100 Best Video Games

by Nate Crowley

THE WORLD'S FIRST POST-TRUTH GAMING BOOK

After rashly tweeting he would dream up an imaginary computer game for every 'like' received, Nate Crowley found himself on an epic quest to conjure up hundreds of entirely fictional titles. From 1980s hits like BeastEnders to modern classics like 90s Goth Soccer and BinCrab Destiny, this beautiful retrospective takes the reader on a lavish tour of the most memorable and groundbreaking games never made.

Brought to hilarious life by a team of genuine videogame industry concept artists and written by a professional over-imaginer, this book doesn't just throw out silly ideas - it expands on them in relentless, excruciating detail.

Genres: Games, Video Games, Fiction

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 7, 2017

About the author

Nate Crowley is an author, interactive fiction consultant, video games journalist, and public speaker.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just a collection of hilariously absurd game concepts - thought it works flawlessly on that level too - but an entire alternate history of gaming, from a world which, when you think about it, is hardly dafter than our own. Why shouldn't Nintendo's mascot be mute, belligerent diver Seapuncher, rather than a portly plumber with a mushroom habit? As knock-offs of or follow-ups to Pokemon, are Slugterra or that Magikarp game any less strange than Bincrab Destiny? Like Chris Morris or Charlie Brooker, Crowley knows just how to put together a sentence which is apparently almost normal, but subtly wrong in exactly the right way to have me in hysterics at least once every 12 pages*. And that despite the fact I started reading it the day after losing a parent (something I suspect even the sick mind behind Daniel Barker's birthday and Schneider Wrack would be wary of using as an endorsement quote, but really, can you think of higher praise for a comedy book?). My only quibble is with the title, which should really have been something more like '100 Most Important', because several entries here - particularly Lizard Designer Pro: Millennium Edition - cover acknowledged stinkers.

*The chunks in which I read this, and I wouldn't recommend any more at one sitting, not least because at least once I could no longer breathe properly from the laughing.

[Alasdair Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nate Craoley is quietly relentless. Not content with the magnificent, benthic zombie horror of Schneider Wrack, he’s also now produced this deep dive into the world of computer games that never existed, but, maybe, should have.

It would have been very difficult to produce a book this funny, inventive and weird and just have it be a listing of fake computer games. Nate has done this, and made it look easy. You can open this book to any page and find a detailed, elaborate and massively funny examination of a game that’s ALMOST one you played. I never owned Jaguar Exsanguination Tycoon for example but I’m sure I went to school with someone who did...

But the book is so much more than that. It’s also a detailed, richly linked continuity of an alternate history of video gaming. It’s a world that’s so close to yours you can touch it, but in some game’s cases, you’re probably happy you can’t. It’s a salute to video games and video game culture that’s intensely funny while never poking fun at the field. This is a book about how great video games are, by someone who loves them.

It’s also a book about Regency ogres duelling to the death and if that isn’t a recommendation, I genuinely don’t know what is. Screamingly funny, endlessly inventive and unlike anything else you’ll read this year. Read it. And get ready t be humming the Sally Longnose theme tune when you’re done.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the "Best" in the title seems...questionable even by the book's own internal logic, you can't argue that the selections aren't entertaining. From the titles (e.g. Dance Dance Industrial Revolution or War, on Drugs) to the genre descriptions (e.g. for Wasp Getter 6 the genre is "Wasps / Getting", for Bread: The Game it's "Roll-Playing Game," a pun so elegant that it left me stunned for for several minutes) to the mostly* impressively well-rendered concept art to the actual descriptions of the games themselves (which also build out the world of the alternate universe in which these games exist), there's just so much to love.

And honestly, there are games in here the I could see actually existing, and some that I would even want to play. Gorillionaire, about a woman who, any time she climbs out of debt, transforms into a gorilla and goes on a spending spree, seems like it would fit right into the "weird indie action game" market. And the incredibly-named First Person Shooter sounds like a legitimately interesting time travel narrative and an innovative take on Far Cry-esque open world survival shooters.

Also, it should be noted that you're really getting bang for your buck, because there are lists of honorable mentions every 5 entries, so there are actually over 200 games in here.






*I say mostly because there are several notable examples, such as Monopoly: Aftermath, where the concept art leaves out or even directly contradicts key elements of the game's description.

