Boss Fight Books

Series · 32

books · 1983-2024

By David Craddock, Daniel Lisi, Philip J. Reed, and more

Books in series

EarthBound

2014

An RPG for the Super NES that flopped when it first arrived to 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.

Chrono Trigger

2014

Last summer, Boss Fight Books gave fans the chance to vote for the game they most want to read a book about, and they chose the epic time travel RPG Chrono Trigger. Featuring new interviews with translator Ted Woolsey and DS retranslator Tom Slattery, Michael P. Williams' 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.

ZZT

2014

In 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.

Galaga

2014

For fifteen seconds of the 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.

Jagged Alliance 2

2014

The 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 interviews with the game’s developers, game designer and web technology developer Darius Kazemi will delve deep into the legacy of a game that still has much to teach gamers and game-makers 14 years after its release.

Super Mario Bros. 2

2014

In 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 Kōjō: 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.

Bible Adventures

2015

In 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.

Baldur's Gate II

2015

Upon 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 the surreal domestic novel In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods 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!

Metal Gear Solid

2015

Before they co-created the hit web series Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?, before Anthony was lead writer of Borderlands 2, before Ashly lent her voice to Saints Row IV, Towerfall, and Adventure Time—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 (1998). And why wouldn't they? Hideo Kojima's attempt at creating the Playstation's greatest 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. Several console generations later, Metal Gear Solid is still often touted as the series high water mark. The only problem: Ashly and Anthony 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.

#10

Shadow of the Colossus

2015

A massive, open world, brimming with mystery. A gauntlet of giants to overcome, living levels that must be destroyed... but to what end? Since its 2005 release, Fumito Ueda's minimal-yet-epic masterpiece, Shadow of the Colossus, has often been hailed as one of the greatest video games of all time. But why is Shadow still utterly unique over a decade later? Nick Suttner examines this question and others while journeying across Shadow’s expanses—stopping along the way to speak to developers about the game’s influence, examine the culture around its unfinished mysteries, and investigate the game's colossal impact on his own beliefs about games, art, and life.

#11

Spelunky

2015

When Derek Yu released Spelunky for free in 2008, his roguelike-inspired platformer took the indie game community by storm with its combination of classic platform mechanics, extreme difficulty, and random level generation. Four years later, Spelunky's HD remake went on to become PC Gamer's Game of the Year and earn perfect scores from Polygon and Eurogamer. But how is a "perfect" game made? Spelunky is Boss Fight's first autobiographical book: the story of a game's creation as told by its creator. Using his own game as a vehicle, Derek Yu discusses such wide-ranging topics as randomization, challenge, indifferent game worlds, player feedback, development team dynamics, and what's required to actually finish a game. Grab some ropes, a mattock, and your favorite pug—this book is going to dig deep.

#12

World of Warcraft

2016

At more than 100 million user accounts created and over $10 billion made, it is not only the most-subscribed MMORPG in the world, but the highest-grossing video game of all time. Ten years after its launch, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft is less a game and more a world unto itself, and it's a world Daniel Lisi knows well. More time in his high school years was spent in Azeroth than in his hometown of Irvine, CA—a home he happened to share with Blizzard itself. Now that Lisi has founded his own game development studio, WoW remains his most powerful example of just how immersive and consuming a game can be. Based on research, interviews, and the author's own experience in a hardcore raiding guild, Lisi's book examines WoW's origins, the addictive power of its gameplay loop, the romances WoW has both facilitated and shaken, the enabling power of anonymity, and the thrill of conquering BlizzCon with guildmates you've known for years and just met for the first time.

#13

Super Mario Bros. 3

2016

Upon its 1990 NES release, Super Mario Bros. 3 flew in on the P-wings of critical raves, intense popular demand, and the most sophisticated marketing campaign Nintendo of America had ever attempted. Shigeru Miyamoto's ultimate 8-bit platformer lived up to all the hype and elevated Mario from mascot to icon. But what exactly made this game the phenomenon it was? With the help of her friends and family, critics inside and outside the realm of gaming, and former Nintendo of America employees, Alyse Knorr traverses the Mushroom World looking for answers. Along the way, Knorr unearths SMB3's connections to theater and Japanese folklore, investigates her own princess-rescuing impulses, and examines how the game's animal costumes, themed worlds, tight controls, goofy enemies, and memorable music cohere in a game that solidified Mario's conquest of the NES era.

#14

Mega Man 3

2016

Capcom's Keiji Inafune followed the unexpected success of Mega Man 2 with a "kitchen sink" sequel that included eight new robot masters, a canine companion, a mysterious new frenemy, and a melancholy tone that runs through the game from its soft opening notes. Mega Man 3 was the biggest, messiest, and most ambitious Mega Man game yet. But why do we hunger for twitchy, difficult platformers like Mega Man 3 decades later when the developers, the franchise, and the Blue Bomber himself have all moved on? Investigating the development of the Mega Man series alongside the rise of video game emulation, the YouTube retrogaming scene, and the soaring price of NES carts, novelist Salvatore Pane takes a close and compelling look at the lost power-ups of our youth that we collect in our attempts to become complete again.

