels, and remixes. Despite the outlandish premise and convoluted lore, what lies at the heart of Kingdom Hearts is more than familiar to fans of Final Fantasy and Disney alike: friendship. For games critic and JRPG superfan Alexa Ray Corriea, no game in the series better exemplifies friendship than Kingdom Hearts II. Corriea's close reading of protagonist Sora's struggles and triumphs, his friendship with rival Riku, and his dark journey into oblivion illuminates how the unlikely universe of Kingdom Hearts authentically portrays human relationships better than any solo Final Fantasy or Disney game ever could. Just as Kingdom Hearts II is greater than the sum of its parts, Corriea's exploration of the game's themes and emotional depths reveals how each of us is stronger for the people who surround us.
Nightmare Mode: A Boss Fight Books Anthology (Boss Fight Books)
by Boss Fight BooksSo you've managed to best our most fearsome books? Well gear up, brave adventurer: It's time for some DLC. Boss Fight&’s authors have done so much great writing you won&’t find in their books, so we decided to put together our very own B-sides & rarities compilation: Nightmare Mode. In this anthology you&’ll delve into lost chapters and timely essays in which Boss Fight authors return to the games and series that inspired their full-length titles. Inside you&’ll encounter: David L. Craddock on how Shovel Knight's developers collaborated with speedrunners, Alexa Ray Corriea on the characters and themes in Kingdom Hearts III, Alyse Knorr on how Princess Peach&’s story draws on 2000 years of women in peril, Alex Kane interviews the man behind Star Wars Battlefront II's use of motion capture technology, Salvatore Pane on the fan projects that have kept the Mega Man series alive, Philip J Reed interviews S.D. Perry about her beloved Resident Evil novels, Gabe Durham on how Zelda's fandom influenced the official Zelda timeline, Jon Irwin savors the anticipation of waiting for a new Mario game, Chris Kohler interviews Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu about his legendary soundtracks, and Michael P. Williams on how Chrono Trigger fits into the Japanese tradition of retrofuturism. If you&’ve read these authors&’ Boss Fight Books, Nightmare Mode offers you a fresh angle on a familiar topic. And if you&’re just encountering their writing for the first time and you like what they have to say, we&’ve got whole new books awaiting you.
Bible Adventures (Boss Fight Books)
by Gabe DurhamIn the beginning, a small unlicensed game development company was hit with divine inspiration: They could make a lot of money (and escape the wrath of Nintendo) by creating games for Christians. With the release of the 1990 NES platformer Bible Adventures, the developers saw what they had made, and it was good. Or, at least, good enough. Based on extensive research and original interviews with Wisdom Tree staff, Gabe Durham's book investigates the rise and fall of the little company that almost could, the tension between faith and commerce in the Christian retail industry, culture's retro/ironic obsession with bad games, and the simple recipe for transforming a regular game into a Christian game: throw a Bible in it and pray nobody notices.
Continue?: The Boss Fight Books Anthology (Boss Fight Books)
by Boss Fight BooksBoss Fight is proud to present our first multi-author collection, Continue? The Boss Fight Books Anthology. In these digital pages, Anna Anthropy celebrates her second favorite Epic MegaGames title, David LeGault offers a tour of the lost 80s Action Max console, and Mike Meginnis tells his Best American Short Stories-selected tale of a father and son who become obsessed with the saddest adventure game in the world. The eBook collects a diverse survey of essays and short stories from Boss Fight series authors Michael P. Williams, Ken Baumann, Jon Irwin, and Darius Kazemi, as well newcomers Matt Bell, Tevis Thompson, Rebekah Frumkin, Brian Oliu, Salvatore Pane, Mike Lars White, and Rachel B. Glaser.
Silent Hill 2 (Boss Fight Books)
by Mike DruckerA troubled man travels to a mysterious town from his past after receiving a letter from his wife... who's been dead for years. And while our hero explores dark corridors and battles countless disturbing enemies, his journey offers more psychological horror than survival horror. Welcome to Silent Hill, where the monster is you. Silent Hill 2 doubles down on what made the first game so compelling: The feeling of being lost in a foggy, upside-down town as unsettling as it is familiar. Nearly two decades after first experiencing Silent Hill 2, writer and comedian Mike Drucker returns to its dark depths to explore how this bold video game delivers an experience that is tense, nightmarish, and anything but fun. With an in-depth and highly personal study of its tragic cast of characters, and a critical examination of developer Konami&’s world design and uneven marketing strategy, Drucker examines how Silent Hill 2 forces its players to grapple with the fact that very real-world terrors of trauma, abuse, shame, and guilt are far more threatening than any pyramid-headed monster could ever be.