[Dean Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of satire and comedy. I'm really keen on alternate realities and 'What if...?' fiction. I do enjoy video games. Have always been interested in anthropological analysis, and the history and developments of modern cultures. If you'd told me a year ago that there would soon be a book that combines all of these things in one incredibly satisfying volume, I'd have thought you'd lost it. But, here we are nonetheless. 100BVG(TNE) is a brilliant read, easy to pick up and put down at your leisure but consistent and developed enough to be consumed in one sitting. I keep going back over it, looking for asides or random nuggets I may have missed, and even finding myself suddenly and bitterly disappointed when I'm describing a particularly memorable entry to friends only to remember that the game in question doesn't exist. This book is as satisfying and fun as many of the games it includes purport to be.

There's arguably no logical reason for this book to exist, but that only serves to make the fact that it does anyway even more satisfying.

[Pete Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riotous and ridiculous fun. This book sprang from a legendary 1000-post twitter thread, and many of the best (by which I mean most absurd or horrifying) game concepts on that thread became enshrined as the titular 100, each having a 2-page spread with artwork and detailed sometimes very dark commentary.

In between groups of these, there are collections of lesser games with shorter descriptions. There is also an article on the entire sub-genre of Jason Statham games, and a footnote on the puzzling lack of games featuring Grond, the flaming orcish battering-ram from Lord of the Rings.

I laughed aloud in at least 3 places, which I don't often do, and also experienced a wistful sense of almost-nostalgia for an alternate golden age of computer gaming that should have existed instead of the one we ended up with.

I honestly hope that after our civilisation is destroyed, a copy of this book will be found and taken to be a historical document, because we *are* that absurd, but not as much fun.

Oh, and buying this book will also fund a charity to help endangered amphibians. Really.

[Ian Mathers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had surgery earlier this year (I'm fine! let's blame that for how bad I've been at keeping up with reviewing), and I'd heard about this book and decided on a whim to order it to have something low-impact, easy to read in fits and starts, for when I was recovering. I actually didn't get around to it until I was about to go back to work, but that made this no less of a delight to read. Some of the jokes/reference are pretty UK-centric but I think I got most of them, and really video game knowledge is going to be a bigger deal here than that; if you have some grounding there, this is some really specific and often hilarious satire. There's a surprisingly coherent alternate history here for something that relishes going as over-the-top as it does, and Crowley has a great ear for both marketing and video game review voices. Looking forward to re-reading this some day, which I didn't necessarily expect.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

100 absurd video game concepts! Brilliant! Comedy!

Except the author runs out of ideas and starts to repeat them frequently, the book is so terminally British that even a committed anglophile like me had no idea what the jokes were supposed to be. The 8-bit mockups are fine, but the art for anything after the 90s is pretty lame.

A few chuckles, and a lot of disappointment.

[Katsuro · Rating 5 out of 5]

The concept of this book is pretty brilliant. Make up 100 fictional video games, and write an article about each and every one of them, including a screenshot. Naturally, that requires a writer who's got the skills to make it sound real, writing about the games as if they were real, existing creations with bugs, good and bad features, reviews, etc. And Nate Crowley has the skills. Mad skills.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wept with laughter more times than I can count. The parody in this book is done with such clever observance and clear affection for the subject matter. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone with a sense of humour!

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for consumption from front to back, but if read a few pages at a time, this is great. Consistently funny, illustrating just how weird game ideas have to be to differentiate them from the weird crap that actually gets made into games. Also, I'd really like to play Seapuncher.

[Ruth Collier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can pretty much guarantee you have never read a book like this before. Top-notch commitment to a Twitter joke that got out of hand, with fantastic puns, concept art and commentary on society all the way through

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts of well, but does seem to go down hill after the 90s . Worth a read , but don't expect lasting appeal.

[Richard Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Amongst the clever and stupid and everything in between gags are some incredible ideas and games that could have been amazing had they existed.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of imagination and humour and an homage to Old Skool video games.

I keep dipping in and out of this, months later.

[Jaakko Vasankari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Games that don't exist but should

Maybe the first post-truth book about games. Based on 1 like = fictional game -genre that hopefully will continue to be a thing.