#15

Soft & Cuddly

2017

A 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' fluorescent punk manifesto sure pissed off a lot of people. Featuring new interviews with the 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.

#16

Kingdom Hearts II

2017

Light 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.

#17

Katamari Damacy

2017

The 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.

#18

Final Fantasy V

2017

When Final Fantasy V was released for the Japanese Super Famicom in 1992, the game was an instant hit, selling two million copies in the first two months alone. With its groundbreaking job system and seemingly endless character customization, FF5 appeared to be a shoe-in for North American distribution. But the game, unlike Final Fantasy IV and FF6, was dubbed -too hardcore- for a Western audience and was swapped out with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, a simplistic role-playing game tailor-made for Americans. That didn't stop a teenage Chris Kohler from tracking down Final Fantasy V. The young RPG fan got a Japanese copy of the game, used it to teach himself Japanese, and with the help of some internet companions created the first-ever comprehensive English-language FAQ of the game. As the cultural gap between the East and West shrank a little every year, the game was eventually translated into English for the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and iOS, and fans in the West finally have finally learned what all the fuss was about. Now the acclaimed author of the bestselling Power-Up and a longtime editor for Wired, Kohler is revisiting the game that started his career in games journalism. Based on new, original interviews with FF5's director, Hironobu Sakaguchi, as well as previously untranslated interviews with the rest of the development team, Kohler's book weaves history and criticism to examine one of the FF series' greatest and most overlooked titles.

#19

Shovel Knight

2018

In 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 entire Yacht Club Games team, writer David L. Craddock unearths the story of five game developers who worked so well together while 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!

#20

Star Wars

Knights of the Old Republic

2019

Set 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.

#21

NBA Jam

2019

When 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 Midway's billion-dollar hit conquered the world, 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.

#22

Pilgrim in the Microworld

1983

An exploration of the human mind and body's interaction with the computer in its most compelling form, the video game, focuses on the author's own obsessed immersion in a computer game and its possibilities

#23

Postal

2020

In 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.

#24

Red Dead Redemption

2020

First garnering both dismissal and intrigue as “Grand Theft Horse,” Rockstar Games’ 2010 action-adventure Red Dead Redemption was met on its release with critical acclaim for its open-world gameplay, its immersive environments, and its authenticity to the experience of the Wild West. Well, the simulated Wild West, that is. Boss Fight invites you to find out how the West was created, sold, and marketed to readers, moviegoers, and gamers as a space where “freedom” and “progress” duel for control of the dry, punishing frontier. Join writer and scholar Matt Margini as he journeys across the broad and expansive genre known as the Western, tracing the lineage of the familiar self-sufficient loner cowboy from prototypes like Buffalo Bill, through golden age icons like John Wayne and antiheroes like Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name,” up to Red Dead’s John Marston. With a critical reading of Red Dead’s narrative, setting, and gameplay through the lens of the rich and ever-shifting genre of the Western, Margini reveals its connections to a long legacy of mythmaking that has colored not only the stories we love to consume, but the histories we tell about America.

#25

Resident Evil

2020

Now a sprawling video game franchise with no shortage of film adaptations, tie-in products, and remakes, Resident Evil has kept us on the edge of our seats for decades with its tried-and-true brand of jump scares, zombie action, and biological horror. But even decades after its release, we can’t stop revisiting the original’s thrills, chills, and—sometimes unintentional—spills. Pop culture writer and horror cinephile Philip J Reed takes dead aim at 1996’s Resident Evil, the game that first defined “survival horror” and then turned it into an entire genre. While examining Resident Evil’s influences from the worlds of film, literature, and video games alike, Reed’s love letter to horror examines how the game’s groundbreaking design and its atmospheric fixed-cam cinematography work to thrill and terrify players—and why that terror may even be good for you. Featuring a foreword from Troma Entertainment legend Lloyd Kaufman and new interviews with the game’s voice actors and its live-action cast, the book serves as the master of unlocking the behind-the-scenes secrets of Resident Evil, and how even a game filled with the most laughable dialogue can still scare the pants off of you.

#26

The Legend of Zelda

2020

You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you? Those grim words hang over the entirety of Majora Mask, the sixth entry in the Legend of Zelda series. In his darkest adventure, Link must relive the same three days over and over again to prevent the moon from colliding into the kingdom of Termina and ending the world. Made with a small team in a single year for the Nintendo 64 from the assets of its predecessor, Majora’s Mask could have been a shameless cash-in—but instead has gained wide recognition as the most mysterious, mature, and touching game in the series. It’s also the Zelda game that has inspired more inventive fan theories and bone-chilling internet horror stories than might be expected from a high-fantasy adventure. Through rigorous research and a new in-depth interview with Majora’s North American localizer, Jason Leung, writer and editor Gabe Durham investigates the relationship between Majora’s fast-paced, adaptive development and the meaning projected onto its story by players—and shines a light on the strange and tumultuous romance between art and fandom.