GoldenEye 007 (Boss Fight Books)
by Alyse KnorrBond—James Bond. In the 80s and 90s, the debonair superspy&’s games failed to live up to the giddy thrills of his films. That all changed when British studio Rare unleashed GoldenEye 007 in 1997. In basements and college dorms across the world, friends bumped shoulders while shooting, knifing, exploding, and slapping each other&’s digital faces in the Nintendo 64 game that would redefine the modern first-person shooter genre and become the most badass party game of its generation. But GoldenEye&’s success was far from a sure thing. For years of development, GoldenEye&’s team of rookie developers were shooting in the dark with no sense of what the N64 or its controller would be like, and the game&’s relentless violence horrified higher-ups at squeaky clean Nintendo. As development lagged far behind the debut of the tie-in film GoldenEye, the game nearly came out an entire Bond movie too late. Through extensive interviews with GoldenEye&’s creators, writer and scholar Alyse Knorr traces the story of how this unlikely licensed game reinvigorated a franchise and a genre. Learn all the stories behind how this iconic title was developed, and why GoldenEye 007 has continued to kick the living daylights out of every other Bond game since.
Postal (Boss Fight Books)
by Nathan Rabin Brock WilburJust as the video game console market was about to crash into the New Mexico desert in 1983, professor and sociologist David Sudnow was unearthing the secrets of &“eye, mind, and the essence of video skill&” through an exploration of Atari&’s Breakout, one of the earliest hits of the arcade world. Originally released under the title Pilgrim in the Microworld, Sudnow&’s groundbreaking longform criticism of a single game predates the rise of game studies by decades. While its earliest critics often scorned the idea of a serious book about an object of play, the book&’s modern readers remain fascinated by an obsessive, brilliant, and often hilarious quest to learn to play Breakout just as one would learn the piano. Featuring a new foreword and freshly edited text, Breakout makes a perfect addition to Boss Fight&’s lineup of critical, historical, and personal looks at single video games. We&’re proud to restore this classic to print and share with new audiences Sudnow&’s wild pilgrimage into the limitless microworld of play.
Shovel Knight (Boss Fight Books)
by David L. CraddockIn 2014, Yacht Club Games released its very first game, Shovel Knight, a joyful 2D platformer that wears its NES influences on its sleeve. This unlikely pastiche of 8-bit inspirations manages to emulate the look, feel, and even the technical limitations of nostalgic titles like Mega Man, Zelda II, and Castlevania III—imbued with a contemporary sense of humor and self-awareness. But how is a fundamentally retro game created in the modern era? And what do the games of the past have to teach today's game designers? Based on extensive original interviews with the Yacht Club Games team, writer David L. Craddock unearths the story of a fledgling group of game developers who worked so well together at WayForward Games that they decided to start their own studio. From the high highs of Shovel Knight's groundbreaking Kickstarter to the low lows of its unexpectedly lengthy development, Boss Fight presents a new master class in how a great game gets made. Get ready to steel your shovel and dig into this fascinating oral history. For Shovelry!
GoldenEye 007: Deluxe Edition (Boss Fight Books)
by Alyse KnorrBond—James Bond. In the 80s and 90s, the debonair superspy&’s games failed to live up to the giddy thrills of his films. That all changed when British studio Rare unleashed GoldenEye 007 in 1997. In basements and college dorms across the world, friends bumped shoulders while shooting, knifing, exploding, and slapping each other&’s digital faces in the Nintendo 64 game that would redefine the modern first-person shooter genre and become the most badass party game of its generation. But GoldenEye&’s success was far from a sure thing. For years of development, GoldenEye&’s team of rookie developers were shooting in the dark with no sense of what the N64 or its controller would be like, and the game&’s relentless violence horrified higher-ups at squeaky clean Nintendo. As development lagged far behind the debut of the tie-in film GoldenEye, the game nearly came out an entire Bond movie too late. Through extensive interviews with GoldenEye&’s creators, writer and scholar Alyse Knorr traces the story of how this unlikely licensed game reinvigorated a franchise and a genre. Learn all the stories behind how this iconic title was developed, and why GoldenEye 007 has continued to kick the living daylights out of every other Bond game since.
