Member Reviews
A super fun adventure game in the form of a book.
It really encompasses everything from Deadpool's signature sarcasm to Marvel lore, all in the form of a choose-your-own-adventure style book that also includes some dice, stats, and inventory elements (but more on that in the book's introductions, which you really should read!).
I "played" through some parts twice and still think there is more to discover in this book! I also think "You Are (Not) Deadpool" would be a fun game/book to play/read as a group at a game night or as an interactive element for a book club.
As a child, one of my favorite things to do was to read Choose Your Own Adventure books. I loved being able to be a part of the story, and make decisions that impacted what happened next. I only cheated a little, I promise. You Are (Not) Deadpool is a love letter to those books of my childhood. Tim Dedopulos has taken the interactive element of those CYOA books to new heights.
In order to read/play, you need a dice, and a place to keep notes. I read this on my kindle, and used a digital dice and notepad on my phone. While a physical copy may be easier to navigate, I found jumping around pages on my kindle seamless enough that it did not affect my enjoyment one bit. What’s also really nice about this style of book is that it does have some light roleplay elements to it, but it’s super rules light, and accessible to someone who has never played a role playing game before. As someone who plays Dungeons and Dragons weekly, I found the experience of being Deadpool’s newest assistant exhilarating.
#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review
This book book was given to me by Aconytebooks and NetGallery in exchange for honest review. All opinions are my own.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL
Can I just say what a fun read/adventure this book was? You Are (Not) Deadpool by Tim Dedopulos was this amazing mix of Deadpool snark and Marvel lore combined with classic choose-your-own-adventure style and dice/chance elements.
Did you ever read choose your own adventure books? I definitely did (I even had a Goosebumps one that I read so many times some of the pages started falling out). Well, You Are (Not) Deadpool is billed as an "adventure gamebook," but the premise is the same. As you progress through the story, you help Deadpool try and save the world from Centauri weapons through a combination of puzzles, dice rolling, and the attributes you've built up over game play. Every answer takes readers to a different page and onto a different plot. When I first read these types of books, they weren't digital so it was really cool to see the same premise taken into the modern age and ebooks. Rather than flipping through to the correct next page and maybe accidentally seeing a page or plot point I wasn't supposed to see yet, the ebook version is automatically linked to the correct page making it very easy to stay on the right path.
I thought Dedopulos did an excellent job at keeping Deadpool user friendly (since the reader is playing through the adventure with Deadpool, too many obscure Deadpool references would have only taken readers out of the story) while also injecting all the wit, sarcasm, and devil-may-care attitude that Deadpool is known for.
Deadpool was truly the perfect character for a Marvel gamebook. A character known for breaking the fourth wall both in the comics and on the big screen, it was completely in character for Deadpool to spend so much time in You Are (Not) Deadpool talking directly to the reader and even relying on your opinion and knowledge throughout the story.
What I love most about these kinds of books is the fact that you can read them many, many times and read a different story each time. I read through You Are (Not) Deadpool three different times and ended up with three vastly different Deadpool adventures. This book is hours of entertainment featuring the Merc with the Mouth, and I know I have many more adventures to go with this book.
There are some roleplaying game elements in this adventure; readers do need to keep track of base stats as well as any attributes you pick up along the way. Readers will also need a set of dice in order to determine outcomes throughout the story. I kept my game play 100% digital with the use of a a note app on my phone and a pair of virtual dice.
Overall, You Are (Not) Deadpool was all around entertaining whether you are a Deadpool fan or not. I would say having some prior Deadpool knowledge is helpful in terms of full entertainment value of this book, but any Marvel fan looking to relive the excitement of choose your own adventure books will definitely want to pick this title up.
Thank you to Netgalley and Aconyte books for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Aaaah this book is SO fun! I had such a blast playing this - with all the stats, the inventories, rolling dye, I felt like I was playing a DnD game. It makes for a really fun and immersive experience, and it’s something I’m definitely going to play multiple times. Honestly I’m pretty sure I didn’t get all the endings (the one crit I have for this book, at least with an ebook, is that I had a hard time keeping track of how many endings I was hitting, and didn’t know how many endings there were) but that’ll be great for when I play this again. Honestly it was more of a game it felt, over a book, and I find that super fun.
