Item - Pipe Down!

Now that we're back to Clyde Bosco's authorship again, the style of the first two books has come back. I was glad for its return, and it's accompanied by a decent (but not perfect) game design which integrates some of the more challenging gameplay mechanisms introduced in the previous volume -- getting the right stuff in your inventory is vital (though not as pointlessly difficult), and the puzzles, while not terribly hard, are at least mostly non-trivial. It's not really an outstanding book, but it's a pleasant read, going by rather quickly but offering just enough challenge to be satisfying to complete.

My High Score - 5270

More reviews by Demian

As the others say, this isn't a tremendously amazing book, but it manages to at least be satisfying. Luigi's puns made me groan at times, but there were a couple genuinely amusing instances that made up for them. I've liked the allusion about a grocery cart falling down stairs since fifth grade.

Since it seems to be required for reviewing a Nintendo book around here...

My Final Score: 4570

More reviews by Fireguard

I did not like the ending to this book, because I found out that it is literally impossible to get a score below 4000 points. But anyway, the rest of the book itself is very enjoyable, particulary because of Clyde Bosco's triumphant return, so I laughed out loud more than a few times once again. The puzzles in here had a mediocre difficulty, and the first puzzle was pretty time-consuming for me. I really liked the environments the Mario Bros. went through. But, again, I did not like the flawed ending.

End Results:

High Score: 4470
Items Collected: Cowboy Boots
Noisemaker? Balloon?: No. No.
Tries: 1

More reviews by RyanThunder

[Rating: 0/10]
[Recommended? NO]

A contender for the weakest story/premise in the series, "Pipe Down!" never manages to take off, develop an identity of its own or try to overcome any of the series' flaws it falls into so easily. As elementary as the other Nintendo Adventure Books were, this gamebook bears very little resemblance to the source material and, quite rightfully, equally leaves Mario fans dumbfounded at the mockery that is this "adventure". Again, the story happens to be fairly underwhelming, as are the characters and writing style; the "helpful details" which were probably introduced to enrich the world depicted actually detract quickly from what little progress the work makes. It forgets the source material (How is the princess ninety-nine, I ask?) and forsakes common sense frequently, includes arbitrary and pointless puzzles just to fill up space, frequently includes uninspired and detracting sections, and never manages to avoid becoming a subpar entry that is too easy to win. Needless to say, the book tries to be compatible with many things it clearly shouldn't associate with.

As an "old-fashioned" Nintendo fan with standards to uphold I cannot recommend this book, not even as a historical timepiece to know once existed, part of the yet woefully inconsistent period in which it was written and published, catalogued not only in Nintendo's legacy but in that of child-oriented gamebooks as a whole. Really, though, with an underwhelming adventure like this... the not-so-creative series is begging for a GAME OVER. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart