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1001 Videogames Para Jogar Antes de Morrer
Organizado cronologicamente e com games para diversas plataformas (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, etc.), este livro apresenta clássicos e outros favoritos, games que rapidamente se consagraram junto aos usuários e à crítica especializada. Cada resenha traz detalhes sobre a data original de lançamento e as plataformas em que o game está disponível. Textos informativos escritos por uma equipe internacional de jornalistas, designers e críticos do setor explicam o funcionamento de cada jogo e suas qualidades gráficas, além da contribuição para seus respectivos gêneros.
960 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
83 people are currently reading
948 people want to read
About the author
Tony Mott
22 books78 followersTony Mott was born in Brasov, Romania in 1970. Her pen name was chosen to honor her grandfather, as Mott was her mother’s maiden name.
She has published her first novel in 2008, then a poetry volume in 2010, followed almost every year by a new apparition at Tritonic Publishing House - Juliet Had a Gun (Julieta avea un pistol, 2014), A Bullet for Juliet (Un glonț pentru Julieta, 2016), Don’t Throw Stones at Juliet, (Nu dați cu pietre în Julieta, 2017). Since 2019 she has been publishing a new series that follows the character Gigi Alexa: The Winter Of Perfect Murders (Iarna crimelor perfecte, 2019), In Autumn We Count The Dead Bodies (Toamna se numără cadavrele, 2019), The Last Poisoned Summer (Ultima vară otrăvită, 2021), and When Spring Comes (Când vine primăvara, 2022). She has also contributed to four collective volumes of short stories.
She also writes non-ficion on her real name, Antoneta Galeș. First edition of The Notebook of Happiness (Caietului Fericirii) was published in 2019, followed by a volume with the detailed subjects listed in the notebook - Our Daily unHAPPINESS (neFERiCIREA noastră cea de toate zilele , Creator Publishing House, 2021).
She has published her first novel in 2008, then a poetry volume in 2010, followed almost every year by a new apparition at Tritonic Publishing House - Juliet Had a Gun (Julieta avea un pistol, 2014), A Bullet for Juliet (Un glonț pentru Julieta, 2016), Don’t Throw Stones at Juliet, (Nu dați cu pietre în Julieta, 2017). Since 2019 she has been publishing a new series that follows the character Gigi Alexa: The Winter Of Perfect Murders (Iarna crimelor perfecte, 2019), In Autumn We Count The Dead Bodies (Toamna se numără cadavrele, 2019), The Last Poisoned Summer (Ultima vară otrăvită, 2021), and When Spring Comes (Când vine primăvara, 2022). She has also contributed to four collective volumes of short stories.
She also writes non-ficion on her real name, Antoneta Galeș. First edition of The Notebook of Happiness (Caietului Fericirii) was published in 2019, followed by a volume with the detailed subjects listed in the notebook - Our Daily unHAPPINESS (neFERiCIREA noastră cea de toate zilele , Creator Publishing House, 2021).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
July 29, 2011
★★★½
I really wanted to like this book more. It's glossy, nicely put together, fun to flip through, generally well-written, and most entries are accompanied by attractive color screenshots. Some entries evoked nostalgia, and there's also a number of games I'd never heard of that I now want to check out because of their mentions here.
But...the book posits itself not just as a collection of 1001 'must-play' games, but as a chronological catalog of the *evolution* of video games. This is stated in the introduction, and seen in numerous entries that give caveats about, say, an early game's primitive gameplay or graphics, but still note a game's historical importance. Given this, there's a number of gaps and inaccuracies that take go beyond 'acceptable idiosyncrasies of personal taste on part of the editor' and into WTF land.
*Nit-picking nerd ranting follows*
Bizarrely missing: the original Adventure, and Ultima IV. Adventure (aka Colossal Cave) was the first, well, adventure game ever -- an all-text, parser-based affair that invented a genre. That genre had its commercial hey-day in the '80s (thousands of titles published) and is still sustained today with a very active fan community as "interactive fiction" (see the documentary Get Lamp for a look at all that history). Adventure's obvious influence is seen in how a number of other entries in the book reference it, even though it is sadly without an entry.