The humor was also delightful and in-line with Deadpool, and I had such a blast with this. I usually expect an easy fun time with choose your own adventures but this genuinely exceeded my expectations with how you get to do the adventure here.
#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review
Disclaimer/Legals:
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL
You Are (Not) Deadpool is a choose your own adventure book unlike any other I’ve read so far. It doesn’t only give you choices on how to continue the story but also has you roll a dice, pick up objects, and other things, making this an even more fun and immersive experience than I'd expected. Plus it’s also just really funny because the author captured what I’m going to call the ‘Deadpool-humour’ perfectly. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes Deadpool and/or Marvel in general, trust me, you’ll not regret it.
Please Note. If the title you are reviewing is from the Aconyte & Marvel range you MUST use the following hashtags on online reviews #Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review and mention that the book was given to you for an honest review. As it was – let's face it, it was either me or Daredevil.
Failure to do this will result in you no longer being able to acquire Marvel titles from Aconyte Books for review.
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Over the last few years the 'choose your own adventure'-styled books I've seen to review have been of the more junior kind, where it's very hard to worry that your character has been killed off – the end scenes are anaemic and the chances you yourself as a reader/character have failed are slim. This is more mature – well, in some respects anyway. Certainly you have more to try and keep track of, with a starting score for three attributes, a story that lets you gain more (especially CHAOS, there's lots of CHAOS if you follow the right paths), an inventory that can only reach five items before you have to scrub or use one, and places where dice impact on the story in different ways compared to how mercenary, persuasive or battle-hungry you may be at any one time.
The story in suitably bonkers fashion fits you as a lackey, sidekick, note-taker and so on to Deadpool, in his mission to prevent alien weapon tech being smuggled to someone here on Earth. You have to ignore you're clearly the sixth such lackey he's gone through, but the idea he relies on you to un-Deadpool his decision-making so as to appear less obvious about things is a nice touch. The first branch of the story tree takes you one of three ways – exploring the land, the skies, or the subterranean world. So I latched on to a helicopter tour, saw a clue as to a culprit's name, went into one dive and had a mahoosive shoot-em-up – and went on the research mission to a second dive, where the dice roll as to how chatty people are led me to the exact same places whatever the result. So perhaps the dice are still not that influential.
I even got as far as a boss battle, which led to three further branches, showing this to have a ridiculous scale – ages ago I had been invited to leave the airborne examination side of the book. How long would it be before I was asked "are you done with this chunk of the story and want to try another?", I had to wonder. That said, looking back down the branches I took and filling out a map of proceedings, as I do for critiquing these books, I found the scale to be smaller than I had assumed – what looked like major turning points were just different ways to get to the same shoot-em-ups in a similar number of steps.
Which might actually be to the book's detriment. I thought it only logical that to really succeed you'd still have to be very Deadpool-y, despite the (naff and dodgy) title. Surely the gung-ho manner of his choices, and not the more staid options I went for, would have led to greater success – or at least meant something other than increased CHAOS? "Sanity is not always the correct response", indeed. That aside the book works pretty well – despite you being rammed onto a certain track it definitely doesn't read as if you're being forced down a set chain of set events, but are 'playing' in a wider world. The battle mechanism and so on is fine, although can get very fiddly when Dragonfire has to be the right amount (and a different amount) for absolutely everything, or else. While some of the 'achievements' we might attain are useful, many are some kind of equivalent of the #hashtag joke – along the lines of #/+2 minorcharacterbrickingit.
At the same time we're not always hemmed in on the one and the same path – Chapter 2, as it were, has three kinds and we can only use one per 'play'. Follow the linear Chapter 3 and the 'training montage' before the final swoop to the finish can be really influential, and again highlights the cleverness of how this whole shebang has been worked out. In truth the fact there is so much to talk about for fans of both Deadpool and especially this kind of book marks this out as a supreme example of its kind. Niche Marvel knowledge is needed at one point; here's a numbered entry where it's clearly you doing the fighting; here's a great paucity of death scenes (only seven and a chance of an eighth before I'd mapped my way to the Big Boss's introduction!); here's a fake sledgehammer; here's one chimichanga after another; here's commentary about us cheating (sometimes of great benefit!); here's a path to a certain junction in the author's previous book, fer cryin' out loud!
