While it was initially fun hearing about the games that shaped his (and for that matter mine as well) generation, perhaps because I had never heard of Drucker I didn't connect with his stories and I could've done without all the swearing. That is what ultimately led me to DNF at maybe 18%.

Reading Good Game, No Rematch feels like grabbing a controller, booting up your childhood, and realizing your save file is still there—just with more jokes and better writing.

Mike Drucker’s memoir is a hilarious, unexpectedly touching collection of essays that traces his life through the video games he played, loved, raged at, and eventually wrote for. If you were raised in the era of Duck Hunt and Doom, this book hits like a combo move straight to your emotional core. But even if your gaming experience is more casual, Drucker’s humor and self-awareness make it easy to connect.

Drucker is a master at blending sharp comedy with real vulnerability. He doesn’t just tell funny stories about playing NFL Blitz or working at Nintendo—though those parts are great—he also opens up about what it meant to be a kid trying to find connection through games, an awkward teen using Final Fantasy as a social lifeline, and an adult navigating the strange Venn diagram where comedy writing and video game development overlap. The memoir moves from childhood to his work on shows like The Tonight Show and SNL, and from his early obsession with Mario to industry jobs that most gamers can only dream about.

This book is a love letter to the medium, but it’s also a chronicle of growing up, making mistakes, and finding your way—one console generation at a time. He doesn’t shy away from the less shiny parts of gaming culture either: the gatekeeping, the toxicity, the times when the escapism starts to feel a little too comfortable. But, he writes with such clarity and wit that even the darker bits feel illuminating rather than heavy.

There are moments in this book that genuinely made me laugh out loud, but there were also moments where I stopped and thought, “Wow, yeah—that’s exactly how it felt.” As an example, realizing that for many of us, video games weren’t just entertainment—they were the map we used to navigate a confusing world.

Not a gamer? That’s ok. This book will resonate with anyone who’s ever found joy in the weird things that shaped them, who’s still chasing the same high from their first big win (or their first big loss), and who knows deep down that sometimes the best part of the game isn’t the victory—it’s the story you get to tell after.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for the opportunity to read this eARC.

"Good Game, No Rematch" by Mike Drucker is an interesting memoir told through Drucker's focus on video games. Drucker is at his best when he uses anecdotes about video games to describe how they effected or related to "life lessons". For the first half of the book, the anecdotes kept the story flowing well. I honestly couldn't help laughing out loud several times. However, the connections to video games as a mirror to Drucker's life began to pale and ultimately fail in the latter half. Unfortunately, just when I thought the memoir would start to become even more filled with interesting video game anecdotes, the anecdotes virtually vanished or were relegated to footnote status. While it was still interesting to hear about Drucker's career development as a writer/journalist/comedian, the focus was now on the people and the connections he was making instead of how video games provided a continuing framework for his life story. Again, this wasn't necessarily a deal breaker for the book, but it made what was great about the beginning less interesting for me.

Admittedly, I am getting to be a seasoned citizen. I was around for the creation of the video game Mega Empire from the very beginning, and also the creation of the internet for that matter.

Some video games have memories from my youth so attached to them it is hard to separate one from the other. Like my father and I sitting on the floor solving riddles together in the Legend of Zelda on Ye Olde NES.

Other games have special memories attached from the youth of my son, such as the time we defeated the zombie hordes together at the Midnight Riders rock concert in Left 4 Dead 2, while I fought only using a garden gnome as a weapon, just to get an achievement called Gnome Chompski. (IYKYK!!)

Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games by Mike Drucker is a trip down Memory Lane for those of us who grew up meeting Super Mario for the first time, and it gave me more than a few chuckles along the way.

The gaming industry is evolving so much now, even Game Informer magazine is now defunct (RIP, GI. Y'all were the REAL MVPs. I cried when they pulled the plug on you, not gonna lie.) One thing that remains the same throughout the years, however, is the passionate loyalty of the players.

Great book!

[This review will be posted on my personal site, http://suzeish.blog on March 14, 2025, and on my StoryGraph and Fable accounts, both @suzeishreads , on March 14, 2025]

“It’s all fun and games in Mike Drucker’s new memoir”

I was vaguely aware of Mike Drucker as somebody whose BlueSky posts about video games I’d spotted in passing, someone who was followed by a lot of accounts across a variety of niches that I also followed but whom I didn’t really know anything about. I’m a simple creature – when I hear the phrase “video game memoir,” something is activated in me, and so of course I had no choice but to check out Drucker’s latest, “Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games.”

It starts with that force which pulls upon us all: nostalgia. When Drucker reminisces about his gaming origins, beginning as a small child haplessly zapping too close to the screen at Duck Hunt and moving on in much the same trajectory as the rest of us did in our nascent video gaming lives, it’s easy to remember myself there, fondly(?) looking back to the days of my sister furiously pitching N64 controllers at my face when she lost a match in Super Smash Bros., back to the days when the house we all wanted to hang out at was whichever one had a set of dance pads set up in the basement, and back to the days when, our family lacking the kind of money that buys brand-new games, every cartridge I owned was from the secondhand sale bin at Blockbuster, resulting in sometimes eclectic gaming tastes and sometimes in my having played the sequel in a series but not the original.

