1. Double Trouble
Author: Clyde Bosco
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: June, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-74112-8 (American edition), 0-7497-1000-4 (British edition)
Length: 121 pages (59 sections)
Number of Endings: 4
Plot Summary: Everything's suddenly appearing in pairs, and it's
getting rather crowded in the Mushroom Kingdom; clearly the Koopas are
involved.
Translations: Dutch, Hungarian
My Thoughts: I found this to be an enjoyable bit of fluff. There's
not much in the way of story, but the writing is pleasantly light-hearted and
surreal (though not nearly as much fun as what is found in the early Sonic the Hedgehog adventures). The puzzles are all
chance-based or remarkably easy, yet they enjoyably complement the text. The
scoring system and some slightly non-linear design elements (most
interestingly the use of amnesia as an excuse to loop back to an earlier
section) increase replay value. I have no great praise for the book, but it
took an entertaining couple of tries to complete it successfully, and I left
feeling satisfied if not especially challenged.
My High Score: 2380
2. Leaping Lizards
Author: Clyde Bosco
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: June, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-74113-6 (American edition), 0-7497-1001-2 (British edition)
Length: 121 pages (58 sections)
Number of Endings: 6
Plot Summary: Luigi is late for a picnic in the Mushroom Kingdom, and
his day pretty much goes downhill from there....
Translations: Dutch, Hungarian
My Thoughts: This book is pretty similar in quality and tone to the
previous one, which makes sense since it has the same creative team. This
time around, Luigi gets the spotlight instead of Mario, but time is given to
all of the characters, even the fussy and occasionally amusing chief mushroom
assistant Wooster, who I am told (by reader Andy Stout) actually comes from
a Mario comic book series. The highlight of the adventure is probably its
climax, in which the characters must compete in a series of athletic events,
accumulating medals as they go. It fits in well with the series' format and
makes a good conclusion to another easy but pleasant volume. At least this
time one of the puzzles (on page 11) made me stop and think for a couple of
minutes; that's something!
My High Score: 590
3. Monster Mix-Up
Author: Bill McCay
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne and Beth Haggart (puzzles)
First Published: July, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-74201-9 (American edition)
Length: 121 pages (61 sections)
Number of Endings: 11
Plot Summary: A day at the circus goes sour when the princess is
kidnapped... again. Soon, a plot involving strangely re-combined monsters is
revealed.
Translation: Hungarian
My Thoughts: This book was written by a different author than the
last two, and the difference really shows. The characters seem a little bit
different, self-aware references to the story's video game origins are more
prominent, and simple cartoon-style humor is more evident in the dialogue.
The writing is not entirely without merit, but I found it to be of lower
quality than the last two adventures. The book's game design is interesting
but flawed. There's a lot of recycling in the form of choices which loop
back to earlier points in the adventure and endings which are led to from
multiple points. This is good, in that it lengthens the adventure and makes
victory a little more difficult, but it's also bad, because it messes up
continuity and creates places where a reader could theoretically loop
forever, scoring an infinite number of points. Puzzles are the usual mix of
pointless, confusing and mildly challenging; not too many are especially
satisfying. Overall, you could probably skip this adventure without missing
anything, though it's not entirely devoid of value.
My High Score: 590 (no points counted more than once)
4. Koopa Capers
Author: Bill McCay
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: August, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-74202-7 (American edition)
Length: 121 pages (66 sections)
Number of Endings: 13
Plot Summary: Luigi has been recruited by Bowser to rescue the missing
Wendy O. Koopa!
My Thoughts: I found this to be a rather surprising book. While the
previous three adventures are close to trivial in terms of gameplay, this one
is actually quite challenging. It's structured like some of the more
frustrating Fighting Fantasy books -- it's not at
all hard to reach the end of the story, but if you don't arrive with the
right inventory items, you're doomed. Unsurprisingly, these items are hidden
in obscure, non-intuitive places. It took a bit of mapping for me to figure
out how to win. I wasn't too thrilled by this, as I felt the difficulty was
more of a cheap shot than a genuine challenge, but it was strangely
refreshing to see how potentially convoluted even a short gamebook like this
one can be. I also enjoyed several of the puzzles on display here. While
there are still a fair number of confusing or trivial challenges, I felt that
some of the puzzles (mostly those involving the timing of jumps) actually
captured some of the feel of playing a real Nintendo game. The worst aspect
of the book was probably its actual text, which seemed to have the least
flavor so far in the series, mainly because by sending Luigi off on his own,
there's less opportunity for banter and conversation. It's not a big loss,
though, since few people are likely to be reading these books for the
character interaction....