Deadpool fans will like the characters used, the arch style, the Jenga played with body parts... This is a PG-12 read, but make no mistake. I never ended up mapping one of the full-on 400-entry Steve Jackson masterpieces, but boy this takes some time and some mapping ink. If the dice are with you – all three of them – you will still have at least an evening's employ besting this. Perhaps it's because I have only seen the junior examples of this genre over the last few years, but perhaps it's because a helluva lot of work has been put into this, but I found this really quite exemplary for its kind, and a very, very engaging gamebook.
But entry #198 still sucks.
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Please Note. If the title you are reviewing is from the Aconyte & Marvel range you MUST use the following hashtags on online reviews #Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review and mention that the book was given to you for an honest review. You must also add the following legals to the bottom of any review you write:
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL
Failure to do this will result in you no longer being able to acquire Marvel titles from Aconyte Books for review.
Part RPG, part choose-your-own-adventure, and all batshit fun, Your Are (Not) Deadpool is a cool experience for Marvel fans and gamers alike. The reader is recruited to help Deadpool (and Daredevil, and some other heroes who shall remain nameless) take down a super criminal on the streets of New York. Make sure you have paper, pencils, and dice handy while reading! Grab the book for road trips, dentist appointment, and visits to the DMV and try not to laugh too hard.
Well this is a surprise another Aconyte Books review! But just when you thought their worlds of tie-in fiction couldn’t get any better they only release a solo adventure gamebook in the essence of the Fighting Fantasy series first published in the 80s! You can pretty much guess this is going to be a five star from me from the start, but before we get into that let’s have a little look at what you can expect.
You, yes YOU, team up or rather are forced by Deadpool to defeat predictability through mini-games and puzzles.
As the synopsis points out; ‘Things seem weird, even by Deadpool’s standards, when Matt “Daredevil” Murdock offers him a profitable – nay, straightforward! – contract. No chaos, no unpredictability, no funny business… C’mon, Murdock, that’s just not Deadpool’s style. Sensing something is up, Deadpool grabs an innocent bystander off the street to confuse any semblance of predictability the universe is trying to force on him. Good-hearted mischief spirals into a sinister plot full of impenetrable bank vaults, crime lords stroking their (lack of) mustaches in very evil ways, and an assortment of offensively stylish suits that are begging to be blown up, Deadpool discovers his choices are no longer his own – they’re yours!’”
Now obviously given the nature of the ‘game’ it’s hard to give an overall view of the story since there are some many options, endings and routes to get there and on top of that we (meaning I) don’t like to spoil much of the plot of books we review. I will say from the first introduction pages of how to play it is clear that Dedopulos knows Deadpool and can write the merc with the mouth amazingly well. I was already laughing while getting my supplies together.
There are some fun additions to the general solo roleplaying game book here and there as well which truly fit in with the chaotic Deadpool and this delightful game. I honestly can’t remember the last time I had so much fun roleplaying with just myself! You know what I mean!
As I said at the start this is almost like an amazingly weird love-letter to the books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. I grew up with those books and still have some old copies of the original. I used to wait with anticipation for the Scholastic faires in hope that one of the reprints after Wizards got the rights would be there, along with any other goodies I could find. Simply put I couldn’t find someone to play D and D in my younger years and those books scratched that itch. Now I’m older and do have friends to play roleplaying games with we all have annoying adult responsibilities and finding times we are all free can be a nightmare. So sometimes my trusty fighting fantasy books return and I can honestly say I have already recommended this to all those friends as well as pre-ordered it myself. I know it’s going to eat hours away of my free time, whether it be replying the same route, choosing something different, altering stats the replayability is endless (almost) and when you have someone as fun as Deadpool by your side you know you can never get bored!
