Review: The Anatomy of Super Mario Vol. 1
EricMesa
- 2 minutes read - 252 words
The Anatomy of Super Mario Vol. 1 by Jeremy Parish
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is a matter class on Mario. I thought I knew all there was to know about Mario. Not only have I read a lot of the histories, but I was there. Mario was my first game; the ur experience. Every game, from real platformers to games with platforming life Uncharted, is judged in my mind against Mario. It is not a mere history lesson for me.
Yet, since I was young when it came out, I didn’t consciously appreciate a lot of what Mario was doing. I had no true conception of what has come before and why this was so ground breaking. To me this was the primitive upon which the future was built.
Parish goes through great lengths to examine what makes each of Mario’s games tick. It really show the intention behind each level of Super Mario Bros. It is like reading the best film criticism.
I made a comment on my status about the best format to read this book. I read the majority of it on my black and white Nook. It worked well enough as the colors were quite simple then. Also there isn’t much of large complexity in the screenshots. However, the PDF version, which I read on my 24" monitor is a work of art. The page layout is great and inspired. If you can read it that way I recommend it.