My High Score: 1410
5. Pipe Down!
Author: Clyde Bosco
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Ron Zalme (puzzles)
First Published: September, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-74203-5 (American edition), 0-7497-1306-2 (British edition)
Length: 121 pages (62 sections)
Number of Endings: 6
Plot Summary: It's the princess' birthday, but one of her presents
isn't what it seems....
Translation: Dutch
My Thoughts: Now that we're back to Clyde Bosco's authorship again,
the style of the first two books has come back. I was glad for its return,
and it's accompanied by a decent (but not perfect) game design which
integrates some of the more challenging gameplay mechanisms introduced in the
previous volume -- getting the right stuff in your inventory is vital (though
not as pointlessly difficult), and the puzzles, while not terribly hard, are
at least mostly non-trivial. It's not really an outstanding book, but it's
a pleasant read, going by rather quickly but offering just enough challenge
to be satisfying to complete.
My High Score: 5270
6. Doors to Doom
Author: Bill McCay
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: October, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-74204-3 (American edition), 0-7497-1307-0 (British edition)
Length: 121 pages (59 sections)
Number of Endings: 14
Plot Summary: A mad scientist has unleashed the Doors to Doom
machine, which connects different dimensions and thereby creates the means
for world conquest!
Translation: Dutch
My Thoughts: This is an above-average book brought down by some
serious flaws. While reading through for the first few times, I really
enjoyed myself. The book offers a change of scenery by sending Mario and
Luigi into the worlds of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. in
addition to the usual Super Mario Brothers stuff, and the puzzles are
almost all genuinely challenging and interesting. The problem comes from the
book's overall structure. There's no coin-collecting this time around, but
points are accumulated as the story unfolds. At the very end of the story,
you need at least 410 points in order to win. However, after extensive
mapping and head-scratching, it seems to me that the highest possible score
is 370, and even this is only attainable by intentionally answering one
puzzle incorrectly and then looping around before giving the right answer.
Of course, since there are loopback opportunities, it's possible to count
points more than once and thus score infinite points; perhaps this is what
the author intended, but if so, it's a pretty cheap shot. In any case, I was
prepared to herald this as the best book in the series so far, but this
design flaw, combined with a rather anticlimactic ending, prevents me from
giving this adventure the praise it would otherwise deserve. Good stuff, but
sadly not quite good enough.
My High Score: 370 (no points counted more than once)
7. Dinosaur Dilemma
Author: Clyde Bosco
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: 1991
ISBN: 0-7497-1308-9 (British edition)
Length: 121 pages (61 sections)
Number of Endings: 11
Plot Summary: Mario and Luigi are on vacation on Dinosaur Island, but
they can't have peace for long....
Translation: Swedish
My Thoughts: This is the first book to reflect the release of
Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo, and it thus has a focus on
the then-new character of Yoshi. The writing isn't as enjoyable as that of
Clyde Bosco's earlier works, but the gameplay is more tightly structured.
It's possible to explore various areas in a non-linear fashion, but only the
correct order will yield all the items needed for victory. The book is
slightly forgiving in that it is sometimes possible to go back and try again
without being killed, but the ultimate solution to the book is rather
arbitrary, and the vast majority of the puzzles are simplistic and
meaningless. Although in some ways this book seems like a sign of progress
in Bosco's game design skills, it is nonetheless inferior to the rest of his
output.
My High Score: 2600
8. Flown the Koopa
Author: Matt Wayne
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: December, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-74206-X (American edition), 0-7497-1309-7 (British edition)
Length: 121 pages (60 sections)
Number of Endings: 10
Plot Summary: A trip to a dinosaur flying show turns out to be less
relaxing than everyone had hoped....