Ultima IV took the unprecedented step of being an epic RPG in which there was no grand baddie to beat. There was still a huge world to explore and a variety of evil monsters to route, but the ultimate goal was to improve yourself by following ethical principles, becoming an example for the people of the land by attaining Avatar-hood (as opposed to robbing all the town-folk blind and slaughtering town guards left & right, which was the norm for the RPGs of the day (earlier Ultimas included)). The game also established the the expansive geography of Britannia which remained constant through the series up to and including Ultima Online. The CRPGAddict blog has a good series of posts that investigate the innovations of this game.
The original Adventure and Ultima IV are such oft-cited and obvious landmarks in the history of video games that leaving them out is somewhat akin to forgetting to mention Gilgamesh and The Odyssey when listing the great works of Western literature from the B.C. days.
Other head-scratchers: the entire contribution of Activision to Atari 2600 gaming being represented by H.E.R.O. (as opposed to say, Pitfall). Wizardry is neglected completely, it could have stood for the 'popularizing D&D gameplay in the 8-bit era'' game that the Ultima I entry stands for (that entry rightly complains of how this first Ultima's gameplay is rather lame -- so why not include Ultima IV instead?). The Art of War, one of the earliest if not the very first real-time strategy game (in the Warcraft / Starcraft gameplay sense), is also absent. All those game I've mentioned are totally uncontroversial as innovative classics. These other omissions might be chalked up to its overemphasis on recent games in the overall selection pool.
Then there are historical slips like not mentioning Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's role in developing Breakout for Atari, and saying that the Atari 2600 Adventure game was a translation of the Adventure game, when what was interesting about it was that it mutated the gameplay of that text adventure into a visual format, inventing the action-adventure genre (paving the way for Zelda and beyond), making it real-time and changing all most every aspect of the original's content.
Finally, there are a *few* entries that make it clear through questionable descriptions that the entry writer was depending on secondary sources instead of actually playing the game in question, which on top of just being sad, also casts some doubt on the accuracy of the entries of games I'm unfamiliar with.
So, as a book that's fun for a video game fan to browse through, it succeeds. But as video game history or the super-cool reference guide it could have been, it falls short.
I really wanted to like this book more. It's glossy, nicely put together, fun to flip through, generally well-written, and most entries are accompanied by attractive color screenshots. Some entries evoked nostalgia, and there's also a number of games I'd never heard of that I now want to check out because of their mentions here.
But...the book posits itself not just as a collection of 1001 'must-play' games, but as a chronological catalog of the *evolution* of video games. This is stated in the introduction, and seen in numerous entries that give caveats about, say, an early game's primitive gameplay or graphics, but still note a game's historical importance. Given this, there's a number of gaps and inaccuracies that take go beyond 'acceptable idiosyncrasies of personal taste on part of the editor' and into WTF land.
*Nit-picking nerd ranting follows*
Bizarrely missing: the original Adventure, and Ultima IV. Adventure (aka Colossal Cave) was the first, well, adventure game ever -- an all-text, parser-based affair that invented a genre. That genre had its commercial hey-day in the '80s (thousands of titles published) and is still sustained today with a very active fan community as "interactive fiction" (see the documentary Get Lamp for a look at all that history). Adventure's obvious influence is seen in how a number of other entries in the book reference it, even though it is sadly without an entry.
Ultima IV took the unprecedented step of being an epic RPG in which there was no grand baddie to beat. There was still a huge world to explore and a variety of evil monsters to route, but the ultimate goal was to improve yourself by following ethical principles, becoming an example for the people of the land by attaining Avatar-hood (as opposed to robbing all the town-folk blind and slaughtering town guards left & right, which was the norm for the RPGs of the day (earlier Ultimas included)). The game also established the the expansive geography of Britannia which remained constant through the series up to and including Ultima Online. The CRPGAddict blog has a good series of posts that investigate the innovations of this game.
The original Adventure and Ultima IV are such oft-cited and obvious landmarks in the history of video games that leaving them out is somewhat akin to forgetting to mention Gilgamesh and The Odyssey when listing the great works of Western literature from the B.C. days.
