The SNES Omnibus Volume 2 Review

April 26, 2019April 27, 2019 TrekMD Omnibus, SNES

Brett Weiss is known among those of us in the retro community for his variety of books covering video games. Among those titles are The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987, Classic Home Video Games and, of course, The SNES Omnibus Volume 1 (which covered games titled from the letters A to M). Brett is back with the second volume of his SNES Omnibus books, this time covering games from the letters N to Z.

From cover to cover, The SNES Omnibus Volume 2 has 464 pages within which you will find virtually all games in the SNES library starting with the letter N and beyond. This means that some 375 games are included in this book along with articles looking at the Super GameBoy, Super Metroid, and the Super Scope 6. By the way, if you ever wanted to know how many games for the SNES started with the word “Super” you will no longer have to wonder as they are listed here. The Omnibus starts off with a foreword by Ben Reeves, senior editor for Game Informer Magazine, where he briefly discusses the history of the SNES. This is followed by a preface by Brett himself where he described the history behind the book and how the content is laid out. This is followed by an acknowledgments section where you will find the names of the many people who helped Brett in making this book a reality. This is something nice to see because it recognizes that books like these do require a level of teamwork. With these three sections done, the book then goes into the games themselves.

Within the main section of the book, as stated before, you will find coverage for virtually every SNES game starting with N on its title all the way to the letter Z. Each game gets one page, though games that are better known may get more than the standard page. For each game you will find a description, notables quotes and “Insider Insights.” This latter section has, well, insights from many people involved with video games such as programmers, magazine editors, and authors. These give a personal story for each game which is always a nice touch as they related to each game. You will also find quotes from retro magazines for some of the games that give an idea of how the games were seen when they were released. Overall, the content is well written and organized and easy to read. You can grab the book for a quick read on specific games. Either way, it is an enjoyable read.

Of course, no book on video games can only have text for the reader to enjoy. These area video games that are being discuss so, within the book you will find tons of images related to the games (usually a picture of the box, the cartridge and several screenshots) with retro advertisements peppered within. The images add lots of color the book and are laid out in a fairly consistent manner that helps with the flow of the text and is never distracting.

The final section of articles in the Omnibus contains three articles covering other aspects of the SNES. The first is written by Zoe Howard where the Super GameBoy is reviewed pretty thoroughly. Ken Horowitz contributes an article that looks at the deeper meaning for Super Metroid and Michael Thomasson shares his views on the Super Scope 6 and Nintendo’s romance with games and guns. This is all, of course, super! Lastly there is an entire section where you can read about the contributors of the “Insider Insights.” This is a really nice touch where you can learn about all these individuals who game some of their time to collaborate with Brett on this book.

The SNES Omnibus Volume 2 is a fine book that any fan of the SNES needs to own. Oh, and if you don’t have Volume 1, what are you waiting for? Even if you have a casual interest on the SNES, I’d recommend you get the two books as they provide great insight about the games. Heck, maybe it’ll get you interested in acquiring this retro console and start building up a collection of games! Officially The SNES Omnibus Volume 2 has a release date of April 28, 2019 and can be purchased directly from Brett’s web page (http://www.brettweisswords.com/) or from Amazon and other book sellers.