Villordsutch reviews Push Start: The Art Of Video Games…
As a fan of all things gaming since, well, since as far back as my aging mind will allow me to remember, the visual appearance of Push Start has already has caught my interest. With one of Tomohiro Nishikado’s Space Invaders staring at me from the fantastically chequered-boarded embossed cover, this huge and extremely weighty tome comes in at well over two hundred pages. Push Start: The Art Of Video Games is already scoring points and I’m technically only really judging it by its cover!
For those that haven’t caught wind of Push Start: The Art Of Video Games as yet, the book takes a look back across the numerous generations of games gone by, then chronologically delivers games from the era briefly discussed at the opening of the chapter. here we’re given a full page image of eitherA screenshot, character, object etc. from said game. To say this is a coffee table book is besmirching it completely, it’s a visual history guide to why generations of us currently suffer from RSI, as we travel through time smiling at images of Combat on the Atari 2600 or House of the Dead 2 or perhaps Ninja Gaiden on the SNES. Not only this, but the weight of this book could possibly buckle most puny coffee tables.
Along with the book you’re also treated to a rather excellent eight-track, yellow vinyl record from Big Twice which has some classic gaming tunes remixed – though not beyond recognition – from Puzzle Bobble, Castlevania, Mega Man 2 and Street Fighter 2. Don’t fret however if you don’t have a record player, as a download code is provided for you to get these tracks via MP3 too.
Push Start does have a few minor negatives attached to it; if you ignore the weight and size and accept that as just part of making it look quite splendid the main gripes are that while it is a historical book of gaming it doesn’t really delve into much history. You’re given information blasts between chapters, but that’s it; yes there are books from Bitmap Books and Fusion Retro Books who deal specifically in the history of these machines so if you wanted to go deeper you could look elsewhere, but I would have liked to have read a wee bit more about the life and times of the gaming world between the images. Occasionally you’ll wonder why a gaming platform is missed from a game; a good example is The Last of Us – we’ve already hit the PS4 generation yet it’s not listed as being on the PS4. My last grumble and this is a very minor grumble, is that some of the older game images don’t transfer well onto a huge page of a book. While the paper it’s printed on feels great it, the pixelated blur gives you the impression that you’ve sat too close to the television.
These gripes being said, Push Start: The Art Of Video Games is a fantastic piece of gaming art that needs to be owned. To take the time to sit in a room, with the Big Twice tunes streaming out of the speakers, as you flip through your history is a little gift you should be giving to yourselves and I recommend you do it today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdQ25zdD5VI
Rating: 8/10
Push Start: The Art Of Video Games is available to buy from FunstockRetro.co.uk and if you quote the code FMYTH5 you can get 5% off your final total. It’s also available from Forbbiden Planet and Amazon.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published February 22, 2016. Updated June 30, 2023.
