Can you believe someone wrote a whole book about Earthbound? Chrono Trigger? Galaga? Boss Fight Books, which presents itself as the 33 1/3 series for video game, has all of these and more. Each book is written by a different author, and each author brings his or her own unique perspective to the game in question.
In his book on Galaga, author Michael Kimball talks about how the game was a safe haven from his troubled childhood at home, while Darius Kazemi’s book on the PC strategy game Jagged Alliance 2 dives deep into the game’s development supplemented with interviews from its original creators.
While all the books handle their subject matter a bit differently, they are all written with a broad audience in mind. I had never played ZZT before picking up Anna Anthropy’s book, but she presented her experience with the game in a way that was easily relatable. I never felt out of the loop reading through any of the books, whether I’d play the game before or not.
Boss Fight Books was successfully funded through Kickstarter in July of 2013. Since then, all six books of the series first season have been released, capped off by Super Mario Bros. 2 by Jon Irwin. A call for pitch submissions has gone out on the series website, though no announcement about season two’s lineup has been made.
Which classic game would you like to see receive the Boss Fight Books treatment? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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