The NES Omnibus, Volume 1 (A-L) – Book Review
It hasn’t been that long since we dived into Mine’s Bigger Than Yours, the book all about cheesy action movies you may or may not have heard about. We enjoyed this blast from the past, as it included many old films that are now deemed obscure or have gained the well-earned status of a cult classic. This time, however, we dive into a different past, namely that of the Nintendo Entertainment System. While this revolutionary console first was dubbed the Famicom in Japan, when it finally left Japan it would forever be known as the NES. From 1985 onward, we were able to enjoy many timeless classics on this home console and it would shape and dominate the industry after a massive crash in 1983. In this first issue, we’ll be diving into the first part of the NES releases, ranging from the titles starting with the letter A, to those starting with the letter L.
While Mine’s Bigger Than Yours covers a totally different subject than this first volume of The NES Omnibus, it is still very much the same in its layout and what content it contains. Instead of cheesy action movies, we dive into the different NES releases, all with a separate page (or pages) dedicated to each release in this book. Every page will contain a short description of the game on that page, and will also include some quotes, facts and a few pictures. You’ll basically have the short summary of every title, with bits and bobs added to it to give it some extra flavor. Keep in mind, this book does not include new homebrewed titles such as the Haunted Halloween series, which were developed for the NES only several years ago.
The text perfectly describes the game you’re reading up on and it’s clear a lot of attention to detail went into this work. There are a lot of sources being referenced in this book, and we also get a foreword by Adam F. Goldberg, who is quite known for his somewhat ‘based on true events’ series about his family life. While alterations were of course made to keep things entertaining for the series, it’s clear he also somewhat grew up as a ‘geek’, being heavily influenced by video games. It’s quite nice to have such a big name involved with this project.
Our remark(s) and concern(s) about the image quality in Mine’s Bigger Than Yours went completely out of the window for this one. Throughout the entire omnibus, you get treated to crystal clear pictures of both the original poster or cover of the game, as well as some in-game screenshots. We reckon this is because there is a lot more source material available, and with upscaling of certain older games, some material could probably be made if needed as well. We were quite impressed nonetheless. Even though some screenshots may not always paint a clear picture of the more obscure games, as some just need to be experienced, everything you need is inside this compendium.
Conclusion
The NES Omnibus, Volume 1 (A-L) is a very interesting piece of work for NES collectors (or Nintendo collectors in general). We enjoyed browsing through the many games on display, thinking back on the games we used to own ourselves. A lot of titles are being re-released on the Switch for those having an online subscription, so you might come across a few titles you played when growing up. Nonetheless, this book is a piece of quality work from start to finish, and we were also surprised by the many crisp and clear pictures that were used and shown across the 424 pages of this hardcover omnibus.
The NES Omnibus, Volume 1 (A-L) - Book Review,
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[…] over a year ago, we took a closer look at The NES Omnibus, Volume 1 (A-L), which proved to be a very interesting compilation of all (official) NES titles. The book not only […]