Other head-scratchers: the entire contribution of Activision to Atari 2600 gaming being represented by H.E.R.O. (as opposed to say, Pitfall). Wizardry is neglected completely, it could have stood for the 'popularizing D&D gameplay in the 8-bit era'' game that the Ultima I entry stands for (that entry rightly complains of how this first Ultima's gameplay is rather lame -- so why not include Ultima IV instead?). The Art of War, one of the earliest if not the very first real-time strategy game (in the Warcraft / Starcraft gameplay sense), is also absent. All those game I've mentioned are totally uncontroversial as innovative classics. These other omissions might be chalked up to its overemphasis on recent games in the overall selection pool.
Then there are historical slips like not mentioning Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's role in developing Breakout for Atari, and saying that the Atari 2600 Adventure game was a translation of the Adventure game, when what was interesting about it was that it mutated the gameplay of that text adventure into a visual format, inventing the action-adventure genre (paving the way for Zelda and beyond), making it real-time and changing all most every aspect of the original's content.
Finally, there are a *few* entries that make it clear through questionable descriptions that the entry writer was depending on secondary sources instead of actually playing the game in question, which on top of just being sad, also casts some doubt on the accuracy of the entries of games I'm unfamiliar with.
So, as a book that's fun for a video game fan to browse through, it succeeds. But as video game history or the super-cool reference guide it could have been, it falls short.
April 16, 2021
I have several books about video game history, but this is simply the best to me. There are both screen shots of all games and background information too, not to small or big or too little or too much. Well done. I bought the paperback version which was the latest version, but I would have bought the hardcover version if it was available for my destination, but for this price range I might buy this book again if it gets updated in the future with a hardcover version. If you have experience with home computers from the 80s like Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, Nintendo NES/SNES etc, then you might also want to take a look at the books by bitmapbooks. Those books are incredible too. Get this book and one or more of the books by bitmapbooks and you don't need other books about games of the 70s and 80s. Other books are nice supplements too and the graphics only art books are nice to look at too, but if you have to chose one book only, then pick up this book.
February 22, 2016
For a second -- or, at least, the first chapter --, you may believe that this book will discuss 1001 games that influenced the next generation, from the very first pong all the way to the latest Mario. Sadly, it doesn't.
The whole problem is that the authors decided to use a chronological order instead of a topic order. Instead of going "this game introduced this feature" and then jump to the next which improved that feature, they go into games released in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s. "Where is the harm in that?" you may ask. Well, the harm is that the chronological order doesn't offer, most of the time, the reason why a game should be played. I mean, yeah, maybe "Mario World" is not a bad game, but if "Mario World 2" just improves the old mechanics and have bigger maps, it's clear why the first shouldn't be in the list if everything from the first I can get in a better form in the second.
For example, when they talk about "Ninja Gaiden Black", the authors mention this:
Also, each game have three to four paragraphs. The first is always something related to the game outside it: The company that developed it, some social remark at the time, something in the game culture... anything that it is not the game; the last paragraph try to conclude the (simplistic) review with a positive note; the paragraphs in the middle, which should be the "Why" are not always they "Why". Most of the Mario and Zelda games simply lack the "why". You should play because... you should play?
This is why I'd prefer a topic order: Mario 1 introduced this, Mario 2 changed this into that... It basically forces the list to have a reason instead of seemingly being a list of "I like it".
Also, research seems focused on "games I played" instead of "games that existed". For example, there is "Trine", which I can't call a bad game, but the mechanic of "you play several characters and just jump between them based on their abilities" I can backtrack all the way to "Captain Trueno" on MSX in 1989 -- and I'm not claiming that's where this mechanics appeared -- but omitting it seems too much laziness. "Master of Orion", "Dota" (the mod for Warcraft III), "Tetrifast", "King's Valley", "Stunts"... all those are games that I can, from my childhood, bring back as previous examples of some of the recommended games that has the same mechanics and are not listed. But, instead, games with the same mechanics but from bigger publishers are. There is even a game I played on MSX in the 90s that have the exactly mechanic listed in "Warioware Inc" but, again, not listed. Heck, even "bananas.bas", part of the MS-DOS 6.0 as an example of how powerful QBasic could be, has the same mechanics as "Death Tank", but the later is listed as some "brilliant mechanic never seen before".
In the end, it seems much more like a list of "games that we, the authors like" than a proper "these games you should play because they describe some advancement in games technology and/or some social discussion about the times when they were released", which turns this into a meaningless e-peen counting (171, by the way).
