bookwarmgames Current Semester

Remaking the RPG: Super Mario RPG and the Paper Mario Series

“Let’s-a go!”

Super Mario is perhaps the iconic video game character, full stop. Unquestionably, the success of the flagship series featuring the portly, indomitable plumber has impacted each generation of Nintendo consoles to such an extent that it is comparable in this regard only to Shigeru Miyamoto’s other most iconic creation, Link and the Legend of Zelda series. To understand the history of games in this era, then, given the importance of Nintendo and the home console market, it would not be too much to say that we have to understand Super Mario.

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Professor Kozlowski Special Topics

A Crystal Darkly: The Growing Pains of Final Fantasy VIII and IX

It’s 1997, and Squaresoft just released a game that many have called the greatest video game of all time.

Oh Boy! It’s Final Fantasy VII!

I’m not here to defend or dispute that claim.  In fact, I’m not here to talk about Final Fantasy VII at all (or at least beyond using it to contextualize our discussion).  I think there’s plenty of folks talking about FFVII already—including the team developing a series of contemporary games that are part-remake, part-commentary on the original text of Square’s masterpiece.

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