As much as I like to think of myself as young, the sad truth is that I grew up with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, better known as the SNES. My earliest console and the source of some of my most treasured memories, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Chris Scullion’s latest book, The SNES Encyclopedia: Every Game Released For The Super Nintendo Entertainment System for some time now, if only to satisfy my own personal need for nostalgia. Thankfully the unofficial guide is now here, and it’s everything I hoped it would be. Here’s our review of The SNES Encyclopedia: Every Game Released For The Super Nintendo.
The SNES Encyclopedia: Every Game Released For The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is the perfect coffee table book, a hefty tome packed with bright colours and stuffed with info, presented in a way that’s enjoyable for readers and non-readers alike. It’s joyous to delve into this weighty book either by picking a page at random, or consuming it all-in-one as a delightful slab of delicious childhood memory.
The SNES Encyclopedia is broken down – as you’d expect from an encyclopedia – alphabetically. The book covers each and every game ever released for the classic console in the west, which is a whopping 780 games in total. Despite the sheer number of games, the book does an excellent job of offering up relevant and interesting information about each game and how it came to be, alongside core info like the publisher, developer, year of release and which regions it was released in. Each game also receives a “Fact” bubble, which makes it even easier to consume this book at a mere glance.
Bigger releases, including the likes of Star Fox, Mortal Kombat and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past, each get their own page devoted to their history, complete with images of the box art alongside in-game snaps. These longer entries offer up even more details about the development and release of some of the SNES’ most iconic and memorable games. By showcasing the right games to get this whole-page treatment, the book never becomes too bogged-down in history, and never becomes too dull to enjoy.
I expected to learn quite a lot throughout my reading, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was particularly interested to learn about some of the ways in which 3D-like effects were achieved in games such as Donkey Kong Country, a title which once seemed so state-of-the-art to my tiny child brain. A bonus section covering the Virtual Boy, the first big attempt to bring 3D gaming to the masses, is also worth mentioning, if only because it’s such an easily-forgotten part of Nintendo’s history.
For those who don’t have any particular attachments to the SNES, the book is potentially even more valuable, as it offers lots of insight into the earlier days of video games. Nintendo in particular has always played a fascinating role in gaming, and it’s wonderful to explore so much of the company’s history within a single book. I myself had no particular attachment to the NES, yet still found myself thoroughly enjoying Scullion’s 2019 release, The NES Encyclopedia: Every Game Released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. If you’re concerned this book won’t appeal to you, don’t be. If you love video games, Nintendo, or nostalgia, you’re sure to get something out of this release.
I have so many half-memories of SNES games which were – I thought – lost to the rivers of time. This book is the tool I’ve needed to unlock all the childhood delights first gifted to me by Nintendo so many years ago, and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. A wonderful present both for yourself and for your friends, The SNES Encyclopedia: Every Game Released For The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a joy to behold, and firmly deserves a place on every gamer’s bookshelf.
This copy of The SNES Encyclopedia: Every Game Released For The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was provided for review by Pen and Sword. You can order your copy from Pen and Sword here.
Featured Image Credit: Nintendo/Pen & Sword