This article was intended to be published on Thanksgiving.
Maybe this is you, right this second: it’s Thanksgiving, and instead of interacting with relatives and other so called “loved ones”, your face is buried in your laptop or iPad, looking for the best holiday deals on Amazon.
And you’ve managed to take advantage of a number of bargains! Good for you. But you all of sudden get that feeling in the back of you neck, which reminds you that you’re supposed to be shopping for others.
But then you remember that pal of yours who is really into Capcom. You also realize that there are hardly any new releases from the publisher at the moment, other than Dead Rising 3. What to do? Well, there’s always the Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia from DK.
The book is fairly similar to many others you have seen near the check out sections of Barnes & Noble or the like (provided that book stores still exist in your neck of the woods). It’s one of countless visual encyclopedias found on the market today, often centered on something pop culture related. So right off the back, it’s fairly easy to dismiss this particular tome, since those hardly go in-depth with the subject matter; most are aimed at casual fans and kids. Also, when it comes to Capom on the printed page, Udon has more or less cornered that market, with their (superb) localization of art books.
Which makes Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia a pleasant surprise. Coming in at 208 pages, it doesn’t detail every single character that the publisher has created, but it’s surprisingly comprehensive nonetheless. You have all the usual suspects of course, like Mega Man and the cast of Street Fighter. But then you have somewhat more obscure characters, relatively speaking, from games like Final Fight and Killer 7. And then you have the legit obscure franchises, like Under the Skin and Red Earth.
Actually, those last two series should be itched in any diehard Capcom fan’s consciousness, but at the very least, it’s nice to see them receive any kind of attention in this day and age, and especially on the printed page. Ultimately, Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia is equal parts curiosity and novelty, but it does what it does, and respectably well. Each highlighted personality gets their own page, which includes their official character portrait, presented front and center, along with background info.
You also get an extra bit of artwork and supplementary data, like alias, special attributes, first appearance, and most recent appearance. That last bit is somewhat of a clue as to why someone (or something) has made the cut. Turns out, most of the older characters can be found in collections for XBLA or PSN. Otherwise, the book mostly digs as far back as 10 years, which explains the presence of Chaos Legion and Gotcha Force. The only exception to this would appear to be Battle Circuit, though the fact that it’s Capcom’s final beat ‘em up might explain its inclusion, since it’s somewhat special.
Aside from seeing Capcom’s almost always excellent artwork on paper, the book’s other strength is Casey Loe, who provides all the words. Instead of someone paraphrasing copy provided from the publisher in the laziest manner possible, Loe does a great job presenting most of what you need to know about such and such personality in a succinct yet also colorful manner. Loe is a game journalist who has been around the block, and his association with GameFan magazine, which used to covet Capcom and Japanese games well before it was in vogue, is very much apparent.
Does the book have any negatives? Well, it would have been cooler if it was more comprehensive, yet given the scope of these types of books, and choices that have been made, it’s totally forgivable. There’s also a few typos here and there, but since I’m guilty of the same thing, every single time I touch the keyboard, I can’t make too much of a fuss here either. Perhaps the biggest problem is that the hardcover’s binding is not the best. The glue that keeps it all together is slowly evaporating, on my copy at least, so I fear the whole thing will come apart sooner or later.
But for something that retails for less than $20, and which can be found for $13 or less at most online retailers, that too is a minor quibble. At the end of the day, Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia from DK is not the worst thing in the world, and won’t offend the senses of that Capcom fanboy or fangirl you might know comes Christmas time.
