All Games Are Good

by Stuart Gipp

What makes a game good? A compelling storyline, perhaps. Intuitive, responsive controls are a stand-out quality. But now (at last!) one man dares to stand up and speak truth to power—all he wants is to jump on frogs and collect colorful fruit. This edifying, entertaining and occasionally emotional rummage through a lifetime spent playing all the wrong games should last the test of time as a chronicle of the under-appreciated and over-criticized games that nobody else writes about. Open your heart, eyes, mind, and wallet, and you too will understand that All Games Are Good.

Genres: Gaming

412 pages, Paperback

Published October 25, 2023

Reviews

[Lewis Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well it's finally happened - someone wrote the perfect book about video games, and that someone is Stuart Gipp. Video game reads are often informative and very dry which is at great odds with a medium that is supposedly about entertaining its audience. Gipp writes about games with such wonderfully evocative imagery and humour, and he doesn't waste time explaining a game's plot or controls like a lot of games writing. He gets straight to a game's discerning elements and has a wonderful knack for describing what makes the experience so special. And it's all really, really funny. I've demanded a video game read like this for so long - something full of character that actually makes you want to go and play a load of video games after reading it, and this book is exactly that. I think it would be very easy to read this and come away with a list of games you'd never heard of that you now want to try, and that's exactly what a video game book should strive to achieve. Essential stuff for anyone who likes a good video game or two.

[Luke John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up on the recommendation of a friend, who described it as "a book about games that nobody writes about". Whilst perhaps a little off the mark as descriptions go (massive triple A franchises are also covered in the book), it was certainly close enough for me to repeat it here. The book covers a range of games from the microcomputers of the 80s all the way through to modern platforms, with the author sprinkling autobiographical elements throughout, often self deprecating and always humorous. Their love of the medium is unapologetic, avoiding the usual snide negativity that sometimes seems part and parcel of videogame criticism, and finding things to love in even the most broken and unfair of games. This was the stuff I loved in this book. As someone who spent around 6 months as a child with a brand new SNES and only Marko's Magic Football and The Lawnmower Man to play, both purchased by my well meaning but horribly lacking in videogame knowledge mum, I know well the search for joy in 2nd/3rd/4th/etc tier games. I genuinely loved this book and am looking forward to seeing what the writer does next.

Marko's Magic Football is terrible, by the way, but I got pretty good at The Lawnmower Man...

[EgoOrb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Backlog just keeps getting bigger.