Breakout: Pilgrim in the Microworld (Boss Fight Books)
by David SudnowIn 1997, game studio Running With Scissors released its debut title, Postal, an isometric shooter aimed at shocking an imagined pearl-clutching public. The game was crass, gory, and dumb—all of which might have been forgivable if the game had been any fun to play. Postal gained enough notoriety from riding the wave of public outrage to warrant a sequel. And DLC. And a remake. And, perhaps most surprising of all, a Golden-Raspberry-winning feature film adaptation directed by the infamous Uwe Boll. In this thoughtful and hilarious tag-team performance, Brock Wilbur & Nathan Rabin probe the fascinatingly troubled game and film for what each can tell us about shock culture & mass shootings, interviewing the RWS team and even Boll himself for answers. Like it or not, Postal is the franchise that won't die—no matter how many molotov cocktails you throw at it.
Day of the Tentacle (Boss Fight Books)
by Bob MackeySix years after helping the Edison family defeat the designs of a malevolent meteor in Maniac Mansion, college student and classic nerd Bernard Bernoulli once again finds himself at the front door of the infamous mansion. With two weird friends, Hoagie and Laverne, Bernard must stop the evil Purple Tentacle from conquering the world—by freezing hamsters, pushing old ladies down the stairs, abusing Swiss bank accounts, and ever so slightly changing some of the most significant moments in American history. Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer&’s 1993 time-trotting point-and-click adventure game Day of the Tentacle brought LucasArts' game design to a new standard of excellence with smart puzzles, hilarious characters, and an animation style that harkened back to classic Warner Bros. cartoons. And somehow, they fit it all on a fat stack of floppy disks! In this definitive oral history as told by the game&’s designers, musicians, and artists, writer Bob Mackey tells the inside story of Day of the Tentacle&’s lightning-in-a-bottle production, and reveals how two first-time directors boiled down the lessons of past adventure games into a tight and satisfying experience, how their team grappled with evolving technology to achieve the coveted status of multimedia at the dawn of the CD-ROM age, and how a remastered edition brought Tentacle to a new generation of fans.
Soft & Cuddly (Boss Fight Books)
by Jarett KobekA computer game so nauseatingly gory that it came with a barf bag. Bright druggy graphics that sickened scores of proper English parents. Gameplay so violent that it inspired one of Britain's most infamous killing sprees. Soft & Cuddly, released for the ZX Spectrum in 1987, wasn't quite any of these things. But in an age of manufactured moral panics, John George Jones's fluorescent punk manifesto sure pissed off a lot of people. Featuring new interviews with the game's creator, Jarett Kobek's book dives deep into the gritty world of British yellow journalism, snarky computer fanzines, DIY home programming, and Soviet bootleg mixtapes. If Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party was right that video nasties like Soft & Cuddly were the epitome of 80s depravity, then this book is headed straight to Hell.
Final Fantasy VI (Boss Fight Books)
by Sebastian DekenTerra the magical half-human. Shadow the mysterious assassin. Celes the tough, tender general. Kefka the fool who would be god. Each of the many unforgettable characters in Final Fantasy VI has made a huge impression on a generation of players, but why do we feel such affection for these 16-bit heroes and villains as so many others fade? The credit goes to the game&’s score, composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu. Armed with newly translated interviews and an expert ear for sound, writer and musician Sebastian Deken conducts a critical analysis of the musical structures of FF6, the game that pushed the Super Nintendo&’s sound capabilities to their absolute limits and launched Uematsu&’s reputation as the &“Beethoven of video game music.&” Deken ventures deep into the game&’s lush soundscape—from its expertly crafted leitmotifs to its unforgettable opera sequence—exploring the soundtrack&’s lasting influence and how it helped clear space for game music on classical stages around the world.
NBA Jam (Boss Fight Books)
by Reyan AliWhen NBA Jam dunked its way into arcades in 1993, players discovered just how fun basketball can be when freed from rules, refs, and gravity itself. But just a few years after the billion-dollar hit conquered the world, developer Midway, publisher Acclaim, and video arcades themselves fell off the map. How did a simple two-on-two basketball game become MVP of the arcade, and how did this champ lose its title? Journalist Reyan Ali dives deep into the saga, tracking the people and decisions that shaped the series. You'll get to know mischievous Jam architect Mark Turmell, go inside Midway's Chicago office where hungry young talent tapped into cutting-edge tech, and explore the sequels, spin-offs, and tributes that came in the game's wake. Built out of exhaustive research and original interviews with a star-studded cast —including Turmell and his original development team, iconic commentator Tim Kitzrow, businessmen and developers at Midway and Acclaim alike, secret characters George Clinton and DJ Jazzy Jeff, Doom co-creator John Romero, and 1990s NBA demigods Glen Rice and Shaq—Ali's NBA Jam returns you to an era when coin-op was king.
