There was a time when the specter of the uncle who worked at Nintendo haunted every recess period in the United States. I first heard him in the pickup spot where parents would pick up their kids after school. The same place where I borrowed a Gameshark for the GBC. The same place where I left my copy of Expert Gamer with the Pokemon Stadium strategy guide.

Some kid’s uncle worked for Nintendo and that’s why he had all sorts of superpowerful Pokemon and knew about all the games that were going to come out. Some of those games came out. Some of them never existed.

Now we have a game by Michael Lutz (with illustrations by Kim Parker) called “The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo” who takes that recess-and-after-school phantom and puts you in his world.