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The story of Nintendo's rise and the beloved icon who made it possible

Nintendo has continually set the standard for video game innovation in America, starting in 1981 with a plucky hero who jumped over barrels to save a girl from an ape.

The saga of Mario, the portly plumber who became the most successful franchise in the history of gaming, has plot twists worthy of a video game. Jeff Ryan shares the story of how this quintessentially Japanese company found success in the American market. Lawsuits, Hollywood, die-hard fans, and face-offs with Sony and Microsoft are all part of the drama. Find out about

-Mario's eccentric yet brilliant creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, who was tapped for the job because he was considered expendable;

-Minoru Arakawa, the son-in-law of Nintendo's imperious president, who bumbled his way to success; and

-The unexpected approach that allowed Nintendo to reinvent itself as the gaming system for the nongamer, especially now with the Wii.

Even those who can't tell a Koopa from a Goomba will find this a fascinating story of striving, comeuppance, and redemption.

Jeff Ryan, a lifelong gamer, has been featured in Salon and on NPR's All Things Considered. He reviewed over five hundred video games and covered four console launches as the games editor for Katrillion, a popular dot-com-era news and entertainment website. He lives in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Ray Porter is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator and fifteen-year veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Almost Famous, ER, and Frasier.