The whole problem is that the authors decided to use a chronological order instead of a topic order. Instead of going "this game introduced this feature" and then jump to the next which improved that feature, they go into games released in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s. "Where is the harm in that?" you may ask. Well, the harm is that the chronological order doesn't offer, most of the time, the reason why a game should be played. I mean, yeah, maybe "Mario World" is not a bad game, but if "Mario World 2" just improves the old mechanics and have bigger maps, it's clear why the first shouldn't be in the list if everything from the first I can get in a better form in the second.
For example, when they talk about "Ninja Gaiden Black", the authors mention this:
Barring a dodgy camera, Ninja Gaiden didn't have much wrong with it. That didn't stop Team Ninja from obsessively tinkering with their masterprice, however, and in Ninja Gaiden Black they improved on what many fighting fans already regarded as the greatest fighting game of its generation."And guess what? "Ninja Gaiden" is also in the list! Why would I play the first one when the second is everything the first one has plus more?
Also, each game have three to four paragraphs. The first is always something related to the game outside it: The company that developed it, some social remark at the time, something in the game culture... anything that it is not the game; the last paragraph try to conclude the (simplistic) review with a positive note; the paragraphs in the middle, which should be the "Why" are not always they "Why". Most of the Mario and Zelda games simply lack the "why". You should play because... you should play?
This is why I'd prefer a topic order: Mario 1 introduced this, Mario 2 changed this into that... It basically forces the list to have a reason instead of seemingly being a list of "I like it".
Also, research seems focused on "games I played" instead of "games that existed". For example, there is "Trine", which I can't call a bad game, but the mechanic of "you play several characters and just jump between them based on their abilities" I can backtrack all the way to "Captain Trueno" on MSX in 1989 -- and I'm not claiming that's where this mechanics appeared -- but omitting it seems too much laziness. "Master of Orion", "Dota" (the mod for Warcraft III), "Tetrifast", "King's Valley", "Stunts"... all those are games that I can, from my childhood, bring back as previous examples of some of the recommended games that has the same mechanics and are not listed. But, instead, games with the same mechanics but from bigger publishers are. There is even a game I played on MSX in the 90s that have the exactly mechanic listed in "Warioware Inc" but, again, not listed. Heck, even "bananas.bas", part of the MS-DOS 6.0 as an example of how powerful QBasic could be, has the same mechanics as "Death Tank", but the later is listed as some "brilliant mechanic never seen before".
In the end, it seems much more like a list of "games that we, the authors like" than a proper "these games you should play because they describe some advancement in games technology and/or some social discussion about the times when they were released", which turns this into a meaningless e-peen counting (171, by the way).
July 21, 2012
Interesting for a video games teenager but pretty biased and leans towards console gaming forgetting computer gamers like me
September 17, 2012
Great for nostalgia value and some inspiration to check out some stuff that I missed. Shocking dearth of adventure games (particularly Sierra) and overkill amount of listing 5+ games in popular series' when just listing the best of the series would have been fine. Strange focus on driving and sports games too...
July 25, 2025
Esse livro é uma enciclopédia muito legal para ler e entender os jogos de videogames e entender o que eles acrescentaram para essa "cultura nerd" ao longo de décadas. Gostei demais desse livro, valeu ler cada página, a leitura é divertida e tem detalhes muito interessantes sobre jogos de diferentes épocas, consoles e estilos. Alguns jogos importantíssimos infelizmente não constam nesse livro, mas ainda assim ele é ótimo para ler.
July 31, 2011
Another of Universe's “1001 blanks you must blank before you die” titles, 1001 Video Games to Play Before You Die is an interesting, if debatable, exploration of the last 40 years or so of video gaming, from roughly 1970 to early 2010. Sure to spark conversation among people knowledgeable about video games, the work is less useful as an introduction to the topic. While many of the titles chosen by the compilers are great games and evocative of the trends and evolutions of the technology, some are obscure to say the least, a few being only published in Japan, which can make getting a hold of them a bit difficult. This is particularly true with the earlier titles. Still, 1001 Video Games can provide the reader with some nostalgic discussions and recollections of favorite games and recommendations for others that they might have missed.
