Pixel Art GBA Book by Bitmap Books

by Bitmap Books

The Game Boy Advance, my lifelong favorite handheld, continues to captivate me. Upon discovering this book on Instagram, I knew I had to acquire it. This magnificent volume is filled with stunning screenshots from my beloved games, each accompanied by insightful commentary. As an enthusiast of RPGs and strategy games, I was delighted by the extensive coverage and representation of these genres. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone. The hard case slipcover not only safeguards the book but also enhances its display alongside my collection. I am overjoyed with my purchase-this book is a true masterpiece and a trove of gaming history, celebrating the beauty of pixel art.

Genres: Gaming

Hardcover

Reviews

[Kyle Maguire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun trip through the life of the Gameboy Advance. The book is gorgeous in its use of pixel artwork, although the paragraphs aren't always formatted to naturally guide the reader's eye, and it can be a bit overwhelming. I do wish there was a more in depth analysis of the pixel art through an artistic lens (discussing use of color, how certain visual effects are created, etc.). At the end of the day, though, I cannot deny that I simply had a good time reading and taking a trip down memory lane.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

the good:
+covers a vast number of GBA games, and even introduced me to a bunch of GBA games I'd never heard of. excited to play them!
+was fun to read at times, lots of pictures (often pretty but this also features ugly games)

the bad:
- went into it thinking it was going to mostly be about showing off the best pixel art the GBA had to offer, but there was a whole lot of text about the games themselves, their gameplay, and the context around which they were released. now, this WOULD have been fine, but the way it's laid out means your eyes are jumping all over the spread, skipping over things to try and find the continuation of the paragraph that just got cut off abruptly, sometimes even having to turn a page without looking at everything just to not lose that thought. even the images themselves are often laid out in a hectic way with arrows pointing all over the place trying to tell you how to read it, and sometimes that can be very confusing as well. the main text, captions and images all compete for your attention at the same time and it just doesn't flow well.
- from time to time i'd have to reread a sentence because it just didn't make sense the first time around. not a huge fan of the way these guys write.
- while i have not played most of the games in this book, when it came to the ones i have played, i'd have preferred if they had shown off more of the game rather than focusing in very deeply on one specific area. for example, slateport city from pokemon rse was explored in detail, but we didn't get to see the likes of fortree or pacifidlog or route 113, which were all visually memorable areas. it would have been cooler to show a wider variety of interesting areas rather than just a couple of areas in-depth. makes me wonder what other pretty game art they decided not to show?
- zero love for nightmare in dreamland, barely a mention of amazing mirror and the hamtaro games. would've been better to skip over all the titles that didn't age well graphically and feature more of the more eye-pealing games that people really love.