Thank you to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this graphic novel. This is Magic School Bus mixed with a documentary on Video Game history. This art is beautiful, and the information is interesting to read about, however, I think that it is one that I would personally reread in small doses due to all of the facts coming at me since I know very little. Because of these points, I have to give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

It was cool seeing the different consoles and how video games got started and how they improved! I only grew up with the wii and nintendo ds as a kid.

"The age of Video Games" is an "immersive" adventure into the history of video games, meaning that the main characters get inside some of the games.

Overall, the story was fine, but there was a lot of back and forth with the timeline and as a result, the chronology is all over the place. For the most part, the story follows a chronological order through the decades, but every now and then, they kept going to the past to remind of a small fact, and that made the storyline all too confusing.


I liked the illustrations and the writers being inside of video games, but I think that it could've been a little more light-hearted and not as dense.

I feel horrible saying this, but this graphic novel was really dull. If I didn't recieve it as an ARC, I would have DNFd it. I did learn some fun facts that were new to me, but overall it was too much. Visually, the graphics were really cute and well done! I found the story to be so focused on telling us EVERYTHING the authors knew about video games and forgetting that it also has to be interesting. The information is so dense that even an avid gamer, like myself, felt checked out.

This book covers the history of video games combined with fantasy. I loved how the art captured the essence of gaming and I was surprised to find this humorous at times. As a graphic novel, it was easy to read and understand, though there were some slang which made it challenging at times but it was still a fun read. I would definitely recommend this to gamers.

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced copy. Opinions in this review are entirely my own.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this graphic novel

In this, we see the history of video games and we have the two authors in this graphic novel as the main characters with a small companion which is adorable, guiding us from the beginning to the modern-day breaking it down to be fun and not filling to over-consuming.

For me, this was a very enjoyable book to read giving over enough to understand what goes into the games u play depending on the reader this will depend on what you get from this because I love learning about gaming and graphics and much more and that helps me to enjoy the games I play more knowing this stuff.

I can see this being a good book for kids to read and becoming fascinated with gaming etc

Publishing date: 22.07.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

TLDR: A very dense and informative book following the history of video games. 3 stars

This is a very interesting book in the sense of the history, however ... It felt a bit like a chore.
In this book we follow two characters wading through the history of video games. One is a more modern and younger player, the other is an older and more retro gamer. These two interact a lot with each other and try to be funny, but it doesn't always land.

The artstyle is fine. Simple, but works. I feel no particular way about it.

Now to a few of my gripes. The history is presented in a pretty linear way to begin with where we start from the very beginning and moving up through the years. Then suddenly, we get a chapter that moves back in time. This was a little jarring and made me lose track of when we were in the previous chapter. This keeps happening several times and took me out as much as the first time it happened. I believe the book would benefit more from a timeline structure instead of chapters tackling certain aspects of video game history. It would feel a little more streamlined and more accessible to readers. Right now, it is just a little too messy.

My other gripe is with the intended audience. While yes, this explains video games in a way that works for newbies, it is just a little too dense to keep their attention. For the more experienced audience (like myself) lots of the pages are dedicated to explaining and showing off more commonly known information. The density was also a problem for me. Just too big of a bite at a time.

Overall, this is very informative and works for the most part. But I find it a little hard to recommend to the right person. Streamline the content, pluck out the densest speaking bubbles into singular frames with the info, and you will have a more accessible read.
Giving this 3 stars for the potential.

It was a great graphic novel which unfolds the history of video games, and the features of each video game is very easy to understand.

thank you to Andrew McNeel publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this ARC.

If you are (1) in middle school doing a report on the historical significance of Video Games or (2) and adult who is VERY into video games already, I think this graphic novel is awesome for you. It is dense with information and clearly well-researched.

If you are a casual video game enthusiast or just find the history of technology interesting, this graphic novel is a bit of a slog. It is very dense and, despite video games often being brightly colored and visually interesting, the graphic novel colors tend on the side of browns and greens, making the book itself... not that visually interesting.