February 23, 2017
Overall a decent survey of video games over time. The one-page capsule review style works well for most games, is far too short for others, but tends to work ok overall. Feels like it gives a bit too much weight to many early smartphone games that would not be considered remarkable at all these days, but I suppose that's a natural consequence for a book that was issued in 2011 without benefit of more perspective on how the space would evolve.
September 10, 2017
Only 139/1001, how's that?? I thought it's gonna be much more than that! But hey, they should put P.N.3, Endless Ocean 1 and 2 and some more games from Nintendo 64..
August 10, 2018
A fun read with some great information and pictures. As all books about a still evolving field tend to do, this feels out of date on some postings because of newer developments or entries into a certain franchise series. Yet for the older titles it has some great information and screen shots. I would have preferred maybe more pictures by making the large (almost full page) photos smaller and doing more collage smaller pics for every game instead of every few. If you are a gaming fan and/or want to learn more about games that came before your time -- this is a solid place to start.
March 6, 2025
Contrary to the title, you DON'T need to play all of them.
Many of the games listed here are just minor updated versions of their predecessors.
You will see such stuff happening plenty in 80s and 90s games.
The book is more of a comprehensive history of iconic games or pocket-bursters (of their times) than a game design analysis.
Overall, for a novice, this book is good enough to let him know of all distributors, big players in the game market, the genres of games, the design and the vast collection of games in itself.
Just don't get a FOMO.
Many of the games listed here are just minor updated versions of their predecessors.
You will see such stuff happening plenty in 80s and 90s games.
The book is more of a comprehensive history of iconic games or pocket-bursters (of their times) than a game design analysis.
Overall, for a novice, this book is good enough to let him know of all distributors, big players in the game market, the genres of games, the design and the vast collection of games in itself.
Just don't get a FOMO.
November 20, 2017
Definitely not essential and is skewed heavily towards modern gaming but there is something to be said about being recommended an absolute ton of games in one rather small book (perhaps too small and heavy actually...). As times go on the second half of this book that focuses on 2000 onward looks more and more silly but it's still nice to read about these games for sure.
Nice to own but without a doubt not a 'definitive' list (if one could ever exist) and not without its issues.
Nice to own but without a doubt not a 'definitive' list (if one could ever exist) and not without its issues.
December 3, 2022
A great, worthy attempt at making a comprehensive list of video games worth playing, or at least knowing about. Everyone who enjoys quality interactive art, gaming, and stories told in this format, would do well to look at this book.
Others have attempted to make better lists. This one was seemingly assembled haphazardly and by committee. To its detriment. But still a worthy attempt.
And the only attempt, so far.
Others have attempted to make better lists. This one was seemingly assembled haphazardly and by committee. To its detriment. But still a worthy attempt.
And the only attempt, so far.
August 13, 2019
Awesome for development side cause it has inside some defining-genre video games plus its like a gamer Bible
August 26, 2019
Outdated, but still somewhat interesting.
November 14, 2019
Too bad, the author didn't mention Metroid, a 1986 NES game.
May 4, 2020
haven't read it
June 2, 2023
In reviewing this again about a decade later, I'm surprised and a bit disappointed at the NES being somewhat snubbed from this list. All of the first-party titles you would expect to be here certainly are, but the many games developed by third-parties that helped this console shine are not to be found. The rarely-esteemed licensed titles DuckTales and Batman come to mind. Meanwhile, huge franchises that both got their start on the NES and had a massive presence the console like Castlevania and Mega Man are missing as well. While the former does get its due in later series entries, Mega Man is surprisingly absent entirely from this list, despite having numerous stand-out titles across multiple consoles. And, as a Crash Bandicoot fan, it's a bit sad and bewildering for a mascot that is ubiquitous in talks of the PS1 to not make an appearance.
Of course, while 1,001 seems like a large number, it is of course miniscule when making the attempt to fit every last title that has been championed or been responsible for a shred of influence in the video game industry up until 2013. Sure, there are many titles throughout this selection that I would replace with those that I feel are more deserving, but this took little away from my enjoyment of the book. You're not going to please everyone with a list like this, least of all myself. After a decade and a multitude of more excellent games, I would love to see an updated list reflecting the eighth and ninth generation of consoles.
