The Unofficial SNES Pixel Book by Robert Bannert and Christine Bauer is now available for order from the Award-winning publisher Bitmap Books. This English version has been translated by Thomas Nickel from the original publication in German, Das inoffizielle SNES-PIXELBUCH, and features 272 pages of carefully selected SNES artwork and game screenshots with commentary that is insightful and clearly dear to the writer’s heart. Like other titles from Bitmap, The Unofficial SNES Pixel Book is a well-made, high-quality project that would be a welcome addition to the library of any video game fan.
Trends Over Genres
“Classifying games into genres is not that easy,” the book states to its reader. How does one know where certain genres begin, and others end for some of the more popular titles on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)? Rather than try and box each game in the book into only one genre, the authors have instead opted to broadly group by trends, such as Adventures and RPGs, Platformers, Fighting Games, Strategy, and more.
All The Most Popular Titles And Plenty Of Obscures Ones, Too
It would be difficult to have a book detailing the most important titles of a Nintendo console without incorporating the Super Mario Bros. series, and the SNES had numerous games from the franchise. Of course, games staring Mario are not unique, but rather the grandfather of so many other games where a character spends most of their time running and jumping from the beginning of a level to the end.
The author’s present some of the other most popular “Mario games”, such as The Flintstones, and a short while later, the adaptation of the Disney film, Aladdin, while also using the opportunity to kick off into a conversation about how these games were a “Licence to print money”, thanks to the brand recognition that came with turning a movie into a game. Much of the book is organized in this way, connecting the core makeup of each game.
The Images, So Many Images
It has taken this reviewer hours of looking and revisiting the book to fully appreciate the effort that has gone into each image. Perhaps it is because all the games are familiar, and each screenshot brings back memories of exactly what was felt during gameplay. Even if one has not played these games, there is so much to consider in each image, which number well over a thousand total. Some are small. such as the sprites of a character model, while others are iconic screenshots of a character or level design. The largest can take up the full page and are a fantastic tribute to these old games.
At its core, The Unofficial SNES Pixel Book is a visual history book, and this is something that merits picking up the title all by itself.
History Through Pictures
A reason to consider picking up great book lies outside of nostalgia and more in history. It may seem odd to hear history and video games in the same sentence, but we are now decades into the progressing graphical development of games, and if nothing else, The Unofficial SNES Pixel Book is a wonderful snapshot in time when the SNES first launched in 1990 to the end of its lifespan, which can effectively be considered as the launch of the Nintendo 64 in 1996.
Put into a different frame of reference, another book that uses imagery as its focal point of discussion and historical considering within a specific period of time is The Visual Front: Posters of the Spanish Civil War, which contains hundreds of propaganda posters for both sides of the conflict until its conclusion in 1939. Although the content is completely distinct in nature, the method is the same in showcasing the essential components that make up the past through imagery long after we may recall what the events were like.
A Great Gift For The Holidays
Picking up this book is a great idea as a gift for any fan of video games, past or present. In addition, this hardback book features a spot-varnished cover with a matching slipcase to keep it protected and to show off as part of a collection. As is standard with Bitmap Books, this is another book that should not be missed!
A review copy of The Unofficial SNES Pixel Book was provided for this review and is available for purchase now through Bitmap Books.