Jagged Alliance 2 (Boss Fight Books)
by Darius KazemiThe turn-based tactical role playing series Jagged Alliance has been sequeled, expanded, modded, optioned, multiplayered, and kickstarted, but the series' many fans usually point to Jagged Alliance 2 as the high water mark, and one of the finest turn-based video games of all time. Jagged Alliance 2 brings to the table a wicked sense of humor, simulation-driven character design, a combination of strategic overworld and tactical battles reminiscent of the X-COM series, and a surprisingly deep open-world RPG experience reminiscent of the Ultima or Elder Scrolls games. Focusing on JA2's development history and basing his book largely on new personal internviews with the game's developers, game designer and web technology developer Darius Kazemi delves deep into the legacy of a game that still has much to teach gamers and game-makers 14 years after its release.
Minesweeper (Boss Fight Books)
by Kyle OrlandIf you had some free time and a Windows PC in the 1990s, your mouse probably crawled its way to Minesweeper, an exciting watch-where-you-click puzzle game with a ticking clock and a ton of &“just one more game&” replayability. Originally sold as part of a &“big box&” bundle of simple games, Minesweeper became a cornerstone of the Windows experience when it was pre-installed with every copy of Windows 3.1 and decades of subsequent OS updates. Alongside fellow Windows gaming staple Solitaire, Minesweeper wound up on more devices than nearly any other video game in history. Sweeping through a minefield of explosive storylines, Journalist Kyle Orland reveals how Minesweeper caused an identity crisis within Microsoft, ensnared a certain Microsoft CEO with its addictive gameplay, dismayed panicky pundits, micromanagers, and legislators around the world, inspired a passionate competitive community that discovered how to break the game, and predicted the rise of casual gaming by nearly two decades.
Galaga (Boss Fight Books)
by Michael KimballFor fifteen seconds of one of the highest-grossing films of all time, The Avengers&’ plan to save the world comes to a grinding halt when Tony Stark calls out a low-level member of S.H.I.E.L.D. for playing Galaga on the job. Acclaimed novelist and lifelong Galaga player Michael Kimball knows the compulsion: He&’s set and re-set high scores on Galaga machines all across America. What many call the greatest fixed shooter arcade game in history, Galaga broke the Space Invaders mold with superior graphics, faster firing, bonus rounds, tractor beams, and advanced enemy A.I. Since its 1981 release, Galaga has inspired numerous sequels, bootlegs, hacks, and clones—and some version of Galaga has been released for nearly every gaming platform. Kimball shares his obsession with Galaga through a discussion of the innovative gameplay it introduced (including lots of tips), its extensive cultural legacy (including collectibles, movies, rap songs, drinking games, and sex acts), and how Galaga got Kimball through a difficult childhood--and maybe saved his life.
Baldur's Gate II (Boss Fight Books)
by Matt BellUpon its release in 2000, BioWare's PC role-playing epic Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn was hailed as a paragon of its genre and named RPG of the Year by IGN, GameSpy, and GameSpot. A game like Baldur's Gate II requires not just a master wordsmith but a dungeon master. Enter award-winning novelist Matt Bell, author of four works of fiction and co-author of the Dungeons & Dragons novel The Last Garrison. Bell's book explores BG2's immersive narrative and complex mechanics, unpacks how RPG systems enable our emotional investment in characters, investigates the game's non-linear story, and relates his own struggle to reconcile being a serious adult with his love of D&D and video games. Dig in, geek out, and go for the eyes, Boo!
Chrono Trigger (Boss Fight Books)
by Michael P. WilliamsWhen Boss Fight Books first gave fans the chance to vote for the game they most wanted to read a book about, they chose the epic time travel RPG Chrono Trigger. Featuring new interviews with translator Ted Woolsey and DS retranslator Tom Slattery, Michael P. Williams's book delves deep into connections between Crono&’s world and ours, including Chrono Trigger's take on institutions such as law and religion, how the game's heroes fit and defy genre conventions, and the maddening logical headaches inherent in any good time travel plot. From the Magus dilemma to the courtroom scene, find out why many consider this game the high point in the entire role-playing genre in this in-depth examination of Chrono Trigger, a ton of fun and a true work of art.