#27

Silent Hill 2

2021

A 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.

#28

Final Fantasy VI

2021

Terra 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.

#29

GoldenEye 007

2022

Bond—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.

#30

PaRappa the Rapper

2023

In the mid-90s, a Japanese prog rock star, an American visual artist, and their small team of collaborators made a colorful cartoon hip hop rhythm game that looked and played (and kicked! and punched!) like nothing else on the market. Initially dismissed by some as a curiosity, PaRappa the Rapper was a hit with players that would eventually sell millions of copies, receive two sequels, and inspire entire genres into being. And for author Mike Sholars, PaRappa left a lasting impact. Featuring exclusive interviews with creators Masaya Matsuura and Rodney Greenblat, original voice cast member Saundra Williams, and a medley of sharp game critics and music experts, Sholars’ PaRappa the Rapper is equal parts recap, remix, and recollection. Sholars uses his love of hip hop and gaming to celebrate PaRappa‘s unprecedented mechanics, art, humor, cultural specificity, and uplifting themes as he pairs energetic game history with personal memoir to explain how a game about a rapping dog helped him feel seen when he needed it the most. Funny, informative, and sincere, Sholars’ book is a heartfelt reminder why we all gotta believe.

#31

Minesweeper

2023

If 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.

#33

Animal Crossing

2024

Before the world of Animal Crossing became a pandemic lifeline for millions, the “social sim” communication game Dо̄butsu no Mori, or “Animal Forest,” debuted in 2001 on Nintendo 64 in Japan, then once again in 2002 on GameCube to critical and commercial success all over the world. An open-ended casual game ahead of its time, Animal Crossing set the stage for the series’s many incarnations to come with its focus on building community and friendship, its in-game currency of Bells, and its village of Animalese-speaking friends like Tom Nook, K.K. Slider, and the mean Mr. Resetti. You could visit the villages of your friends and give them gifts—all without being connected to the internet. Video game preservationist and historian Kelsey Lewin tells the story of how a mundane-sounding game full of bug-catching, letter-writing, and furniture-collecting became one of Nintendo’s best-loved franchises, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons eclipsing Super Mario Bros. for all-time sales in Japan, unlocking gaming’s massive potential to tap into our desire to plant trees, find friends, and make the world a better place.

Authors

David Craddock

Author · 18 books

David L. Craddock lives with his wife in Ohio. He is the bestselling author of Stay Awhile and Listen : How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire - Book I, and Heritage : Book One of the Gairden Chronicles, an epic fantasy series for young adults. Please follow along with him on his website/blog at DavidLCraddock.com .

Gabe Durham is the author of a novel, FUN CAMP, and a book about 90s Christian Nintendo games, BIBLE ADVENTURES. He is the editor of Boss Fight Books. He lives in Los Angeles. http://www.bossfightbooks.com

Matt Bell’s next novel, Appleseed, was published by Custom House in July 2021. His craft book Refuse to Be Done, a guide to novel writing, rewriting, & revision, will follow in early 2022 from Soho Press. He is also the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur's Gate II, and several other titles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Orion, Tin House, Conjunctions, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

Michael Kimball's third novel, DEAR EVERYBODY, will be published in the UK, US, and Canada this year. His first two novels, THE WAY THE FAMILY GOT AWAY (2000) and HOW MUCH OF US THERE WAS (2005), have both been translated into many languages. He is also responsible for the art project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) and the documentary film, I Will Smash You.

Salvatore Pane was born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He is the author of two novels, Last Call in the City of Bridges and The Theory of Almost Everything, in addition to a nonfiction book about video games, Mega Man 3, published by Boss Fight Books. He is currently co-writing a textbook about writing video games for Bloomsbury with Julialicia Case and Eric Freeze. He was awarded the 2022 Autumn House Fiction Prize, and his winning short story collection, The Neorealist in Winter: Stories, is forthcoming in October 2023. He is the writer/narrative designer of RetroMania Wrestling on Steam, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox and has written and designed many other video games. He served as a Freelance Localization Editor for NIS America on Trails to Azure and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of St. Thomas where he teaches creative writing, video games, and Italian film. He lives with his wife and Martin Scorsese the Cat in St. Paul and can be reached via Twitter. His short fiction has been nominated or shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Web, Best of the Net, and Wigleaf’s Top 50 [Very] Short Fictions. He won the Turow-Kinder Award in Fiction judged by Stewart O’ Nan, and his work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, Story Magazine, American Short Fiction, Paste, Kotaku, BOMB, The Rumpus, The American Book Review, and many other venues. He is the co-creator of the graphic novel, The Black List, and co-hosts The Jabsteps, a podcast about the NBA. His video games have been exhibited at WordPlay and BAR SK, and he has presented his work in Italy, Iceland, and elsewhere internationally. Visit his LinkedIn or get in touch at salpane@gmail.com. His work is represented by Andrianna deLone at CAA.