Furthermore, the premise (a person who knows a LOT about video games telling a person who doesn't know much about video games... about video games... with a quirky side kick), almost feels like a PBS show or Moby the Robot short.

There's a lot of good information here, and I liked how the the writer and illustrator made themselves characters and took the audience on an adventure through years of video games. I liked the art, and it's technically well written but I did find the timeline difficult to follow at times. I appreciated that the creators were self-aware and commented when it started to feel like a slog, but I feel like instead of commenting on it, they could have just worked out a way to make it a bit more interesting. I also disliked the way they sort of brushed past gamergate by bringing it up only to say it was bad but never really explaining what it was or how detrimental it was to women in gaming.

Overall, I think anyone who enjoys videogames and wants to learn more about them might enjoy this.

7.5
Funny and charming, yet educational. The reader joins the crazy ride through story of beloved industry from it's beginings unitl most recent mile stones. Powerhouses like Sony, Nintendo and cult classics like Mario, Fallout, StarCraft or even Pong - everything has it's place. The artwork is not fully up my alley, but it's stylized concept fits the narrative. Nice read for all video games' fans - regardless of their age.

This is a very comprehensive history of video games with fun illustrations that reference historic moments in video game history. While this was structured as a timeline, the narrative loops made it hard to get a clear sense of the progression. The audience was somewhat unclear: most of the time, it reads as if it were written for fans of video games, but occasionally it will define basic terms that even those unfamiliar with the topic will know. Overall, I recommend this for current fans of the medium looking to learn some fun facts for their next trivia night.

Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I couldn’t quite figure out the beginning of this graphic biography. It features an older man who is about my age, so peak Generation X, and the young 20-something illustrator. It turns out that the man is a professor and he’s teaching the artist all about the history of video games.

From Pong to The Oregon Trail to the early Atari and Nintendo console systems, I found the actual facts and history much more interesting than the weird subplot of the two characters traveling through time with what looks like a super soaker gun that blasts them through wormholes to different parts in time. The book was sometimes humorous but other times, the jokes fell flat on me like it was Dad humor.

The artwork is bright and colorful and may engage the younger reader who may not realize the depth and breadth of the history of video gaming, and how even though our generation grew up, we didn’t stop playing the games.

Several of the fonts this graphic novel utilizes are extremely hard to read and contributed to me not being able to finish the book. The writing lacks fluidity and a nuance, which is a shame because the information seems well researched. The illustrations are great and I believe with some writing tune ups this graphic novel would have better promise. I think the advantage an artists has to "show not tell" in a graphic novel should be examined and better incorporated here.

I can't see the words on this arc, very unfortunate so I will have to give this a 1 star due that. To specify the letters are literally not visible at all.

I recieved a digital ARC of this graphic novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for review.

This is a fun graphic novel where the artist and the writer go through an adventure through various points in history related to video games. The art is really lovely, and the book is packed with history and context for the changes throughout time. I think this would be a great graphic novel for someone interested in history. For me, it was perhaps too much history but I could see other people really enjoying this book.

The reason I picked up this book was the fact that I didn't know much about the history of video games and it seemed like a fun way to learn since I love graphic novels and I don't really read them as much as I would like to.

It didn't disappoint in the slightest. It was super easy to read and the illustrations are SO SO cute and well drawn. The story is a bit more on the informative side, which was precisely what I expected - it really did educate me about the history of video games and technology and how it all evolved during the last couple of decades, so I didn't mind.

I would absolutely recommend this to someone who wants to broaden their knowledge of this particular topic, but also to those who are already familiar with it, to see it in this format as well.

I would like to thank McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Informative, charming art, the writing isn't particularly engaging. A decent debut, not too likely to draw interest to anyone of anyone not already interested in the subject matter however.

This was such a fun and informative book. I really love the illustrations and the storyline accompanying the history of video games.

There were definitely some fun plot ideas here, but it ended up feeling more like a bunch of facts being rattled off with cute illustrations. That being said, I think this would make a great gift for someone really into video games or tech. The art is super cute and there are some genuinely interesting facts in there!💗

ARC — Thanks NetGalley!