My Thoughts: Matt Wayne's first entry in the series is very much in
the style of most of Clyde Bosco's work. The tone is light, the game design
is simple, and there's even a brief appearance by the character of Wooster.
It's not an especially satisfying read, though. For one thing, the plot,
though containing some mildly amusing elements, meanders a bit too aimlessly.
This isn't helped by the puzzles, which are often an unfortunate blend of
mindlessly simple and tediously labor-intensive. There are some
exceptions -- the puzzle on page 33 is simple but cute while the puzzle on
page 95 is (to me at least) incomprehensible. Page 95 is also the source of
another problem -- this page offers the reader the option of picking up an
object, but there is no explicit instruction to mark the item on the character
sheet; since the rest of the book spells out even the most obvious of
instructions, it's easy to miss this opportunity to acquire a critical tool
needed later on. In any case, this book is neither great nor awful; it's
just sort of insubstantial. If you skip it, you won't miss anything, but if
you play it, you'll only waste a small fraction of your life and might find
it at least mildly entertaining.
My High Score: 3500
9. The Crystal Trap
Authors: Matt Wayne (cover credit), Richard Chevat (interior text credit)
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: January, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-74207-8 (American edition)
Length: 121 pages (62 sections)
Number of Endings: 14
Plot Summary: Link and Zelda stumble into one of Ganon's traps....
Translation: Swedish
My Thoughts: I'm a little confused about the origin of this book.
The cover credits Matt Wayne, but on the inside, there is a credit that says
"Text by Richard Cherat." I'm assuming that this is a typo for
Richard Chevat, as this is a name that I have seen elsewhere (including later
in this series). I'm not sure if this means that the book is a collaboration
between Matt Wayne and Richard Chevat or if Richard Chevat actually is
Matt Wayne, though I suspect that the latter is the most likely. Anyway,
regardless of authorship, I didn't find this book to be very entertaining.
On the positive side, adventuring in the fantasy world of The Legend of
Zelda was a nice change of pace from the earlier and sillier Super
Mario stuff, and the adventure feels long enough to be satisfying. It's
also interesting to see Zelda getting more of the spotlight than Link, and
fans of the game will likely be pleased to see appearances by many familiar
foes. The book is rather disappointing in both text and gameplay, though.
The text is too bland and brief to capture the colorful, sprawling flavor of
the games (or even the cartoon series, for that matter). The puzzles are
similarly unfaithful to the game, and many don't even have much bearing on
what's happening in the plot, instead serving to foreshadow and offer hints.
I prefer puzzles that simulate whatever challenge the hero of the book is
currently facing; I'm less interested in doing an unrelated math problem in
order to find out a word that vaguely hints at what might happen next. The
best puzzles here offer opportunities for the reader to score extra points or
require some recollection of what has happened so far; the worst don't even
make much sense -- it first occurred to me during this adventure that it
would have been a good idea for the publisher to include solutions to the
puzzles in the back of the book. Ultimately, this isn't an awful book, but
it's totally forgettable and doesn't live up to the potential of its subject
matter.
My High Score: 1395
10. The Shadow Prince
Authors: Matt Wayne (cover credit), Roger Peckinpaugh (interior text credit)
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: 1992
ISBN: 0-7497-1545-6 (British edition)
Length: 121 pages (59 sections)
Number of Endings: 11
Plot Summary: During an encounter with moblins, Link and Zelda meet a
mysterious stranger....
Translation: Swedish
My Thoughts: This is definitely the stronger of the two Legend of
Zelda adventures in this series. Its tone is somewhat closer to the
cartoon series (though not faithfully based on it), with some mildly amusing
banter between Link and Zelda and a fairly engaging (if less than subtle)
plot. Unfortunately, although the story is acceptable and the length of the
adventure is substantial enough to be satisfying, most of the puzzles
are weak. As before, some are simply incomprehensible while others serve only
to provide foreshadowing which actually spoils and undermines the story.
There are a couple of good puzzles that actually do integrate well with the
story, allowing the reader to visually ponder Link's situation, but it's too
little, too late. I would actually recommend ignoring all of the puzzles
unless they obviously relate to the plot; some of these choices are more
interesting if you don't know which decision to make based on a dumb maze.
