The Best Nintendo 64 Book Of All Time

N64: A Visual Compendium Review

It’s been a long time since I did a book report, but none were ever this fun. N64: A Visual Compendium is equal parts time capsule, text book, and art that is without a doubt, the best book about Nintendo’s foray into three dimensional gaming. It might not cover all of the nearly 400 games from the Nintendo 64 generation like some other books about the system do, but more importantly it goes deeper on the ones that actually matter. These are the games that had interesting developments and the ones changed your childhood.

The Nintendo 64 was a revolution in gaming. Even if the sales are easily measured at 32.93, which made it the third worst selling Nintendo console of all time, the impact that it had on the medium is immeasurable. This was a revolutionary moment in gaming and it would never be the same. It could be argued that there hasn’t been a monumental shift created by the N64 since.

If you are reading this, then you are likely one of two people. The first would be that you either weren’t born or were too young when the N64 came out, but have a deep appreciation for the medium and how we got where we are today.

The other type of person is someone who was around and the N64 played an integral role in their childhood. So much so that the memory of getting one is burned into your core memories.  Mine was walking into a K-mart and seeing the display kiosk setup. The N64 felt like the future. Cinematic intros, high quality music, and realistic graphics. I had to go find my parents to bring them back and show them what the future was all about. It was codenamed Project Reality after all. Just a few short months later, I was fortunate enough, with the right amount of begging, to find one of these beneath the Christmas tree.

The N64 delivered to be one of the greatest parts of my childhood and is interwoven with some of my greatest memories of all time. Playing Super Mario 64 on Christmas Day, beating Ocarina of Time as a whole family, which likely was the last game we all played together, 007 Goldeneye tournaments with cardboard taped to the TV and oddjob banned, and the likely days lost playing Mario Kart 64 after school with the same group where every track was played during each session, records were kept and belts were given. The competition was fierce and the memories are ever lasting.

Being young shielded these memories from the fact that the N64 was one of Nintendo’s worst selling consoles of all time. 32.93 million wasn’t bad, but considering the PlayStation ended up selling over 100 million as a less powerful console, Nintendo’s future wasn’t carved in stone any longer.

Youth also made me oblivious to a lot of the business decisions happening behind the scenes too. Not being a loyal supporter to the end, as by 2002 a lot of other amazing gaming options were available, it was fun to learn about the last moments of the system, which are well documented in this book

Whether it was Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, or any other game on the N64, you will find something that will not only teleport you back to 1996, but will likely teach you something that you didn’t know before thanks to exclusive developer interviews and snippets from rare sources.

Nintendo had dominated the gaming landscape since the NES and followed up that success with the Super Nintendo, but with the N64, Nintendo was challenged on multiple fronts. Not only did they have to deal with existing threats on the gaming market like Sega, who they were always in a battle with for most power, but there was also fierce competition from newcomers, most notably, the Sony PlayStation.

Bitmap books have done it again. There may have been other books about the Nintendo 64 in recent years, but N64: A Visual Compendium is easily the best book about one of the most influential gaming systems of all time perfect for both casual and hardcore enthusiast alike. Assuming you are one of those people, this is the 8th book in the compendium series from bitmap books with other options including the NES, SNES and Sega Master System just to name a few.

Part of what makes Bitmap Books the best is that they employ an author by committee, which allows viewpoints from some of the most passionate and talented people connected to games journalism and coverage. Its 436 pages are filled with stunning visuals loaded with all of the chunky polygons you need, and packed exclusive interviews, valuable opinions, interesting facts, stories and anecdotes from some of the best in the industry who lived through one of the most pivotal moments in gaming. Hearing these experiences, from the people who were there, offers an exciting glimpse into what it was like at the time and all for less than it cost to buy a cartridge of Goldeneye or Super Mario 64 back in the 90’s

Unless your name is Shigeru Miyamoto, there is something new in this book for you to learn from the people who helped shaped the N64 into what it was: A revolution in gaming.

https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all-books/products/n64-a-visual-compendium