These were novels for preteens published by Scholastic and based on Nintendo games. They weren't authorized by Nintendo, so they covered games from licensees. There were a total of nine books in the series (published from 1990 to 1991) as well as an additional 2 books (Mega Man II and Bases Loaded II) listed under "Junior Worlds of Power". All the books are about 120 or so pages long and at least attempt to follow the general plot of the game, although due to length reasons they tend to cover the first parts of the game in detail and kind of skip over the rest to get to the end. The books were all "created" by FX Nine but were actually written by different people; who knows what the difference is between creating a book and writing one. At the end of some of the chapters are really obvious "game hints" written in upsidedown type; in some editions of the books there's also a thin cardboard insert with a trading card for that book. These trading cards have additional hints for the game, and unfortunately I don't find too many of these books with the card not already ripped out of the cardboard insert :| The books use label art from the games for their cover art, except that if the art has the main character carrying a weapon, it's usually airbrushed out (this is especially noticeable on the Metal Gear cover, where Solid Snake looks like he's making some kind of masturbation motion since his gun was airbrushed out). Also, the books' authors all took great pain to make sure that no one uses a gun or other weapon to kill a human being. The only times guns are used are to break open locks or destroy evil computers or monsters. These books were meant to be read by kids, so they're actually pretty fun reads, and a nice way to waste an hour. At least a couple of the books have the theme of some kid who's into videogames being sucked into the game and accompanying the video game hero on his quest, something that I guess would appeal to the sort of kids these books were targeted towards. Also, at the end of all books is a list of books that FX Nine "thought you might like"; mostly kiddie sci-fi books that I've never heard of. The books released, with their authors:
There's also the Junior Worlds of Power series, consisting of Mega Man ][ (Ellen Miles) and Bases Loaded ][ (?). These are physically bigger (longer and wider) than the regular Worlds of Power books, and they're only about 70 pages young (they're targeted toward even younger readers). Back to the odd page. |