I already cannot stop recommending this and will continue to do so. If you grew up with and enjoyed fighting fantasy it is a must, if you love Deadpool (everyone does really, even if they won’t admit it just maybe not X-men Origins Deadpool) it is a must, if you love roleplaying games it is a must, if you ever read choose your own adventure books or fanfictions it is a must. Basically buy this gamebook. You will not be disappointed, I promise you that.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Resurrecting the classic game-book format made famous with the Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy series, Aconyte Books has launched the Marvel Multiverse Missions range of stories, with everyone’s favourite ‘Merc with a Mouth’ headlining the first adventure. You are (not) Deadpool places you in the unenviable position as Deadpool’s latest (disposable) sidekick in an adventure to track down some dangerous alien weapons flooding the streets of New York. As with all game-books, players are armed with a pen, paper and dice to complete all manner of skill rolls as they navigate the multiple-choice narrative.
Writer Tim Dedopulos does a great job at capturing Deadpool’s stream of consciousness in prose format as he spouts out all manner of pop culture references and fourth-wall breaks. With his awareness that he is a fictional character, Deadpool is the perfect protagonist for this kind of adventure and Dedopulos often uses this to his advantage to create a snarky irreverent tone for the book. Rather than simply copying the game-book format from his predecessors, Dedopulos modernises the concept by adding things such as achievements and secondary attributes that help customise the book beyond simple choices. Players can accrue these secondary attributes such as “Chaos” based on their choices, that’ll force them into certain paths later on in the story – it’s similar to videogames with a morality system.
Difficulty-wise, I found the game to be a tad easy as I was often given bonus stats that ended up making my attributes far higher than the targets I needed to achieve. At one point I had 8 Merc Points and my goal was to get 9 Merc Points with the help of two dice rolls. Most of the time I just automatically won skill rolls because it was impossible for me to lose based upon the attribute points I’d accrued throughout the game. Not sure whether this was because I used the bonus points awarded for reading the introduction, or whether the game isn’t quite balanced. Either way, the game element flowed nicely for me and I found myself progressing pretty far into the book – one nice touch was the ability to visit multiple areas in the same section; it allowed me to experience different paths in the one play through. There seems to be plenty of alternate endings and the achievements section in the end of the book encourages multiple play-throughs.
While the original Fighting Fantasy books felt like a game of Dungeons & Dragons condensed in a book form, Marvel Multiverse Missions definitely feels more like a videogame. Fans of narrative-driven games such as TellTale Games’ The Walking Dead or reaching further back, the Monkey Island series, will absolutely love this book. You are (not) Deadpool has been released in both eBook and paperback formats, and the eBook edition has been specifically formatted to allow readers to experience the branching narratives in the same way with hyperlinked text transporting players to the correct sequence. I experienced the eBook version and it was easy enough to play along with a pen and paper and random number generator website. It would be cool to see the title eventually get developed into a proper app like some of the classic Fighting Fantasy books have done, incorporating the inventory system and dice rolls into the actual book.
Manic, zany and a bundle of fun from the beginning to its many endings, You are (not) Deadpool is a brilliant launch title for the Marvel Multiverse Missions range. With a second title set to feature She-Hulk, it seems like Aconyte Books are continuing to focus on fourth-wall breaking protagonists and I think that is a wise move. The anarchic and tongue-in-cheek tone of You are (not) Deadpool definitely distinguishes it from other books of the same format and helps create a unique relationship between reader, protagonist and author.
I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
My husband loves Deadpool and was thoroughly amused as I read bits of this out loud. I'd say it's a hit!
You Are (Not) Deadpool is the first release in the Marvel Multiverse Missions Adventure Gamebook line by Aconyte books. Scheduled for release on June 30, 2022, the publisher provided me an early galley for review.
This is very different from the company's usual line of Marvel super-hero fiction titles. This one requires a six-sided die along with paper and pen to get the full enjoyment. The story starts out with a brief introduction and an explanation of "the rules". From there, the reader will make a decision - which then jumps them to a different part of the book. On that page, there is more to the story and then another choice. Some choices are just a "this or that" decision. Others require a roll or rolls of the die along with using character stats and such. Lather, rinse, repeat. You keep going on with the story until you get to an ending point.
This is very much in line with the classic "choose your own adventure" books that were popular in the 80's and 90's. Basically, the story is dynamic with options on where it goes. Very much a game that is repeatable if the reader makes different decisions each time they go through the story. This is definitely something that younger readers will enjoy.
Of course, as the title suggests, this one features that merc with a mouth - the ever-popular sarcastic Deadpool. Unlike his movies, this one is toned down a lot because the decision choices are really done by the reader, who acts as Deadpool's assistant Number Six (as in the six-sided die). The publisher seems very vested in the concept as they already have a second schedule volume in the series starring She-Hulk later in 2022.
If you're looking for something different, you might want to check it out. If you're strictly a straightforward fiction kind of person, maybe this one might not fill your bill.
This is such a fun book. I love the DND aspect of dice rolling and stats. I loved the chaotic aspect of the storyline.
I did 3 different versions of the story and had a blast. I didn't make it to the end but I'll keep trying.
In reading the digital version, the font style was basic, but I hope the physical version has some nice graphics to it.
[I was provided an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for a review]
Cards on the table, I had no expectations at all for this book. A choose-you-own-adventure book? From Marvel? Starring Deadpool, one of their most hard-to-nail-down characters? It seemed like a trainwreck. To my surprise, it was actually a lot of fun! By really leaning into the RPG-style game mechanics, the book has a lot more interactivity than CYOA books usually have, and a completionist will have fun trying to track down all of the "achievements" strewn throughout the book.
Did not realize that this was a gamebook when requesting this book. So yeah, just wanted to elaborate why I will not give a proper review to this book. I do look forward to eventually trying this gamebook out though and will update this review when I do so. Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL
I was a kid when the Choose Your Adventure Books first came out. I loved them. I looked forward to each new release. They helped reinforce my love of reading and gave me hours of enjoyment. So there was a huge nostalgia factor for me here. You Are (Not) Deadpool: A Marvel: Multiverse Missions Adventure Gamebook is the next evolution on that concept. Or more appropriately since you have to keep track of stats, items, and use dice to determine outcomes of various events it’s more a blending of Choose Your Own Adventure and Dungeons and Dragons. And…it’s an absolute blast.
In You Are (Not) Deadpool, Deadpool is on a mission and recruits you as his partner of sorts. He saddles you with the name of Six. (That’s just a random name…it’s not like he had five previous ‘partners’ who met with horrible endings or anything. *wink* *wink*) Someone is smuggling alien weapons into New York and it’s up to you and Deadpool to track them down and put a stop to it. As in the Choose Your Own Adventure novels you will read along, constantly needing to make decisions on what to do next, but unlike with those books you will have stats that will fluctuate depending on your actions, be able to acquire items to help along the way, be forced to do puzzles, and even fight battles, the outcomes of which will be dependent by dice rolls and stat modifications. There are even ‘achievements’ to unlock.
Bottomline is that it’s an absolute blast. The story is interesting, the author has totally captured Deadpool’s irreverent attitude and there are so many options/ways to tackle the investigation that I found myself starting over again and again once my current play through ended. I’m really hoping this series continues and that it expands to include other superhero partners (or even other genres).
Though I can completely seeing this as fun party game, it is also perfect for the D&D fan that has trouble finding the time to get a group together for a campaign. Thanks so much to Aconyte and NetGalley for allowing me to read (play) and review an eARC of You Are (Not) Deadpool.
<img src=https://images.cooltext.com/5598841.png>
<b>Thank you to Net Galley and the kind folks of Aconyte for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.</b>
When I was a kid, I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books. It made me feel like a part of the story. As I got older, D&D took their place. This book is a great mixture of the two. As the ominously named Six, armed with only a piece of paper, pencil, and dice, you help our favorite Merc with a Mouth solve a case given to him by Matt "Daredevil" Murdock.
The characters and action feel very true to what one would expect from the Marvel comics, and it's tons of fun to play through. Solid work. I will definitely be buying a copy of this when it hit shelves in July!
Thanks to NetGalley and the cool kids at Aconyte Books, I was lucky enough to get a review copy of one of the upcoming Marvel Multiverse Mission Adventures Gamebooks. Whew, say that five times fast! This copy was provided for free in exchange for my honest review.
