Run and Gun From Bitmap Books Review
Run and Gun: A History of On-Foot Shooters
Review | BITMAP BOOKS
Run and Gun Review
“Without the Run and Gun genre, would third person shooters like Gears of War and First Person Shooters like Doom have ever existed?” This is a question posed at the beginning about how instrumental the genre was by laying the groundwork and inspiration for many genres that came after. While there is no way to get a definitive answer to the question, after turning the final page, it’s easier to connect the dots.
Bitmap Books are bastions of preserving video game culture with extremely high quality prints. Often times these books help preserve genres of gaming that were once considered royalty, but have since been lost to the sands of time as gaming technology and sometimes preferences evolve. In this case, Dave Cook takes a deep dive into the Run and Gun genre, which is both broader than you think and older than you are expecting.
What makes Bitmap Books so good, outside of their insane attention to detail on the physical product is the information that goes inside of the book. There is usually a foreward from someone that has been instrumental in the industry, in this case, it’s wise words from Keiji Inafune, who most notably, was instrumental in the Mega Man franchise, which helped define the run and gun genre. However, this book begins by going above and beyond with a second foreward from Studio MDHR founders, Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, who created one of the biggest indie games of all time with Cuphead, a game that carries on the tradition started by the genre decades earlier.
Once you get past two incredible forewards, there is the plethora of knowledge waiting for you, with over 300 games, each one complete with a personal story or some interesting development facts. The truly instrumental titles and heavyweights of the genre get the extra love they deserve like Contra, Metal Slug, Cuphead and many others.
No matter what the genre is, there is always an opportunity to learn, it’s also sometimes one of the only ways to experience certain titles, as gaming is one of the most difficult mediums to preserve. As someone who rented loads of games growing up through the 90’s, it was fun to come across games that were long, lost memories.
It doesn’t matter what your level of expertise is with the genre, even if you are new to run and gun or never played, Dave Cook walks you through what makes a Run and Gun, how the genre began from humble beginnings in the 1970’s, how it evolved, and where it is today.
Cons
Some games include box art and I wish that this was an inclusion for more of the games in the book. This might have been difficult for games like Not only does it add an extra layer of nostalgia to remember what the covers looked like on shelf at the rental store, but also to see how fascinating they were for numerous reasons. Sometimes, it was just interesting to see how different the box art was compared to the actual game itself and other times, with something like Contra, it was wild to see how much the character uses Arnold Schwarzeneggers likeness without infringement. This was clearly different times.
The other issue that I have is that one of my favorite studios, Housemarque, who continued to carry the torch for the indie arcade genre before hitting it big with Returnal are absent from the book. Obviously, the lines of genres can become blurry, there is Dead Nation and Alienation, but stronger arguments could be made for their last two games before Returnal with Nex Machina and Matterfall. Matterfall is basically a modern Contra and Nex Machina feels like a modern take on the Robotron 2084, all the way down to pioneer of the genre, Eugene Jarvis, being a major consultant on the game. I don’t know why Housemarque wasn’t included as these games tick the boxes for what makes a Run and Gun.
Verdict
We don’t give review scores to anything from Bitmap Books, but at this point, if you are interested in the medium of gaming or the run and gun genre, Bitmap Books are the finest purveyors of print for gaming at the moment. Dave Cook has filled this book to the brim with his knowledge along with some help from a few additional people to fill in some gaps and while there are a few minor gripes, there is no denying the overall quality of the package.
The contest might be over now, but you can still buy this book or check out some of their other incredible offerings by going to their site HERE