Nintendo Magic is a book that has a distinct Japanese quality about it. The attitude taken is far from objective, and even downright gushing at times. It looks mostly at Nintendo as a company and business, and spends its time describing the key players of such.
The book consists of eight chapters plus a prologue and epilogue, making it a fairly short read at roughly 200 pages. It is well translated and was written at the height of the Wii and DS bubble, which casts an extremely favorable light on its leaders. It begins by describing the ascension of Wii after the poor showing of the Game Cube, and the process and ideas behind it and the DS. Later the book backtracks to capture some history on Nintendo, focusing mostly on Gunpei Yokoi, his design philosophy, and the Game & Watch. It also spends a chapter giving an overview of Nintendo history from the beginning. Then the book wraps up by coming back to recent happenings and spends a moment discussing the only competitor really mentioned in depth in the book, Apple.
What I enjoyed most about this book is that the author actually got to interview Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, and even Hiroshi Yamauchi. While not heavy with quotes, it does give an intersting look inside that I have yet to see in any other books on Nintendo of Japan. There are even excerpts used from Gunpei Yokoi's book, which is still unavailable in English but has a French translation.
Being a business profile, Nintendo Magic includes the numbers and stats, but also manages to put together a very interesting narrative. For any Nintendo fan, I can't recommend this book enough. For those that aren't, it is still an insightful profile of one of the biggest players in the industry.
Nintendo Magic: Winning the Videogame Wars by Osamu Inoue
ISBN 978-1-934287-22-4