Boss Fight Books

Cameron Kunzelman, writing for Paste, gave the book a mixed review. He found Baumann's portrayal of the game and its characters evocative, managing to "render the strangeness of [the] game into graspable language", but criticised the self-indulgence of certain autobiographical sections.^[9] On the other hand, in a review at The Collagist, Ian Denning found the autobiographical sections an "emotional high point", passages on Baumann's relationship with his brother were described as "interesting, sometimes tender and funny". It was Baumann's analysis of the game that drew complaint from Denning, who criticised his scattershot approach, and questioned the value of its tangential references. Still, Denning deemed the book an accomplishment, "a book that argues that video games—a medium once considered cultural garbage—can be important catalysts in an artist's aesthetic development".^[10] Reflecting on the polarised reception of the autobiographical sections, Baumann said "I kind of love both reactions, and still do. I just like the strength of the reaction. I'm happy that I used personal stuff if it incites that much love or hate."^[5]

Kunzelman, in his review for Paste, while noting the personal nature of the book, found it without the self-indulgence of Baumann's EarthBound. He found the initial chapters weak, declaring a chapter on the game's recruitable characters as "almost unbearable", but described later chapters as proposing "tightly-tuned arguments". Kunzelman sees the strength of the book stemming from Williams' insight into how Japanese culture and society may have shaped the game.^[13] Zach Welhouse, writing at RPGamer, too found the book more focused than EarthBound. He highlighted a chapter of new information on the game's English language localisation process, something also highlighted by Andy Hoover at Nintendojo, who deemed it as "a must read" for Chrono Trigger fans; the interview with Woolsey offering particular insight for those critical of the SNES localisation.^[12][14] Philip J. Reed, in his review at NintendoLife commended the book's personal approach for having "come as close to capturing games as experiences as might actually be possible." Reed suggests that the book offers a new way to revisit the game, "[allowing] you to travel back in time and see it again, for the first time, through a fresh set of eyes." He concludes that the Boss Fight Books series could provide "an alternative future where video games no longer rot young minds and incite violence, but spur philosophical discussions and self-improvement."^[15]

Kunzelman gave the book high praise in his review for Paste. He found none of the literary digressions for which he criticised earlier books in the series, though he had trouble understanding some of its more technical passages. Kunzelman found the book giving "an impassioned argument for why ZZT was, and continues to be, incredibly valuable for game players", and concluded that "Anthropy has set the gold standard for book-length studies of games with ZZT".^[16]

In his review for the Baltimore City Paper, Brandon Soderberg lauded the treatment Kimball gave the game, rejecting the "Buzzfeeding of the immediate past", and instead providing depth and poignancy. The book caused Soderberg to reflect on his own life, and how video games act as windows into trauma, as he recounts the experience of playing Contra following a friend's suicide.^[18] Kunzelman, writing at Paste, found Galaga by far the weakest of the first four Boss Fight books. Kunzelman found the "short, staccato chapters" an exercise in frustration and quickly tired of their cyclic nature. He criticised the book's indulgence, believing some sections to be overwrought, and others to be overloaded with trivia. In between these flawed passages, Kunzelman found Kimball displaying expert craft in telling a moving personal story about "coping with the world through videogames" that "many, many people can relate to". For Kunzelman, that Kimball could be capable of such quality only made the other sections even more disappointing.^[17]

Austin Walker, writing for Paste, felt that the book worked well as a history book, placing Jagged Alliance 2 in the context of the video game industry as it transitioned through small independent developers towards larger teams tied to publishers. He praised the way Kazemi aligned all of the factors that formed the game and made it successful, without trying to force a dramatic narrative out of the people involved like other books, but criticized that the approach made Kazemi "struggle with selling it to us as a fun game to play".^[21]