I've been subbed to Stuart's channel for 10 years or so at the time of writing this review, and I was very surprised when he announced he was releasing a book years after releasing a film [Ashens and the Quest For The Gamechild]. It was a time in which it was very fashionable to ghost-write a book, have your name in big letters on the front and make a small profit out of it, yet he made it very clear that he wanted to write something about a thing that he's worryingly passionate about: tat. Also, videogames from the 80s. The result? A video-essay made by Stuart Clive Ashen that exists physically in the tangible world in the shape of a book.
It attempts to show everybody, but also making people his age be reminded of, and era in which videogames weren't all Pac-Man, Donkey Kong or even Pong and its millions of clones. Whether it was a legitimate inexperience in programming, absolute cash-grabbing scams or people whose lives seemingly revolved around releasing countless abominations to humanity in a cassette tape (yes, really), there are many, many examples of how children, with pocket money and very little information (if any) about games on the shelves, were often disappointed and/or misled by the awful art cover from 1980 to 1995.
It's full of his characteristic dry humour, it casts many screenshots of bizarre situations in the games and it has short reviews made by various personalities of the worst games of their childhoods. It is worth mentioning that it's been crowdfunded through Unbound. so it means that it wasn't made for the sake of having written "an book", rather it was giving something a genuine go and ask the public, or subscribers in his case, for their kind donations and make it for real.
In conclusion, it an absolute must-read for everybody who enjoys playing videogames no matter how casually or often they do. It's been written by a very funny bloke who reviews stuff in front of a cut-down brown sofa, sitting down with his enormous hands holding whatever he's bought on Poundland, exceedingly out-of-date food or recording a Christmas/Easter/Halloween special. What could possibly go right.
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Top reviews from other countries
Felipe
It's like an Ashens' video without his massive hands and the sofa
Reviewed in the United States on 16 September 2023Verified Purchase
Azeus
It's Ashens!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 January 2024Verified Purchase
Nathan Merico
Kann man spielen, muss man nicht
Reviewed in Germany on 11 February 2021Verified Purchase
If you like Ashens, you’ll like this book
Reviewed in Brazil on 29 October 2019Verified Purchase
Luke Ward
Great short read
Reviewed in Canada on 6 February 2019Verified Purchase