You may ask yourself, what is a Multiverse Mission Adventure Gamebook? First, I'd say you've got a very wordy brain. Second, it's like a Choose Your Own Adventure but with dice and note taking.
You may wonder (my, you're introspective today) why in this action-packed Marvel Universe romp that you are some rando and not Deadpool himself. Well, that would really be a question for the author, Mr. Dedopulos. But if I had to guess, it's because Deadpool talking to himself for most of the book wouldn't be as much fun. After all, he's the Merc with a Mouth, not the Merc that Talks to Himself. Plus, you have that added feeling of holding a superhero's fate in your hands.
So, what makes this different than your average Choose Your Own Adventure? Sit tight and I'll tell ya.
Deadpool has three skills: Merc, Mouth, and Focus. These values can (and will!) change depending on what happens. At some points, you'll have to roll one or more d6 (for you non-gamers, that's a regular die) and add a stat to it to determine the outcome of the situation. It could be a check to bluff (Mouth), investigate (Focus), or fight (Merc). Spoiler alert: a lot of it is fighting!
Throughout the book, there's also objects you can add to your inventory, but you can only carry five things at any time. No, it doesn't matter if it's a key that could fit in your pocket or a sledgehammer. Five's the limit, bucko! You're not the one with Rob Liefeld pouches.
There's also Qualities that you can pick up. Not physically of course, but this is where the note taking comes in handy. Let's say you happen to initiate the self-destruct of a bad guy lair under Central Park. I mean, you probably wouldn't do that in real life, but this is a comic book...book. You might get assigned Chaos +2. Different choices will assign you different Qualities. At certain points, you may have additional options, or penalties, depending on your level of particular Qualities.
There's also a lengthy list of Achievements you can acquire, giving a little extra incentive to replay the book if you're the type that just has to check every box.
That's a whole lot about how the book works, but how is it?
It's a lot of fun! Tim Dedopulos (can I call you Tim?) does a fantastic job running Deadpool's mouth and making with the funny. There's plenty of wacky antics and action (did I mention there's a lot of fighting?) to keep you entertained. This is comic based but if you're a fan of the movies, you'll no doubt read his dialog in Ryan Reynolds' voice.
In addition to skill checks and fighting (a lot!) there are a few puzzles and mini-games to test your brain. This is where I have my little quibble with Tim. (Sorry, did we clear the whole first name thing?) Without spoiling anything, a couple of these are annoying for different reasons.
Minor grip numero dos: there are no illustrations in the book, just clip arty things. When reading CYOA or Fighting Fantasy back in the day, there was always a little extra thrill when you came across an illustration. Being based on a comic book there should be something more in here.
Having said that, these are minor annoyances. I've played through a couple times to try different paths and the book is a blast. It's probably as close to hanging out with Deadpool as any of us mere mortals will get. You might even run into some other well known comic characters in your travels!
Nothing against Deadpool, but I'm definitely looking forward to the other Gamebook, She-Hulk Goes to Murderworld, also written by my good pal Tim (even if he doesn't know it. I mean the good pal part, I'm sure he knows he wrote the book). I love Arcade and Murderworld! Both Gamebooks release on July 5th so you have something to do while recovering from fireworks injuries in the hospital.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
Marvel Multiverse Missions – You are not Deadpool.
Written by Tim Dedopulos.
Out on Kindle 5th July ( and in pro t in USA ).
In print 29th September in the UK.
I was given a copy in return for an honest review.
#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review.
The hashtags above ( something I don’t normally do ) are a spontaneous desire to spread the word.
Er, okay, that’s a slight lie. ( Deadpool would be proud ).
I actually acquired an early digital copy via NetGalley, a website where publishers can put advanced copies up for people to review.
The catch?
Well, anybody wanting to be allowed to read a particular book has to create a profile, and hope that their request to review it is accepted.
This gamebook is published by Acoynte books.
Most importantly, the person in charge of Acoynte books is Marc Gascoigne, a previous writer and editor of the legendary Fightiing Fantasy gsmebook series.
So, I decided it was important to not ne too subtle.
In minutes, my profile was up, showing no shame.
