LudoScience

History of videogames (focused book)

Author(s) : Collectif
Editor : PK Editions
Publication date : 05-14-2012
Language : french

Games History is a series of magazines in a book-like format (similar to Pix'n Love and IG), with 200 pages dedicated to a defined genre of video games. This second issue is focused on the history of 2D versus fighting games. The book thus retrace the history of popular series such as Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat, Fatal Fury, Darkstalkers, Samurai Shodown, Killer Instinct, alongside with some less known titles like Arcana Hearts or Battle Fantasia. While it's not a in-depth book (the idea of the series is apparently to make players discover games rather than explaining their history), we can clearly feel and embrace the passion of the authors for the topic. Many pictures are also enriching the book. Besides the presentation of the games, we like the fact that a book section is also dedicated to movies and animes adaptations of the most popular series (Street Fighter, among others), and that several interviews are closing the book. These interviews with Ken Bogard (tournament commentator), Kayane (professional player) and the organizers of the Stunfest festival and the World Game Cup allow us to discover the passionating, albeit unsung, world of professional fighting games tournaments.