Some say that video games are a waste of time, while others believe that video games help in the development of the mind. Ben Bertoli’s 101 Video Games to Play Before You Grow Up shows exactly in which category video games fall and thankfully, it’s in the latter, sending the waste of time theory out of the park.

Without video games, we wouldn’t have Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Pokémon, or even FIFA; had there been no video game revolution, people would have been still playing board games and that world would have been sad. What this book does is come up with 97 more video games that you must all play before becoming an adult, or in simpler words, before you grow up.

Divided into six sections — Platformer, Action & Adventure, Sports & Fighting, Role-playing & Strategy, Puzzle & Arcade, and Party & Rhythm — this book markets itself as the unofficial must-play video game list for kids and fulfils the promise in an excellent manner. What it does besides giving the readers 101 reasons to follow their passion for video games is to educate them about a world some knew and others had no idea about. It reveals the method behind the madness that has consumed generations, kept them away from bad habits, and even explains why they are still around despite technological advancements.

Every game in this book gets a full-page description (some even get double pages) where everything from its inception to reception, genre, debut year and creator, as well as its rating are mentioned, followed by a never-before read or heard fun fact, accompanied by an illustration by Spencer Wilson.

Once you are through this book, you will realise that Tetris helps the mind in the same way as outdoor games nurture the body; Final Fantasy makes you understand things from a different perspective; whereas The Donkey King tells you the importance of many things, especially hand-eye coordination.

Don’t be surprised to read that Sonic the Hedgehog was created by rival company SEGA to counter the rise of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros., that Street Fighter had a bug that made players land hits directly after the first attack, and that had it not been for Satoshi Tajiri’s childhood obsession for collecting bugs, he might not have been able to create Pokémon. Add to that a reference section with each game, and you get to know the name of those games that might interest you for being similar to the current game.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 29th, 2023