My profile picture was of course the familiar Fighting Fantasy symbol.
And I also extolled my love of Fighting Fantasy.
And of course I even went further.
I had to mention how much I respected all the editors of the Fighting Fantasy books, and how much hard work it had to have been.
Look, don’t judge me to much, okay.
I wanted to play this book a lot, I was prepared to do anything.
Thankfully, nothing else was required, and I soon had approval to download the book ( well, at least until it self destructs before publishing date ).
At 300 sections this is a proper, full bloodied gamebook ( I guess Marc Gascoigne wouldn’t stand for anything less ).
The instructions are presented in an unfussy and integrated way that gets the job done without delaying getting into the action.
The 3 core statistics are Merc, Mouth and Focus. These values can change depending on the choices you make.
There are also many secondary qualities that you can acquire, that will also often have values attached.
This can include Chaos ( will you really press that Red Button while in the middle of Central Park ), Spore seeded ( ouch ) or Flush ( no comment ).
And then there are zillions of fun objects to find ( Ian Livingstone would be proud ).
Different combinations of the above can be used during skill checks, ( or mini games ) to help achieve a high enough score when combined with rolling d6 dice.
This system makes total sense when emulating the sense of being part of a comic strip.
You don’t necessarily have that stop and start feel that you get with a lot of gamebooks where every fight threatens to end your story at any moment.
After all, Deadpool is pretty invincible.
Instead, this book is happy to strung you along, letting you increase or lose points as you go, until suddenly the danger gets too much, and crunch time occurs.
This achieves a lot more fluidity why playing, and makes the player focus on having fun and trying to successfully contain the antics of Deadpool.
It might seem odd that you don’t control Deadpool himself.
In fact, it might have been odder if you did.
Instead, Deadpool has come to you, knowing full well of your special abilities ( you know, that you are actually playing a book and are therefore able to be resourceful ( or cheat, take your pick ).
Deadpool is well aware that he needs to be unpredictable in order to be successful in the mission he has been given by Daredevil.
Alien weapons are flooding into New York City, and no one knows who is behind it.
You need to track down the organisation that is behind this, and defeat the big boss.
As well as make other important decisions, such as do you allow Deadpool to use the punishment toilet?.
A check list of achievement at the back of the book helps to show how repayable the gamebook is, as there of lots of different leads that are impossible to fully explore without may replays.
After all, you want to work out how to *$%# off Spiderman don’t you?
Or catch the gamebook berating you ( and sometimes rewarding you ) when it knows full well the tricks you are pulling when you think no one is watching.........
The icing on the case are the several puzzles that you might come across.
While I expected more of them, the ones that are there are great fun.
There is a highly inventive word search one – well except it isn’t, it’s with numbers and it’s like a maze.....
Basically, there are fun and varied, and in some of them a knowledge of the comic books might be helpful but not essential.
I may even have found a back way into the She Hulk ( that’s the next gamebook in the series and is due out on the same day, in case you were wondering ).
And congratulations if you manage to achieve an unlimited amount of points ( though Deadpool might have a thing or too to say to you....)
Altogether, this is a reaaly fun and yet meaty gamebook that loves to play with conventions just as you’d hope with Deadpool involved.
The only way the gamebook could have been improved is if as well as having small graphics in between sections, there had also been full page illustrations – I think most people would have assumed there would have been.
Nonetheless, this is a great start to this series.
I’m of course checking NetGalley every day to see if She Hulk Goes to Murderworld has arrived yet!
Oh, here follows some random statements.
No reason.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL
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I've never come across a book like this before. It was interesting as it had a good storyline but had a game to it, having to answer to progress into the book more. It was usual but explained how to play Simply and I found itnvery entertaining.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of You Are (Not) Deadpool.
I became a fan of Deadpool ever since Ryan Reynolds slipped into the red hot tights so I was excited when my request was approved.
This reminded me of the old timey fun timey Choose Your Adventure books I used to read as a kid, except for adult audiences/players with the Merc with a Mouth.
The writing style is funny and snarky, exactly what you would expect teaming up with Deadpool.
This is a fun game, especially for groups, but I had fun playing on my own.