Nintendo fans will probably have some fun with this, though they may be
troubled by such things as Link calling Zelda "Zel" a lot and Ganon
being described as a skeletal figure. Perhaps if more Zelda adventures had
been released, further improvements would have led to something really good;
unfortunately, though, it ended here at the level of mere adequacy.
My High Score: 900
11. Unjust Desserts
Author: Matt Wayne
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: March, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-74209-4 (American edition)
Length: 121 pages (60 sections)
Number of Endings: 12
Plot Summary: It's Yoshi's birthday. Unfortunately, somebody has put
something bad in the cake....
Translation: Swedish
My Thoughts: It usually takes me, at most, a couple of hours to get
through one of the books in this series. This one took me weeks, not because
it was especially challenging, but because it was so awful I could barely
motivate myself to read more than a couple of pages at a time. For one
thing, the premise is stupid. It's a sort of take on Fantastic
Voyage, with Mario getting miniaturized and exploring the inside of
Yoshi. An interesting idea, but it's done in a totally ludicrous way --
Yoshi is filled with plumbing. I realize that this is a fantasy series and
there's room for all manner of strangeness... but this particular strangeness
seemed without charm or even fantasy logic. At no point did the story engage
me. Of course, I don't really read these books for the story, so the book
might have been saved by good gameplay. Alas, the gameplay is probably the
worst I've seen in the series. Every bad puzzle idea previously used in the
series is dragged out again here; pointless foreshadowing puzzles were
especially annoying. There are also multiple points (see pages 4 and 81)
where the puzzles that determine which choice the reader should make are
completely random and can be successfully answered either way. Why not just
flip a coin? It would waste less time. There are also some puzzles that
don't even try to have anything to do with the plot; why should counting
matching pictures of Bowser (on page 45) determine whether Mario stays put or
goes exploring? The crown jewel of bad design, though, is the puzzle on
page 99. The game is designed so that there are two successful paths, and
each requires that certain items be found early on in order to survive later.
The only way to get one of these items on one of the two paths is to answer
the puzzle on page 99 incorrectly! I'm not sure if this is a typo or an
editorial oversight, but it's quite irritating regardless. It's not the only
inexcusable flaw -- it's possible to reach page 77 and be told that you have
escaped from some bugs even if you have never encountered them. I wonder if
these errors were fixed in the Swedish translation. In any case, I'm greatly
relieved to finally have put this miserable book behind me. Alas, my
enthusiasm for finishing the final book in the series has been somewhat muted
by this experience; I'm glad there's not much more to go.
My High Score: 1050
12. Brain Drain
Authors: Matt Wayne (cover credit), Richard Chevat (interior text credit)
Illustrators: Greg Wray (cover), Josie Koehne (puzzles)
First Published: April, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-74210-8 (American edition), 0-7497-1547-2 (British edition)
Length: 121 pages (63 sections)
Number of Endings: 13
Plot Summary: A day fixing the royal soda machine is disrupted when
people (and creatures) mysteriously start switching bodies.
My Thoughts: This is an undistinguished end to the series; although
not as bad as the previous book, it shares some of that volume's flaws. The
puzzles don't integrate well with the plot, and some of them are completely
random or pointless. Some of the graphic design also leaves something to be
desired -- the very first puzzle is supposed to have letters printed on a
checkerboard pattern, but rather than actually putting the letters where they
belong, the designer has chosen to draw the squares separately and put the
letters that go in them off to the left. I assume this was done because it
would have been more difficult to print letters on a black background, but
doing so would not be that hard and would certainly be less confusing.
The adventure's plot, which once again centers on Luigi rather than Mario,
has some potential for humor, and while there are a couple mildly amusing
moments, it doesn't begin to exploit the full possibilities. This is at
least partially because the adventure feels especially short -- although
there is only one victorious ending (just like the rest of this series),
there are quite a few different ways to reach it. Some involve finding items
needed at crucial moments and others involve sheer luck; the variety means
there is some replay value in attempting to go back and get a higher score,
but it makes the story itself seem somewhat rushed. In any case, I wasn't
motivated to do too much replaying, as my rather miserable score attests.
My High Score: 450