Of course, while 1,001 seems like a large number, it is of course miniscule when making the attempt to fit every last title that has been championed or been responsible for a shred of influence in the video game industry up until 2013. Sure, there are many titles throughout this selection that I would replace with those that I feel are more deserving, but this took little away from my enjoyment of the book. You're not going to please everyone with a list like this, least of all myself. After a decade and a multitude of more excellent games, I would love to see an updated list reflecting the eighth and ninth generation of consoles.
February 25, 2017
1001 video games is A LOT of video games! As such, there is very little room for "analysis" in this thick compendium. Thus, depending on what you are looking for in the book, it might perfectly suit your needs...or not so much.
The trouble with me reading this book is that I'm not a complete die-hard gamer. I like the classics and my own personal favorites, but other than that I'm pretty passive when it comes to new games. As such, the entire premise of the book was a bit lost on me. I wasn't going to try all (or even most) of these games anyway, so I did a lot of swiftly turning pages just reading about my favorites.
That being said, this is a pretty impressive collection of games. Each individual will have their own gripes (for me: no King's Quest?!), but generally speaking I thought it was a pretty diverse collection. If you are a hard-core gamer and really want to expand your gaming frontier, this is probably something you will really get into.
Thus, this was a pretty middling experience for me. I can appreciate the appeal of the book, but for me personally it was a lot of skimming. I should have known from the beginning, as I've had similar experiences with other similar "1001" collections.
The trouble with me reading this book is that I'm not a complete die-hard gamer. I like the classics and my own personal favorites, but other than that I'm pretty passive when it comes to new games. As such, the entire premise of the book was a bit lost on me. I wasn't going to try all (or even most) of these games anyway, so I did a lot of swiftly turning pages just reading about my favorites.
That being said, this is a pretty impressive collection of games. Each individual will have their own gripes (for me: no King's Quest?!), but generally speaking I thought it was a pretty diverse collection. If you are a hard-core gamer and really want to expand your gaming frontier, this is probably something you will really get into.
Thus, this was a pretty middling experience for me. I can appreciate the appeal of the book, but for me personally it was a lot of skimming. I should have known from the beginning, as I've had similar experiences with other similar "1001" collections.
December 7, 2013
Recently re-released in an updated edition, 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die sums up everything you need to know in the title. Spanning several decades all the way back to the early '70s, the book covers a mass of noteworthy titles outlined and explained by a multitude of media experts.
What needs to be made clear from the outside is that this is not a countdown list. Everything starting with Oregon Trail onwards is there for breaking new ground or being a testament to solid genre gameplay.
There is no obvious lean towards favouring PC over console or vice versa, with many exclusives on either side being part of this listing. Furthermore, while many classics and prominent titles are namechecked, others which have fallen by the wayside or faded from memory get recognition too. For every Quake, StarCraft and BioShock there is a Jet Force Gemini, Cannon Fodder or Cybernator.
Barring a few exceptions, the passages defending and promoting each game do a good job of outlining what it was that made them stand out, with the odd hint of personal connection on the author's part here and there. Sometimes it’s even enough to make you consider going back to try and find these titles, which makes the book worth thumbing through more than a few times just for curiosity.
Sadly, there are two obvious flaws with the title. It's distinctly weaker when it comes to covering handheld gaming and some titles are definitely under-represented. Vagrant Story and Kingdom Hearts only merit a few paragraphs, while Mega Man Zero is missing entirely.
Chances are you won’t see everything you want here and might disagree with some of the choices. Nonetheless, if you’re an avid gamer interested in exploring past generations of titles, then this is a good guide. At the very least its pages will provide a satisfying jolt of nostalgia.
What needs to be made clear from the outside is that this is not a countdown list. Everything starting with Oregon Trail onwards is there for breaking new ground or being a testament to solid genre gameplay.
There is no obvious lean towards favouring PC over console or vice versa, with many exclusives on either side being part of this listing. Furthermore, while many classics and prominent titles are namechecked, others which have fallen by the wayside or faded from memory get recognition too. For every Quake, StarCraft and BioShock there is a Jet Force Gemini, Cannon Fodder or Cybernator.
Barring a few exceptions, the passages defending and promoting each game do a good job of outlining what it was that made them stand out, with the odd hint of personal connection on the author's part here and there. Sometimes it’s even enough to make you consider going back to try and find these titles, which makes the book worth thumbing through more than a few times just for curiosity.
