Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun

MacDonald is well placed to be our guide. She is one of the best games journalists and fantastically knowledgeable about games and the people who make them . . . fluently written, deeply informed . . . you won’t find anyone, I don’t think, with a better insight into the nuts and bolts of these games, nor someone who has spent so many fruitful hours not just collecting power-ups and truffling out easter eggs but interviewing the brilliant monomaniacs who made them . . . MacDonald, like her subject, is alive to the excitement of getting lost in these brightly coloured virtual worlds and at her best when she is letting that enthusiasm shine. Here is a book bursting with love. Bop your head against it and see if a shower of gold coins comes out.

A joyful celebration of the gaming giant . . . winsomely enthusiastic . . . MacDonald’s conversations with all the gifted (and often eccentric) creative people who actually make the games are full of such wholesome insights, as are her own superb analyses of favourite games, and of the general vibe of Nintendo.

Keza writes brilliantly about videogames and this is a great book.

Super Nintendo is a breezy, colorful trip through the history of Mario, Zelda, Metroid and much more. Keza MacDonald adroitly weaves personal observations with original reporting to tell a fascinating story that's packed full of delightful anecdotes . . . a vivid picture of the most important company in video games.

I’ve read and admired Keza MacDonald’s work for years, so it’s no surprise that this book ranks high among the best things ever written about Nintendo. She’s incisive about its corporate history and revelatory about what it actually took – culturally and technically – to create its incomparable games. Anyone who cares about interactive entertainment will be surprised and delighted by this book.

Keza MacDonald pulls back the curtain on the Nintendo dream factory, providing a fascinating look into the minds and culture that defined my childhood and so many others.