If you’ve ever played a video game, you’ll probably recognize some of Capcom’s iconic characters such as Mega Man™, Resident Evil™, and Street Fighter™. Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia, available in hard cover, is packed with facts, statistics, and historical information about the characters created by Capcom over the years.
Each page covers a single character and contains a large depiction of the character, the character’s name, a character biography, an in-game image, and a data box with general information. The character encyclopedia includes almost 200 characters listed alphabetically, which makes finding your favorite character simple. The pages are high quality, thus not easy to tear, which provides a longevity to the book. The cover draws your attention and makes you want to pick it up. It would look fantastic on a video gamer’s coffee table or on the bookshelf among the numerous video game guides.
My two boys, aged 9 and 10, loved flipping through the pages and discussing every detail of their favorite characters. They were surprised to learn that some of their favorite characters have been around for 30 years. This led to a great discussion of how their favorite characters have evolved over the years and what they think the characters will look like in another 30 years. I enjoyed flipping through and locating the popular characters of my childhood — boy did that bring back some wonderful memories.
This book makes a perfect gift for any video game player, old or young. Be warned that video game nerds might know some of this information because they spend as much time playing the games as they do critiquing the stories behind the games. But even the biggest video game nerd will likely curl up with this book and if only to find out if everything they know is based on Capcom fact or fiction.
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