Sadly, there are two obvious flaws with the title. It's distinctly weaker when it comes to covering handheld gaming and some titles are definitely under-represented. Vagrant Story and Kingdom Hearts only merit a few paragraphs, while Mega Man Zero is missing entirely.
Chances are you won’t see everything you want here and might disagree with some of the choices. Nonetheless, if you’re an avid gamer interested in exploring past generations of titles, then this is a good guide. At the very least its pages will provide a satisfying jolt of nostalgia.
February 19, 2017
great referance for gaming niche.
March 6, 2016
Good. I liked it. Really did.
Although it was missing lots and LOTS of my favourites, especially the ones back in the 90s, but... I was expecting that.
Had some games that weren't even games but ok. I was expecting that too. I think that this guide wasn't much of a guide about Must games you gotta play before you die, as much as a guide for Games that were game-changers and innovators for the future ones that will follow.
Still, as I started I was playing along most of the games, just for reminiscing and for trying the ones I never did get the chance to.
Good thing is, by looking some of the publishers on wiki, based on the book's recommended game I found other little gems from the 80's and 90's.
Have to say, playing all these games, others for 10 minutes and others for an hour or so, man, kids nowadays have it so easy. Back then the games were much more difficult, and we had no Save, until the PSX memory card thing came along?
Oh well, some arcade ones from the 80s were so difficult as to what the hell to do that I had to youtube them just to see how to get to the next level.
Just playing all the games I've had as a kid on my Sega Master System and the other's from SNES or PSX was worth it.
Even the sounds on games on SMS specifically made me remember everything. Just like it was yesterday.
Anyway, for the book, it's going to get you from Pong all the way to games like Uncharted and Halo and others. Also, lots of fun facts about games and developers. Although I mainly used it just so I could remember or the games I couldn't remember by myself. (stupid brain)
Although it was missing lots and LOTS of my favourites, especially the ones back in the 90s, but... I was expecting that.
Had some games that weren't even games but ok. I was expecting that too. I think that this guide wasn't much of a guide about Must games you gotta play before you die, as much as a guide for Games that were game-changers and innovators for the future ones that will follow.
Still, as I started I was playing along most of the games, just for reminiscing and for trying the ones I never did get the chance to.
Good thing is, by looking some of the publishers on wiki, based on the book's recommended game I found other little gems from the 80's and 90's.
Have to say, playing all these games, others for 10 minutes and others for an hour or so, man, kids nowadays have it so easy. Back then the games were much more difficult, and we had no Save, until the PSX memory card thing came along?
Oh well, some arcade ones from the 80s were so difficult as to what the hell to do that I had to youtube them just to see how to get to the next level.
Just playing all the games I've had as a kid on my Sega Master System and the other's from SNES or PSX was worth it.
Even the sounds on games on SMS specifically made me remember everything. Just like it was yesterday.
Anyway, for the book, it's going to get you from Pong all the way to games like Uncharted and Halo and others. Also, lots of fun facts about games and developers. Although I mainly used it just so I could remember or the games I couldn't remember by myself. (stupid brain)
September 25, 2013
2.5 stars
Finally! After seven months, I have finished my adventure through this 950-page compendium of video game history. The first thing that struck me was the presentation - the glossy photos are a delight to look at and flip through and as a visual experience, it’s wonderful. I wish I could say the same about the writing, which needs a hefty dose of spell-checking and editing. Grammar errors abound, and there are some unforgiveable mistakes, such as a nod to the works of filmmaker “Hiyao Miyasaki” (Hayao Miyazaki) and – my favourite - one commentary that describes a princess as a “beau” (beau meaning a young man). Additionally, some of the synopses miss the mark and feel like they were written by someone who had read about the game rather than played it. I’m sure faithful nerds will be able to nit pick the content better than I, but suffice to say that while the visuals are excellent, the written sections are disappointing. By all means enjoy flipping through it - just don’t look too closely.