This is what makes the first part of GGNR pleasant: it’s not so much that hearing about the specifics of Drucker’s video game origin story is exciting or unique, it’s that it pulls you back into your own past, remembering the games that you were playing during those formative years, whether they were the same as Drucker’s or filling in your own narrative (maybe you were a Genesis kid, waves sadly). This is a fairly soothing way to spend a cold day in your blanket fort.

The second part of GGNR takes us through Drucker’s pupation and metamorphosis, nerdy butterfly-like, from video game player to video game industry writer. This part was less enjoyable to me, because if the joy of the first part of the book was using Drucker’s memories as a springboard for my own, the details of his professional career cease to be relatable. It felt like it boiled down to, “I had a quick succession of cool writing jobs, and I met cool people and had a cool time!” It was pleasant enough to read, but in that sort of vanilla, not terribly exciting “That’s nice for you” way.

All in all, in these heavy times we’re living in, I was hoping for something fluffy and positive to read, and ‘Good Game, No Rematch’ was definitely that! Who would I recommend this book to? If you grew up loving video games and have a long afternoon free where you want to get cozy with an easy-breezy book that’ll make you fondly remember how bad you were at Sonic the Hedgehog as a kid and activate that latent part of you that always thought you could make games as a career, then I’d definitely recommend ‘Good Game, No Rematch.’

If a book is about any sort of 1990s nostalgia, (that's right kids, I am from the 1900s) then I must admit that I am not impartial. This is especially true when it comes to Mike Drucker's Good Game, No Rematch. After all, this is about his lifelong love of video games and how they have touched every aspect of his life. I had feelings. I had flashbacks. I could feel the Nintendo controller in my hands. I'm not saying this book changed my life, but I am saying this book made me relive a lot of it.

Drucker has such a varied life that you have probably seen or heard his work somewhere. He is a stand-up comedian, worked for Nintendo, IGN, and wrote for shows like SNL, Full Frontal, and The Tonight Show - Jimmy Fallon version. If there is anything that everyone would agree with about the book is that Drucker completely gives himself over to the video game theme. Every chapter makes the connection somehow. I've read plenty of memoir-type books which promise something that they quickly jettison a conceit whenever it becomes inconvenient. Not so with this one.

Drucker is very funny (which is great!) and incredibly self-deprecating (be nicer to yourself, Mike!). It creates an easy tone in his prose even while you question the legitimacy of the shots he takes at himself. Sometimes they are truly a man looking at his own failings, such as when he discusses his extremely thin skin at work. Other times, his self-flagellation is clearly something only he sees. You don't get to do the things he does without having some true warmth that people are attracted to.

The biggest question for most people is probably whether or not this would be enjoyable if you were not a 90s video game dork like myself. I think there is still plenty here for you. Drucker's family stories are near universal such as relationship with his father. It isn't strained, but oh lord his dad would have been a lot happier if he liked sports. A short chapter on the loss of a friend is short but poignant. So yes, you don't have to be a video game nerd to enjoy this....

...but I would also be lying if I didn't point out that a good amount will be over your head. Seriously, the chapter on Bioshock comes out of NOWHERE and I loved it. In summary, this is a fun book for normies, but goodness gracious it's a must-read for video games nerds.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing.)

Good Game, No Rematch
Mike Drucker
Release: 04/01/2025
Read: 11/01/2024 to 11/25/2024
310 pages/NetGalley Review ARC

A mere background of the authors background to video game and the new advancements that have been brought to the gaming world. He has had his fair share of systems especially almost all of the Nintendo products including the failed products; The author then goes on to speak about the new ones that we know and love like Minecraft or Fortnite. He plays those to and seems to really love building in Minecraft. I learned about old advancements then, I knew nothing about and I guess that just shows my age.
I loved all the aspects about the book. I just wished it had some order to it. The personal experiences made it pop, but, I did feel like it dragged on a bit.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book is a combo part-biography, part-random thoughts written by stand-up comedian and comedy writer Mike Drucker. I actually wasn't familiar with the author prior to reading the book so I didn't know what to expect.

I really enjoyed the biography portion describing the author's childhood and overall history of playing video games. Moving through his career was also interesting, including a short but important stint at Nintendo. The random thoughts sections were hit or miss for me depending on the topic - but I think different people will like different parts interesting depending on their experience.

I would recommend this book to anyone who grew up playing video games and wants to feel a bit of nostalgia.

I really appreciated Mike Drucker sharing their story with the reader. The concept was perfectly done and enjoyed the use of video games and was invested in what was going on. I enjoyed getting to read this and hope Mike Drucker writes more.