Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+
US EditionUS CA EditionCanada UK EditionUK AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Trending
  • Pokemon Winds and Waves
  • New Games for 2026
  • GamesRadar+ Replay
  • Mario Day deals
Don't miss these
Screenshot from Ratcheteer DX, showing a GBC-style cave with four pixelated characters finding warmth around a fire.
The Legend of Zelda The Legend of Zelda-esque game mimics the GameBoy to GameBoy Color transition, goes from retro handheld to PC and Switch
James holds the Alice stuffie in concept art by Jean Walter
Adventure Games Alice Madness Returns creator American McGee is making a spiritual successor, and he's not worried about EA
Mass Effect 2 - Garrus
Adventure Games The 25 best video game stories of all-time
A header image for the Best Games 2026 list with a GamesRadar+ logo, showing Pokemon Pokopia, Romeo is a Dead Man, Demon Tides, and Resident Evil Requiem
Games The best games to play in 2026, so far
Four pictures of games from our selection of the best Switch 2 games list, showing Donkey Kong, Cloud from Final Fantasy, Mario and Luigi, and three starter Pokemon.
Games The 20 best Switch 2 games to play in 2026
A picture of a Nintendo 3DS console next to several of the best 3DS games and Nintendo cards.
Games The 25 best Nintendo 3DS games of all time
Official art of Pikachu from Pokemon Yellow in front of a blurred background
Pokemon Coming back to Pokemon Yellow 30 years later is like coming home – and playing it in 2026 is even better than when I was a kid
Hand holding Super Pocket Data East Edition with Super Burger Time on screen.
Retro The Super Pocket is down to a no-brainer price, but I'd hang fire if you prefer N64 platformers like Banjo-Kazooie
best GBA games: A screenshot of someone playing Pokémon on a Game Boy Advanced.
Games The 25 best Game Boy Advance games of all time
In Hitman World of Assassination, Agent 47 sits at the departure gate in an airport during the loading screen
Roguelike Games After weeks spent locked into Hitman's Freelancer mode, I realize there's one vital thing 007 First Light needs to learn
Dreamcast
Games The 25 best Dreamcast games of all time
Robert rides the elevator to work in Dispatch with his dog Beef, looking out of place surrounded by superheroes
Adventure Games Dispatch leads faced down publishers telling them single-player narrative games were "niche, or worse, dead"
Shadow (Keanu Reeves) in Sonic 3
Movies Every upcoming video game movie you need to know about in 2026 and beyond
Two-headed dragon spewing fire in Sword Hero
RPGs Solo dev's Kickstarter proves there's a huge appetite for open-world RPGs inspired by early '00s classics like Gothic
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Gustave winces
RPGs Clair Obscur Expedition 33 lead "underestimated" the popularity of side content, leading to his one regret with the RPG
  1. Gaming

Boss Fight Books brings classic games to your bookshelf

Features
By Maxwell McGee published 10 October 2014

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Flipboard
  • Email
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Get the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more


By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful


Want to add more newsletters?

GamesRadar+

Every Friday

GamesRadar+

Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.

GTA 6 O'clock

Every Thursday

GTA 6 O'clock

Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.

Knowledge

Every Friday

Knowledge

From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.

The Setup

Every Thursday

The Setup

Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.

Switch 2 Spotlight

Every Wednesday

Switch 2 Spotlight

Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.

The Watchlist

Every Saturday

The Watchlist

Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.

SFX

Once a month

SFX

Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!


An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter

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.

You may like
  • A plane in the air in Delivery Must Complete The comically long name of this Steam publisher led me to the discovery of a sick Ace Combat and DMC-inspired roguelike
  • best GBA games: A screenshot of someone playing Pokémon on a Game Boy Advanced. The 25 best Game Boy Advance games of all time
  • Bully "Bully was chaotic from the day I started": Inside the making of Rockstar's 'GTA in boarding school'

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.