Finally! After seven months, I have finished my adventure through this 950-page compendium of video game history. The first thing that struck me was the presentation - the glossy photos are a delight to look at and flip through and as a visual experience, it’s wonderful. I wish I could say the same about the writing, which needs a hefty dose of spell-checking and editing. Grammar errors abound, and there are some unforgiveable mistakes, such as a nod to the works of filmmaker “Hiyao Miyasaki” (Hayao Miyazaki) and – my favourite - one commentary that describes a princess as a “beau” (beau meaning a young man). Additionally, some of the synopses miss the mark and feel like they were written by someone who had read about the game rather than played it. I’m sure faithful nerds will be able to nit pick the content better than I, but suffice to say that while the visuals are excellent, the written sections are disappointing. By all means enjoy flipping through it - just don’t look too closely.
May 26, 2015
It had typos. I mean seriously the city in Majora's Mask isn't Terminus and there were several others. In addition to those offenses (this isn't even the first edition of the book...), the authors include multiple titles and their sequels that I've never heard of and the explanations for their inclusion weren't very enthusiastic or affirming of their value. When all the negatives take up most of the space of the column, you have to wonder why the game even mattered (especially when it's a game that the name isn't even familiar, there are lots of games I've never played that I've at least heard of in passing). It was also very disappointing to see several games that I love dearly get left out in favor of some of these other rather odd games. I will give the selectors that they chose a definite variety whereas I tend to stick to mostly RPGs with a little branching out into adventure games...
March 24, 2011
This is a good reference book to have around for a gamer, even if you don't agree with all the choices (and there might be plenty) and some of the write-ups do sometimes make you wonder how in depth the contributors have played a given game (for instance I can see Sims 2 players laughing out very loudly at the suggestion that "it's somehow impossible to make an ugly (sim)". HA!).
Overall though it's been a pleasure to read a few entries every night, revisiting with the power of memory the classics I've been playing over the years and taking note of the ones I missed and I might still be able to check out. That said, I wish there was a PC games-only edition.
Overall though it's been a pleasure to read a few entries every night, revisiting with the power of memory the classics I've been playing over the years and taking note of the ones I missed and I might still be able to check out. That said, I wish there was a PC games-only edition.
December 11, 2015
Short reviews by a range of game developers and critics, and organized by decade, starting with the 70's and ending with 2010. Early in the book it covers the Atari basics and as it moves on it covers early consoles, then transitions into later consoles, ending at PS3 and Xbox 360's. It has a wide range of games and short explanations along with an image for most. I've jotted down a list of games that I'd like to try that I'd never heard of, which is one of the perks of a book like this. As time goes on it covers a range of devices - iPhones, Internet games, PSP, etc. It's a good place to start to find interesting and out-of-the-way games.
January 11, 2011
From the spawniest of Gamers to the most evolved, this is the V. Game Bible. To be honest there's a a couple entries missing (though barely any) and a few entries that I was rather surprised to see in there, but this book is essential. The perfect reference guide for when you just want to check up on a game you're thinking of getting (though nothing in this edition post-2010, hoping for new edition in a few years). Your gaming library will burst at the seems after reading this book, a must-have :)
January 11, 2011
From the spawniest of Gamers to the most evolved, this is the V. Game Bible. To be honest there's a a couple entries missing (though barely any) and a few entries that I was rather surprised to see in there, but this book is essential. The perfect reference guide for when you just want to check up on a game you're thinking of getting (though nothing in this edition post-2010, hoping for new edition in a few years). Your gaming library will burst at the seems after reading this book, a must-have :)
March 19, 2012
Took me a long time to get through this book, as it covers all my gaming eras (1970s to present). Didn't see every game I would have liked (of course), but was pleased to find ones I haven't thought of in years. Found lots of fun trivia about games I've played (a secret message hidden in Xevious, the Commodore 64 M.U.L.E. theme tucked away in Spore, etc.), and it had me searching on YouTube to see gameplay for unfamiliar titles (Deus Ex Machina (1984) voiced by Jon Pertwee (the 3rd Doctor), The Longest Journey (1999), Uplink (2003), Facade (2005), etc.).
October 18, 2014
It takes some time to get through, and it can get somewhat irksome near the 800 mark, but this is one of the definite list of must play games (not of all time, since the list stops in 2011, and quite some good games have come out since then). But if you are interested in the medium and like a trip through the history (including which game came up with which groundbreaking feature) then this is the book for you.
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