Today was a good day! I opened the mail to find a copy of “The Video Game Adventures of Monte McGnarly.” The author, George Giese, sent us a copy to check out and review. I’ve been waiting patiently each day hoping the mail man would bring it in, and it has finally arrived!
The Video Game Adventures of Monte McGnarly are the tales of ten year old Monte McGnarly who receives a magical cowboy hat from a garage sale. What makes this hat magical? It has the power to put Monte inside video games! What kid (or adult) wouldn’t want to have a hat like that?
I remember being in fourth grade elementary school when Mario Kart 64 came out for the Nintendo 64. I would lay in bed at night hoping that I would have dreams that would put me at the wheel of a go-kart facing off against Mario and Yoshi. All this to say – Monte McGnarly is living the gamer’s dream.
In The Video Game Adventures of Monte McGnarly, Monte visits the video game worlds of The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Paper Boy, Star Fox, and more. Each chapter is a throwback to video games of old as Monte competes, fights, and explores. Personally – I was a big fan of the NBA Jam chapter. I had forgotten all about that game until Monte’s travels reminded me! Monte faces off against another team in the basketball world of NBA Jam making slam dunks and scoring shots that are “nothing but net.” By the end of the chapter all I wanted to do was fire up my Sega Genesis and play some NBA Jam.
For us older gamers, the book is fun to reminiscence on many of the older classic games that we used to play in our younger days. The book would make a good companion piece if you wanted to introduce younger gamers to the classics. You could play the classic games with a younger gamer as an introduction, and then read the corresponding McGnarly tale.
The prose is lyrical and fun, and I enjoyed reading this book. You can check out more reviews and purchase The Video Game Adventures of Monte McGnarly at Amazon (click here). It’s a fun treat for gamers of all ages.
If you’re looking for more video game related books you can check out our comprehensive list of 35 great video game books!
