Dominic Arsenault, Super Power, Spoony Bards, and Silverware

140 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PLAY • FALL 2018 First, Siyahhan and Gee give parents a activity should have at its core—the will- list of potential questions to ask their ingness to challenge firmly held beliefs. children who play and suggests ways for After all, a belief that does not stand up to families to engage in game modding and rigorous scrutiny is not a belief worth hav- making, including naming specific useful ing. Arsenault’s work allows us the chance tools (such as Twine) and offering advice to do exactly that, rigorously to scruti- on how to approach them. Second, the nize the widely held belief that the Super authors provide guidelines for develop- Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) ers to encourage intergenerational play video game console was a stellar piece of through their video game design. Develop- hardware that enabled some of the greatest ers would do well to think about encorpo- software in video game history. Arsenault rating moments of relevance for different uses extensive research and novel infor- ages and skill levels, designing challenges mation to reframe most major factors that that can be shared, and how play can be contribute to that belief. Ultimately, his divided among players to meet these joint book is not designed to change the reader’s challenges. mind regarding these widely agreed-upon Overall, Families at Play is a wel- beliefs of the Super Nintendo. However, come addition to the sociocultural story it demands the reader flex some mental of learning with games because it provides muscles that may have grown weak after much needed nuance to the discussion by decades of simply adopting the same old expanding what we know to include spe- assumptions about the platform. cific details how families engage in pro- Not everything in the book runs ductive play. contrary to popular opinion. Peppered throughout Arsenault’s argument are bits —Mark Chen, University of Washington of what would pass as common knowl- Bothell, Bothell, WA edge among video game historians. He describes how the advent of CD-ROMs and polygonal graphics made the origi- nal Sony PlayStation console an enticing Super Power, Spoony Bards, and platform for third-party developers. And Silverware: The Super Nintendo the fact that Nintendo constantly relies on Entertainment System current or last generation technology for Dominic Arsenault its hardware forms a key tenet. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2017. In its quest to provide new informa- Introduction, notes, researches, and tion, the book offers some truly novel facts index. 226 pp. $29.95 cloth. and observations. Many people are aware ISBN: 9780262036566 of Nintendo and Sony’s inability to work together in creating a CD-ROM addition Dominic Arsenault’s book, Super Power, to the SNES. Nintendo abruptly, and pub- Spoony Bards, and Silverware: The Super licly, severed the deal with Sony in favor Nintendo Entertainment System, offers a of one with Philips. But the author adds to valuable reminder of what all scholarly the discussion that this extremely abrupt Book Reviews 141 shift may have been the result of legal pres- benefits for doing this. But, he ignores the sure from Philips about what it believed fact that a lack of gate keeping in the soft- was patent infringement. ware marketplace is largely what caused The book really shines in the middle Western markets to lose faith in video chapters where the author describes, in games less than a decade earlier. detail, how the SNES’s hardware informed Many points are also made with the the design of its games. In the hands of benefit of hindsight. For instance, it is another writer, these portions of the book obvious now that Nintendo could have could have been either painfully dry, prospered, at least in the short term, from incomprehensible, or both. For instance, a partnership with Sony and its expertise. the author sheds light on the mysteries of However, other technology companies in the undesired flickering effect that many that era tried to break into the video game gamers endured during the 8- and 16-bit market and failed, even with CD-ROMs era. In short, it was the result of sprite (Apple Pippin, Philips CD-i). In addition, count limitations being split among mul- the author is correct in that Nintendo’s tiple frames shouldering the load. On the approach to video game design during the software side, Jim Power: The Lost Dimen- SNES era relied on genres that may appear sion in 3-D is covered in a particularly relatively stale now, but that audiences in impressive way. The succinct and accurate the early 1990s still clamored for. description of the game’s visuals “sicken- Despite these shortcomings, this book ing” result is spot on. is worthy of a place alongside some of the Unfortunately, the weakest parts of more commonly used texts on the sub- the book stem from a lack of clarity in ject. Thses include Blake Harris’ Console assessment. Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That For instance, the author criticizes Defined a Generation and David Sheff’s Nintendo for iterating its hardware from Game Over: Nintendo’s Battle to Domi- generation to generation while also prais- nate Videogames. I recommend reading ing Sony for what appears to be the same these books first and treating Super Power, behavior. There is likely a clear difference Spoony Bards, and Silverware as a compan- in the author’s mind, but it does not come ion to help round out your perspective. through in the text. In the end, the author’s view is far from The book also glosses over several singleminded as he concludes “there’s no other facts. For instance, the author wants arguing with the SNES’s lasting appeal and Nintendo to have had a far less strict rela- ongoing esteem.” tionship with third-party developers and to have been more accessible to indepen- —Joseph A. Loporcaro, University of Roch- dent game developers. He lists valuable ester, Rochester, NY.

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