EarthBound (Boss Fight Books)
by Ken BaumannAn RPG for the Super NES that flopped when it first arrived in the U.S., EarthBound grew in fan support and critical acclaim over the years, eventually becoming the All-Time Favorite Game of thousands, among them author Ken Baumann. Featuring a heartfelt foreword from the game's North American localization director, Marcus Lindblom, Baumann's EarthBound is a joyful tornado of history, criticism, and memoir. Baumann explores the game&’s unlikely origins, its brilliant creator, its madcap plot, its marketing failure, its cult rise from the ashes, and its intersections with Japanese and American culture, all the while reflecting back on the author's own journey into the terrifying and hilarious world of adults.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Boss Fight Books)
by Alex KaneSet an even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away, BioWare's 2003 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic wowed players with its compelling characters, lightsaber customization, complex morality choices, and one of the greatest plot twists in both video game and Star Wars history. But even for veteran studios like LucasArts and BioWare, the responsibility of making both a great game and a lasting contribution to the Star Wars canon was no easy task. Featuring extensive new interviews with a host of KotOR's producers, writers, designers, and actors, journalist Alex Kane weaves together an epic oral history of this classic game, from its roots in tabletop role-playing and comic books, to its continued influence on big-screen Star Wars films. Whether you align with the light or the dark side, you're invited to dive into this in-depth journey through one of the most beloved Star Wars titles of all time.
ZZT (Boss Fight Books)
by Anna AnthropyIn 1991, long before Epic Games was putting out blockbusters like Unreal, Infinity Blade, and Gears of War, Tim Sweeney released a strange little MS-DOS shareware game called ZZT. The simplicity of its text graphics masked the complexity of its World Editor: players could use ZZT to design their own games. This feature was a revelation to thousands of gamers, including Anna Anthropy, author of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. ZZT is an exploration of a submerged continent, a personal history of the shareware movement, ascii art, messy teen identity struggle, cybersex, transition, outsider art, the thousand deaths of Barney the Dinosaur, and what happens when a ten-year-old gets her hands on a programming language she can understand. It&’s been said that the first Velvet Underground album sold only a few thousand copies, but that everyone who heard it formed a band. Well not everyone has played ZZT, but everyone who played it became a game designer.
Katamari Damacy (Boss Fight Books)
by L. E. HallThe universe falls into chaos. The moon and the stars vanish from the night sky. The son of a fickle deity must restore balance to the cosmos… by pushing a sticky ball around and picking up every toothpick, tree, and skyscraper in its path. A plotline this wild could only describe &“nah… nah nah nah nah nah nah nah&” Katamari Damacy, the irresistible little cult game turned cultural juggernaut. But the 2004 release of Katamari almost didn&’t get the ball rolling. Reviewers worldwide weren&’t sure how to classify it and initial sales numbers were low. Those who actually played it, though, were won over by its novel gameplay, goofy surrealism, and catchy soundtrack. Pushed into the mainstream by its passionate fans, Katamari remains one of the best video game examples of pure anarchic fun. Based on new interviews with Katamari creator Keita Takahashi himself, game designer and writer L. E. Hall explores the unlikely story of the game's development, its unexpected success, and its lasting cultural impact. Along the way, she uncovers Katamari&’s deep roots in Japanese culture, in contemporary art, and in the transformative power of play itself.
Metal Gear Solid (Boss Fight Books)
by Anthony Burch Ashly BurchBefore they co-created the hit web series Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?, Ashly and Anthony Burch were just a brother and sister who shared a weird obsession with Solid Snake and his 3D debut, Metal Gear Solid. And why wouldn't they? Hideo Kojima's 1998 game featured groundbreaking stealth mechanics, a gruff and hunky leading man, a brilliantly claustrophobic setting, tons of cinematic cutscenes, shocking fourth wall breaks, and terrifying bosses. The only problem: The Burches grew up but their all-time favorite video game didn't. After nearly two decades, Metal Gear Solid's once-innovative stealth mechanics seem outdated, the cutscenes have lost some of their action movie punch, and the game's treatment of women is often out of touch. Witness a celebration/takedown of this landmark game with the combination of insight and hilarity that Ashly and Anthony have made their careers on.
Super Mario Bros. 2 (Boss Fight Books)
by Jon IrwinIn perhaps the most famous switcheroo in all of game history, the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was declared &“too hard&” by Nintendo of America and replaced with a Mario-ified port of the Famicom hit, Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. The new game (dubbed Super Mario USA in Japan) was a huge success for its four playable characters, improved graphics, immersive levels, and catchy music, and eventually became the 3rd bestselling game for the NES. And yet. Because of its strange new villains, its wild gameplay, and its mysterious touches, SMB2 has for years been regarded as the Odd Mario Out, even as it has seen popular updates on the Super NES and Game Boy Advance. Irwin&’s Mario is not a simple retelling of a 25-year-old story, but instead an examination of the game with fresh eyes: both as a product of its time and as a welcome change from the larger Super Mario franchise. Along the way he searches for clues, pulling up a few vegetables of his own. What he finds is not at all what he expected.