The NES Omnibus, Volume 2 (M-Z) – Book Review
Slightly 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 gave us more information about the gameplay of these titles but we were also treated to images and insider information. Even though many will probably not read a book such as this from cover to cover in a matter of days, we occasionally found ourselves picking up the book to flip through the pages and just wind down and read a little. It’s very much a book that’s easy to revisit, even if you have already completely read it. Now, a year later, the second (and final) volume has been released, and we were quite eager to sink our teeth into this one.
Truth be told, we could easily just copy-paste our review of the first volume and almost call it a day when describing the second volume. Volume 2 basically continues where Volume 1 left off, and we get to discover more and more original NES titles. Once again, only official releases have made the cut and there’s not a homebrew title in sight. While it can be fun discovering homebrew titles as well, these two volumes paint a perfect picture of what games looked like back when the NES still reigned supreme.
The foreword by Rob McCallum was also very pleasant to read through. He is clearly a fan of the NES and tries to explain why the console was ‘the best’ of its generation, and perhaps even the all-time best console overall. McCallum makes a few interesting points, especially about the innovative game design, the franchises that are still alive to this day, and perhaps simply the fact that this was just one hell of a great gaming console.
The assets used in the omnibus are of high quality and it’s always nice that you can actually see what a game looked like when you’re reading up on it. We once again love the fact that we can also see the original cover art for these releases, which is always a fun extra touch. It’s sometimes very amusing to see how big the contrast is between the actual cover art and the gameplay screenshots. Our only remark here is that they did not show the different cover art designs for the USA Mega Man games and the Japanese Rockman games. The USA cover art was so horrendous that it has gained a certain cult status.
Conclusion
The NES Omnibus, Volume 2 (M-Z) is a great collector’s item for avid NES enthusiasts. This hardcover book was a delight to flip through and it was entertaining as well as informative to read up on many obscure titles that were released in the 80s and 90s. We saw many games we actually thought were of a later generation (SNES) and it was interesting to get so much insider information. The book also paints a proper picture of how many of these games looked like with a fair few photo assets and cover artworks. We hope other consoles also get such impressive and informative volumes detailing their respective game libraries.
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