Super Mario Encyclopedia: The Official Guide to the First 30 Years Limited Edition
This limited edition comes with an embossed slipcase specially designed to look like the iconic Super Mario Question Mark Block! Inside, you'll find one of four covers--Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, Super Star, or 1-Up Mushroom--each accentuated with shimmering holofoil!
• Buyers will receive one of four covers, chosen randomly (Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, Super Star, or 1-Up Mushroom), each in the "Question Mark Block" slipcase.
• Specific cover image cannot be requested or guaranteed.
• Each cover variant is printed in equal quantities.<
Super Mario Encyclopediais jam-packed with content from all seventeen Super Mario games--from the original Super Mario Bros. to Super Mario 3D World. Track the evolution of the Goomba, witness the introduction of Yoshi, and relive your favorite levels. This tome also contains an interview with producer Takashi Tezuka, tips to help you find every coin, star, sun, and mushroom--even explanations of glitches! With information on enemies, items, obstacles, and worlds from over thirty years of Mario, Super Mario Encyclopedia is the definitive resource for everything Super Mario!
Reviews (162)
Wasted Potential
When "Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia" was delayed for about a year, I thought it was for necessary quality assurance editing after Dark Horse's somewhat sketchy "The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts" guide. Sadly, my expectations were far from met. Instead of a legitimate translation of the original Japanese text by authoritative representatives, the hired localizers (or at least one of them known to do this proudly) saw fit to unprofessionally rip entire lines from the unofficial Super Mario Wiki at a specific point in time and not bother to fact-check any of it; the contributors even remain uncredited as their original work is blatantly profited off of, which violates the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. This is in spite of certain articles having a very conspicuous disclaimer at the top of the page warning all readers that the title consists of an invented fan-made name in the event of proper English-language references being absent. It's not simply one or two minor isolated instances that can be swiftly overlooked - the book is completely rife with amateurish leftovers of incorrect or misleading information that has since been cleaned up by dedicated fans on said wiki well within the past year, not to mention a whole slew of internal inconsistencies that no doubt resulted from clashing actual official details with totally unauthorized ones. It makes you wonder what exactly was going on during the year it took for this book to get published. In an ideal world, Nintendo would recall this poor product they licensed and sold, issue an apology, and get their A-team to work on a revised edition from scratch, pronto. It's an insult to the fanbase of such an iconic video game mascot and a truly disappointing fate for what should have been the definitive resource on all things Mario.
Beautiful book, even with it's flaws
Dark Horse's translation, evidently, uses conjectural/untranslated names for objects as listed on Super Mario Wiki. People working on the translation for this book freely admit to using Wiki to assist with translations. I myself did not purchase this book with the intention of using it has a reference guide but to add to my collection of Nintendo books and guides. Yes, this is very unfortunate and seemingly sloppy regardless considering the resources at their disposal. Despite that and it's flaws, the book is still stunning. I have no regrets with this purchase. It was shipped and packaged as Darkhorse does with it's Limited or Deluxe Editions. I've learned standard editions don't get the same packaging treated and as a result I've received a lot of damaged books. The Question Mark Box slipcase is embossed on the front only but still looks and feels amazing. The slipcase is sturdy and made with thick material. The book itself has a good solid weight to it but not what I would call heavy. I received a 1-Up cover accented with holofoil that shines and shimmers in the light. Once you open the book you're greeted with rich, bright colors. And blue edge pages packed with 30 years of decent Mario nostalgia. I was taken back by how much information they managed to pack into one book and arranged as well as it. Sadly the book in not a complete history of Mario, which is disappointing. There is a section towards the back of the book that mentions games like Mario Kart, Mario Paint, etc. I think most people expected ALL THINGS MARIO, which this is not. While the book itself is the same size compared to other Dark Horse books. The slipcase on the other hand is completely square with an insert in the back so the book sits in the case seamlessly. Unfortunately it protrudes out on my shelf so a little creativity was needed. What I ended up doing was putting the book itself with my other Dark Horse books, the slipcase went on another shelf facing out. The embossing on the front looks great displayed on my shelf this way.
30 years of nostalgia!