Do you have something really cool that you'd like to share with us? Let us know! Maybe we'll even post it. Can email us at suggestions@gamesradar.com or find us on Twitter @GamesRadar.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
Maxwell McGee
Maxwell McGee
Maxwell grew up on a sleepy creekbank deep in the South. His love for video games has taken him all the way to the West Coast and beyond.
Read more
A plane in the air in Delivery Must Complete
The comically long name of this Steam publisher led me to the discovery of a sick Ace Combat and DMC-inspired roguelike
 
 
best GBA games: A screenshot of someone playing Pokémon on a Game Boy Advanced.
The 25 best Game Boy Advance games of all time
 
 
Bully
"Bully was chaotic from the day I started": Inside the making of Rockstar's 'GTA in boarding school'
 
 
The best NES games: a screenshot of collection of NES games and a Nintendo console.
The 10 best NES games of all time
 
 
Screenshot from Conker Live & Reloaded showing the titular squirrel on the thrown with a slanted crown.
Locked in Game Boy jail for 27 years, the wholesome game that led to the lewd N64 classic Conker's Bad Fur Day is back
 
 
Gametank console plugged into CRT with Accursed Fiend game on screen.
The Gametank just smashed its crowdfunding goals, and I'm thrilled at the idea of a new 8-bit retro console in the big 26
 
 
Latest in Gaming
The latest cover of Edge, which features Star Wars: Outlaws
Star Wars: Outlaws will be all about “what ‘open world’ means to the player”
 
 
Visceral's Star Wars game: What we knew before it was canceled
 
 
Atomic Heart
Atomic Heart review: "A messy game with big ideas that are in desperate need of refinement"
 
 
Forspoken screenshot
Forspoken review: "An exceptionally middling experience"
 
 
Thrustmaster T128 racing wheel
Thrustmaster T128 review: "A decent option for younger or beginner sim racers"
 
 
Luis Sinisterra and Dominic Solanke ahead of the Leeds vs Bournemouth live stream
Leeds vs Bournemouth live stream: how to watch the Premier League online today, team news
 
 
Latest in Features
A still from Kiki's Delivery Service featuring Kiki and her feline familiar Jiji flying on a broom with some seagulls, with a Big Screen Spotlight logo ini the corner
Kiki's Delivery Service's return to theaters proves we need hand-drawn animation now more than ever
 
 
In Collector's Cove, the collector protagonist who has short brown hair and wears a jumper with cherries on it hugs the Fable Fin companion who wears a witch hat. GamesRadar+'s Indie Spotlight series logo can be seen in the top right-hand corner
If you're feeling Pokemon Pokopia FOMO, this farming adventure lets you explore on the back of a Lapras-like companion
 
 
Curse of Strahd bust and crest lying on a leather notebook
Running the Curse of Strahd D&D campaign? I highly recommend these additions
 
 
A human ditto taking a picture with a Ivysaur and  Venusaur in Pokemon Pokopia.
After 48 hours, I've realized Pokopia is my ideal Pokemon game and humans were the problem all along
 
 
Super Meat Boy 3D gameplay on Switch 2 showing the protagonist, a red cube of meat, running between lasers and blades
Super Meat Boy 3D frustrates me just as much as the original – in a good way
 
 
A screenshot of a man holding red fire in his palm in Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Nintendo Switch 2
I played Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 and rolled through the Lands Between as the new Knight class
 
 
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. Photo of Donkey Kong Bananza and Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom and a pair of Switch 2 Joy-Cons.
    1
    If you don't want to play Pokemon Pokopia, these Switch game deals will keep you busy
  2. 2
    3 new to Prime Video shows I recommend you binge-watch this weekend (March 13–March 15)
  3. 3
    Resident Evil Requiem fans are imagining all the quips Leon would say in other games: "'Guess that's The Last of Him'"
  4. 4
    "Slay the Spire 2 has been out for merely a week and we have already hit 3 million units sold," says a stunned Mega Crit
  5. 5
    "What if we could just drop 30 new heroes into Overwatch?": Marvel Rivals "definitely had an impact" on Blizzard

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Careers
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...