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Nintendo Adventure Books #8
Flown the Koopa
In Dinosaur Land for the annual Dino-Flying Derby, Mario and Luigi discover that all the dinosaurs have been turned into stone by Magikoopa
121 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1991
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34 people want to read
About the author
Matt Wayne
69 books1 followerMatt S. Wayne is an American writer of comic books and television. Wayne is probably best known for his work on the animated series Justice League Unlimited, Ben 10: Omniverse and The Super Hero Squad Show, and writing and editing comic books for Milestone Media.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 20, 2019
This is copied from my coverage of the book on my website here: https://mechas64castles.net/Flown_map...
"""As this was yet another in the series I never got to grow up with as a kid, my feelings could have went either way and I was indeed sort of lukewarm with the opening. I’m not sure why I was because it’s a good book overall. The premise and bad guy, just being some random magikoopa cousin of Bowser who isn’t even named properly (but does cameo in another book I heard), is quirky and interesting. It’s nice to see OCs in these books, the Dinosaur Land settings are used well, again with more than just generic areas from the game. Writing quality and character interactions were some of the best in the series with lots of funny moments and banter, even some very amusing game over scenarios. Structure wise while it gets linear in the very end like most of these books do, I like the many paths you can take to get there. There’s actually several events you can completely miss on several read throughs and as long as you obtain the correct items you’d make it to the end. They never explain who messed up the Dinosaur Derby however, I mean it’s implied to be Bowser or the magikoopa but there’s no real answer.
Let’s touch on the items and puzzles however because here is where things fall flat. The early cookie bag puzzle somewhat uniquely (but in a bad way) has a puzzle where what you chose means you do NOT get that item. This book has an ‘item of doom’ as I call them, items where if you get it and use it, assuming the book gives you a choice, you’ll lose. Worse yet, the items you need that you do obtain if you chose correctly isn’t emphasized in the book so you can miss it. While some puzzles are okay and well suited for the theme of whatever is going on, many more are needlessly overcomplicated or hard to understand. This makes you want to just guess and that’s bad. Points wise, the coins are a little scarce in the book which I actually prefer as it makes mapping high score paths easier. There are several moments where hazards can diminish coins and since they aren’t given out like candy that’s good because it means you must be mindful if you care. I also liked the detail of how you can buy the popcorn item for some coins and make a later part easier or tough it out for the higher score. The only other flaw I have to point out at the moment is that I’m not sure how to max out the score yet. See the optimal path below. Overall 4/5. I really like it enough just for the writing to overlook the puzzles.""
"""As this was yet another in the series I never got to grow up with as a kid, my feelings could have went either way and I was indeed sort of lukewarm with the opening. I’m not sure why I was because it’s a good book overall. The premise and bad guy, just being some random magikoopa cousin of Bowser who isn’t even named properly (but does cameo in another book I heard), is quirky and interesting. It’s nice to see OCs in these books, the Dinosaur Land settings are used well, again with more than just generic areas from the game. Writing quality and character interactions were some of the best in the series with lots of funny moments and banter, even some very amusing game over scenarios. Structure wise while it gets linear in the very end like most of these books do, I like the many paths you can take to get there. There’s actually several events you can completely miss on several read throughs and as long as you obtain the correct items you’d make it to the end. They never explain who messed up the Dinosaur Derby however, I mean it’s implied to be Bowser or the magikoopa but there’s no real answer.
Let’s touch on the items and puzzles however because here is where things fall flat. The early cookie bag puzzle somewhat uniquely (but in a bad way) has a puzzle where what you chose means you do NOT get that item. This book has an ‘item of doom’ as I call them, items where if you get it and use it, assuming the book gives you a choice, you’ll lose. Worse yet, the items you need that you do obtain if you chose correctly isn’t emphasized in the book so you can miss it. While some puzzles are okay and well suited for the theme of whatever is going on, many more are needlessly overcomplicated or hard to understand. This makes you want to just guess and that’s bad. Points wise, the coins are a little scarce in the book which I actually prefer as it makes mapping high score paths easier. There are several moments where hazards can diminish coins and since they aren’t given out like candy that’s good because it means you must be mindful if you care. I also liked the detail of how you can buy the popcorn item for some coins and make a later part easier or tough it out for the higher score. The only other flaw I have to point out at the moment is that I’m not sure how to max out the score yet. See the optimal path below. Overall 4/5. I really like it enough just for the writing to overlook the puzzles.""
June 9, 2024
5 stars just for the cover art. Come on, it's a Mario adventure book. It was fun and fine and took me longer than I'd like to admit to finish lol. I missed the top score by 2,000...I might do it again.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews