The Video Game Library Newsletter - Vol. #043

A world tour of book releases this week, across nearly a dozen languages

Welcome back to The Video Game Library Newsletter!

We’ve covered over 200 books so far in 2026, which is pretty insane. Easily the biggest start to a year yet, and I’m losing track of the books on the horizon! I hope you’ve all been enjoying the global coverage of these weekly releases. Our subscription count has just blown past 3,000, so I have a good feeling you are! A sincere Thank You for the amazing support.

This week is a great snapshot of how dynamic the global publishing landscape is. On top of the usual English releases, we have releases in French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Greek, Turkish, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Manga and magazines make up most of the news, but there’s also a few fun books to call out.

And it’s another huge week in volunteer contributions. Stay tuned below to learn what the crew have been up to. Remember, we’re still looking for 1 more dedicated volunteer!

So, no matter where you are in the world, grab your drink of choice and let’s dive in!

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📰 News & Highlights

• IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog #85 arrived on March 11, with Ian Flynn and Evan Stanley sharing script duties and Min Ho Kim on interior art. And of course, our local Sonic guru, Stephen, was quick to get it catalogued on the site. This issue pushes the current Metal Sonic thread forward by trapping Sonic, Belle, Motobud, and Sage in a zone where someone has been repurposing stolen Eggman technology.

  

• The English release of Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Manga – Book of Scarabia, Vol. 1 brings the next arc of the Disney mobile game adaptation into paperback. Yana Toboso is credited alongside MAJIKO!, and the 184-page volume keeps following Yu’s misadventures at Night Raven College after the earlier Heartslabyul books.

  

• Minecraft: The Manga, Vol. 5 has now joined VIZ’s English lineup as a 184-page paperback by Kazuyoshi Seto. This time Nico and his party finally make it into the Nether, so the new volume shifts from the series’ early wanderlust into a more hostile stretch of the journey.

  

• Retro Gamer Magazine #283 is out this week, and is a celebration of the evolution of God of War. Fitting, considering all the news we just got about the upcoming remake of the original trilogy. Readers will also be treated to a guide to Pnazer Dragoon, and an R-Type III: The Third Lightning feature.

  

• Congratulations to Fusion Retro Books for their successful Kickstarter of Ocean: The History Gold Edition. Originally published in 2013, this “Gold Edition” hardback book has over 40 memoirs from those who worked at Ocean thus giving a unique insight into what it was like working for one of the largest software houses in the 80s and 90s.

  

• And speaking of Kickstarters, CONTINUE: A Defiant, New Videogames Magazine has just launched. This Australian print magazine brings together journalists, developers and artists with a focus on Australian games and Australian developers. Definitely has the feel of A Profound Waste of Time, and I’m very intrigued!

  

• Also need to shout out Debug #14 which just arrived on March 14. Vince Pavey dives into Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth with the team at Hyper Games as the feature, alongside new, previews, interviews, art spotlights and more on creative indie titles. Expect appearances from Mewgenics, Cairn, and Into the Grid.

  

• Video Games and Mental Health: Perspectives of Psychology and Game Design is one of the week’s more academic arrivals, published in paperback by transcript. Edited by Federico Alvarez Igarzábal, Emmanuel Guardiola, Carmen Johann, and Katharina Tillmanns, the 228-page collection looks at games and mental health through both psychological and design perspectives rather than treating the subject from only one side.

  

• Cult of the Lamb Vol. 1: The First Verse has now appeared in French as Cult of the Lamb: Premier verset. The edition is credited to Alex Paknadel and published by Komics Initiative, carrying over the comic’s take on the Lamb’s resurrection and the rise of a new cult from the game’s Old Faith setup.

  

• Revista Loading is back in Spain after a 26-year absence, with the relaunch making its first public appearance at Retro Parla through Game Press. Details on the new issue still seem fairly tight, but even in preview form its return matters as the revival of a long-dormant independent Spanish video game magazine rather than a one-off nostalgia stunt.

  

• Game Press also started handing out early copies of Memorias de Game Boy at Retro Parla ahead of its formal release. A nostalgic deep dive into the Game Boy, the handheld that changed gaming forever. With 120+ game reviews and 800+ images, Game Boy Memories celebrates the console, its history, and the generation it defined. The hardcover book runs 228 pages with Sergio Martín, Enrique Luque, Daniel Acal, and Miguel Ángel Sánchez credited as authors

  

• And finally in Spanish news, GTM has revealed the first of (likely 3) covers for their April issue. Saros from Housemarque graces the cover.

  

• Missed this one in last week’s newsletter, but looks like Keza MacDonald’s Super Nintendo has also reached Italy through TEA, in a translation by Elena Ravera titled “Nintendo. La storia. Da Super Mario a Zelda ai Pokémon”.

  

• Star Comics has published Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai 12 in Italian, continuing the long-running manga by Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada with Yuji Horii credited on the original work. The volume is a chunky one at 320 pages, and its plot moves the armies of the human kingdoms toward the Deadlands while Avan’s disciples prepare for the decisive battle.

  

• Dutch readers have picked up Pokémon eerste leespret – De eerste schooldag van Liko, a 32-page hardcover from Centrale Uitgeverij Deltas. It adapts Liko’s first day at Indigo Academy, where the pendant she carries draws unwanted attention before she has even settled into school life.

  

• A second Dutch beginner-reader Pokémon title followed right behind it with Pokémon eerste leespret – Waar is Terapagos? Also published by Centrale Uitgeverij Deltas as a 32-pager, it centers on Terapagos wandering around the airship and getting into danger while Liko tries to track the little Pokémon down.

  

• And rounding out the Dutch news, Power Unlimited Magazine #370 is out this past week, complete with a whole new logo. The cover story is a celebration of Rayman’s 30th anniversary, featuring discussions with Ubisoft and Digital Eclipse for their upcoming remastered compilation.

  

• Greek readers got a treat with Sonic the Hedgehog: Σούπερ Αποστολές this week from Anubis. It is a 30-page activities book translated by Christos Tselios, so this one sits in the puzzle-and-games corner of Sonic publishing rather than comics or prose fiction.

  

• Turkey’s latest Minecraft translation is Minecraft - Yabancı, the Turkish edition of Danica Davidson’s official novel Minecraft: The Outsider. Listings give it 248 pages and name XLibris as the publisher, continuing the steady overseas rollout of the Minecraft books.

  

• Sweden’s Tomus 100 bästa Robloxspel is a neatly specific kind of kids’ game book: Tomu and Yumi’s pick list of 100 Roblox games, published by Bonnier Carlsen with illustrations by Gustaf Lord. The 80-page volume ranges across obbys, tycoons, building worlds, minigames, and role-playing titles.

  

• Taiwan got a double Minecraft manga release this week with Minecraft漫畫: 探索世界的盡頭 8 and 9 from Sharp Point Press. Both books are credited to Kazuyoshi Seto, translated by Lin Ke-hong and Hong Wei-yue, and published on March 10; volume 8 pushes toward the Ender Dragon showdown, while volume 9 begins a new arc after that first major peak.

  

• Korea has now received an official edition of Touhou’s Whispered Oracle of Hakurei Shrine as 동방환존신첨. YES24 lists ZUN as author, Moon Seong-ho as translator, and AK Communications as publisher, with the Korean release also carrying first-print extras including an illustration card and bookmark.

  

• Korean magazine GamerZ is back for March 2026 with another very guide-heavy issue. YES24 lists the issue at 448 pages, and the contents call out coverage for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, Nioh 3, Dispatch, Pokémon Legends Z-A, and Arknights: Endfield, plus a feature on Crimson Desert.

  

• Koei Tecmo’s Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake launched in Japan with a Special Collection Box that includes more than the game itself. The set packs in an official setting-materials collection and a newly written novel, The Secret Festival Records of Minakami Village / The Forest Where the Promise Vanished, which gives collectors an unusually lore-focused bonus item.

  

• Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko’s latest Kirby novel is Kirby and the Forgotten Land: The Starlit Meteor World Arc, a March 11 Japanese release tied to Star-Crossed World. The setup sends Kirby into a New World being crystallized by the falling “Dark Star,” making this one a novelization built around the new meteor-focused scenario rather than the base game alone.

  

• The Battle Cats: The Nyanko World You Might Not Know has arrived in Japan as a Kadokawa Game Mook, and it sounds exactly like the sort of fan-book oddity the series thrives on. At 80 pages, it mixes behind-the-scenes material with a strategy section called the “Battle Sure-Win Handbook,” and it also includes an oversized height-chart poster.

  

• This week’s Famitsu, No. 1939 dated March 26, 2026, runs 208 pages and leads with two substantial anniversary features. The first celebrates Granblue Fantasy’s 12th anniversary with a main-quest catch-up, producer interview, and a 4,700-player survey, while the second marks Nihon Falcom’s 45th year with new looks at Trails in the Sky the 2nd and Kyoto Xanadu plus an interview with president Toshihiro Kondo.

  

• B’s-LOG HEAVEN フェティシズムの虜 is a new digital-only magazine from KADOKAWA Game Linkage, and its first issue is very clearly pitched at an adult audience. The launch theme is “fetishism,” the magazine is explicitly marked R-18, and the debut issue includes original illustrations and short stories, with Nu: Carnival getting a 16-page lead feature.

  

• Comptiq’s April 2026 issue leans hard into Uma Musume Pretty Derby for the game’s fifth anniversary. Kadokawa lists the issue at 292 pages, and its marquee extras include a retrospective on the game’s first five years, an interview with Kaori Ishihara as Almond Eye, and a special clear poster of the character.

  

• The new TV Game Magazine - Mario Kart Arcade Grand Prix Deluxe is a strategy mook for arcade players. It comes with three major bonuses: a DVD demonstrating techniques such as Dragon Drift, a 100-page data booklet covering characters, karts, and item effects, and special codes for the Hamburger kart and an Omoshiro Pack.

Did I miss something cool? Want to see this laid out differently?
Drop it in the comments or swing by our Discord to share it with the community.

Let’s keep this celebration of game-inspired books going strong!

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📚 Behind the Shelves

Every week, I take you behind the scenes of The Video Game Library. From surprising discoveries to cataloguing challenges, there’s always something new as we dig deeper into this ever-expanding archive of game-related literature.

I continue to be blown away by the amazing work of the volunteer crew here at The Video Game Library. Every morning I wake up…new books! Every lunch break I check….new books! Every evening before bed…new books! These guys have been amazing, and I’m really loving how every day we’re getting closer to a complete catalogue of EVERY VIDEO GAME BOOK!

Nathanial has been working through the Pokémon X•Y manga this week, wrapping up all 12 volumes. Minecraft is easily the frontrunner for most books on the site, but between Nathanial and Geneviève, I think Pokémon is getting pretty close!

Alex continues to find Devil May Cry books that I overlooked, and this trilogy of comics from Dreamwave is a perfect example, newly added this week. Some of the alternate covers are very cool as well.

Fran and Rex are absolutely killing it in the Game Guides department, knocking out over a dozen more Prima books this week. Information on some of these is so hard to come by, and I get so excited every time I see more of them grace the library.

We’ll be through the IDW collection of Sonic comics in no time, and that’ll be entirely thanks to Stephen. Another 8 issues down, getting into some of the great Knuckles issues.

Another Persona manga run in the books, thanks to Fallon! Not sure why I procrastinated on these for so long, but feeling good about finally getting them on the site.

You figure after 4 years of research, we would have found all the CRC Press books by now. But Tommy continues to discover more each and every week. Here are the latest 4 he’s added to the site.

And finally, Jamie has been an absolute champion of the Dragon Quest manga series, finishing up all 25 volumes of the Adventure of Dai run. So many more to go, but having these catalogued really helps since they are consistently getting localizations in other languages.

Reminder, that I’m still looking for 1 final volunteers who can commit time and help us catalogue each and every week! If that’s you, reach out!

This, as usual, is only a small sample of all the things that have been happening behind the scenes, so take a peek at the site to see everything that’s been added since last week! And while you’re at it, drop your thoughts in the comments below. Your feedback helps shape how we deliver these looks behind the curtain.

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💡 Book Spotlights

Every week I like to zoom in on a few standout books from the collection. Sometimes it’s brand new releases, other times it’s older gems that deserve more love.

If you’re looking for deeper dives and not just quick headlines, check out some of these past spotlights:

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🙏 THANK YOU for Reading

That’s a wrap for this week’s Newsletter. I hope you discovered something new, surprising, or just plain fun.

As always, your feedback helps shape this project - so don’t be shy! Drop a comment below, join the conversation on Discord, or just reply to this newsletter and share your thoughts.

And if you’re enjoying these weekly roundups, please consider supporting The Video Game Library with a paid subscription or forwarding this to a fellow fan. Every little bit helps us keep preserving and celebrating these incredible works - and the passionate people behind them.

Until next week — happy reading,
Dean (Founder, The Video Game Library)