Super Mario How Nintendo Conquered America (Harsh Review)

Labeled Harsh. I may be partial but I speak the truth. Sorry guys, this review is a negative one, spoiler alert. Here we go:

Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America (By Jeff Ryan) is a book that talks on the history of Nintendo and (arguably) its greatest franchise and how it came to be what it is today. The book I'm reviewing is the latest edition which has an extra chapter sharing how Nintendo survived 2011. I'm going to give you the positives and the negatives in this book and then my general thoughts.

Positives:

•   A true Historical book, filled with almost spot-on history from when Nintendo started out until 2012
• Surprisingly Jeff Ryan makes two references to a Nintendo theme park and in (2015) Nintendo announced a partnership with Universal Parks.
• Jeff Ryan went into great detail sharing the history of Super Mario products and Nintendo's early years as a company.

Negatives:

• Jeff Ryan doesn't appear to have all the FACTS in this book when it comes to Super Mario directly. That isn't the main focus of this book but it seems that he isn't really a big fan of Mario or Nintendo in general. 
  The facts he made mistakes on were minor but noticeable for any true Mario fan. 1. Star pieces, he mistakenly named the STARS you collect in Super Mario 64 "Star Pieces", when in-fact they are whole stars. He made the same mistake with Super Mario Galaxy, saying the "Star Bits" you collect throughout the game's levels were also "Star Pieces". He called the Luma "Your Star Buddy". He also said the entire goal of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story was about defeating a giant Bowser from the inside, but that isn't the goal of the game.
• This book is surprisingly full of swearing and vulgar content. Jeff Ryan makes countless immature comparisons and references.
• Jeff Ryan claims that Mario is relatable because he has no personality at all. I find that the reason he's so relatable is because of his personality. Sure he can be anything Nintendo wants him to be, but his character always acts willing to do whatever task he's given; heroically. Also he's always portrayed in a cartoon-like goofy manner which is also relatable because it makes you feel young or because you are young (depending on your age. Maybe you're a kid at heart like I'll always be)
• SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the entire book he makes a list of ways Nintendo can improve from 2012 onward. This has been done many times before by other "Hardcore" Gamers that believe Nintendo's best bet for survival is to drop in its position by making games for others or by caving to popular demands. Such as, moving to smart devices (Nintendo handled the smart device situation well, by continuing to work on consoles first and foremost), making a theme park or even stop making consoles and only make games for others. His list of suggestions went on for around four pages after the history portion of the book was over and done. 

Most  Gamers who play games mostly online call people that play mostly Nintendo games (The Nintendo fans) a Niche or "Casual Gamers". I disagree with this because it belittles the fandom of Nintendo games. He acted throughout the book to lean more to that grouping of people, the people that are against Nintendo all together. Jeff Ryan said in his book that Mario is apart of core gaming at one point; yet also made it known throughout the book that the "Hardcore" Gamer's thought process is what he has. Nintendo is not a Niche, it's a form of Gaming just as Microsoft and Sony. We Nintendo fans don't (or shouldn't) go around saying things against other people's favorite Gaming platforms so why is it so easy for us to be labeled a niche and not even a part of Gaming at all, just because we don't all like bloody shoot-em-up games (as described by Miyamoto). By page 273 I wanted to burn the book, it was very vulgar and the author even (in a way) claimed Mario was bland. He may or may not have meant it as though he thought this way himself.. But it still made me mad as ever. 

By the way, this may make me sound dumb but it's true; The mushrooms in Super Mario aren't drugs, they're magic. I find referring to them as so is insulting towards Super Mario fanatics. This is definitely not a book I would recommend to any Mario fan,  the writer dislikes Nintendo and Mario for their sucess.