Just received my copy in the mail today after preordering way back in February. The book arrived in good condition. Ive had some trouble in the years past with the Legend of Zelda series which came a bit dinged up. But to my surprised it was in good condition! The pages are really thick and great quality. The color is done nicely and should really hold up over time when referencing from it over the years of use. These kinds of books are perfect to pick up and flip through in short bursts like during commercials on tv or just passing time or just remembering your first time playing all these games as a kid with the pictures and levels! The content is pretty in-depth. Each game goes by in order of the game's release. Starting with Super Mario Bros and ending with Super Mario 3D World. They go through the main characters first and then the enemies you encounter throughout that specific game. They have page of all the worlds and courses in order that you play through along with Items, obstacles, and power up break downs. It's a pretty awesome book to add to your video game collection!
Great read w kids
I'm not a professional Mario-book-reviewer or anything, not a ravenous semi-pro gamer, and I paid full price for my copy of this book. That said, I think it's great! I bought it to read with my boys, ages 6, 4 and 2 and for that it is perfect. Full color, full page graphics. Thick pages. Info is in small tidbits covering many aspects of all the games. Each game gets a section full of art and tips and there are sections dedicated to the differences in the game art over the years. It has inspired us to pull out games we haven't played in 20 years and let the boys give them a go. We buy all the Mario texts and this one is my 4 year old's favorite.
Very nice book, except it was damaged both times I took it out of the box.
The book is solid, full of information, colorful pictures and would be a nice item added to the collection of other similar books, except it was damaged when I received it, a part of the cover was peeled. So I returned it for another, and the same thing, except this time it is a bigger "scrape" in the cover of the book.
Super Mario Anthology
It's a very beautiful book but it is less of an ecyclopedia than an anthology. First of all it only covers the 17 games in the main Super Mario Bros series, so no Mario Party or Mario Kart games. Even the original Mario Bros. game gets hardly a mention. Secondly, the book is not arranged alphabetically as an encyclopedia would be, but is instead entries are grouped by game then further broken down by characters, enemies, and (oddly together) items and obstacles. The main detraction though is the inconsistent font size. Pages range from 6 entries on a page to over 60. As a result he typeset on some of the pages varies from very difficult to read without squinting all the way up to the top of the eye chart. It's an overall decent book that is thorough with what it covers but could have benefited from the eye of an experienced layout designer.
Not An Encyclopedia!
This isn't really what I had hoped. I thought it would be, well, and encyclopedia (crazy, right?), like the Mario Wiki with interesting entries on different types of Goombas, et cetera. It's not that at all. Instead, the book is divided into several chapters, each which focuses on one game from the Mario universe. Each chapter is laid out exactly the same, covering the game's story (reprinted verbatim from the game instruction manuals), the power-ups, the enemies, items, and worlds. There are a lot of screenshots, but they are extremely small and not always well-chosen. Descriptions are placed next to each screenshot that also seem to be taken directly from instruction manuals. Really, what this is is a compendium of instruction manuals for virtually all Mario games, with really tiny screensots. That was not what I wanted at all.
Disappointing: only for folks who are brand new to Mario games.
This read is kind of disappointing. It is an encyclopedia, in that it just lays out all of the basic information for every core Super Mario game... but don't expect anything more. There's no inside information on the making of the games or characters, from the designers themselves. There's no original material. And it stops in the Wii U era. Don't expect any information on Super Mario Odyssey, or ANY of the spin-offs in the last 30 years including Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island, Wario Land, Donkey Kong Country, etc. Recommended only to folks that are new to Mario and want a general overview of his past games that they've never played.
Mine Came Damaged.
Not the first time (and doubt it will be the last) a collector's item came damaged from Amazon. Great book (despite the awkward big square on a bookshelf look... would probably fit better with a record collection) but really disappointed that my slipcover came with a weird and funky raised bump (as shown in the picture). I called Amazon Customer Service and was told no replacement was available and was only refunded $15. ....Well if no replacement is available of course I'd rather have this than nothing but as a collector this is extremely frustrating. The book itself is awesome and looks great. Just wish mine didn't come defective/damaged.
Very Disappointing
When I saw this book come up, I had high hopes of previously unseen artwork, storylines, and more. I remembered how awesome the Mario Mania Player's Guide from Nintendo Power was and thought surely this will be an amazing collection. I was completely wrong as this is nothing more than a listing of pictures and names of the various characters from each game, some layouts of the levels (like an abbreviated strategy guide, nothing elaborate). This was a great opportunity wasted, especially with the original $70 pricetag. This book is a complete rip-off at that price, it's barely worth $20. It only got 2 stars due to the coverage of the enemies.
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