I bought this book for my husband and I to do together as a stay-in date night as we love going to escape rooms and solving puzzles together. This book is perfect for a family game night with older children or even for teens who enjoy puzzles and riddles.

Our family really enjoyed this book. We thought it was a little more challenging than Escape the Museum and kept us busy for quite a while! Make sure you take a few minutes to prepare by punching out all the perforated pieces and enjoy. It was a great evening Escaping the Video Game while my kids weren’t actually playing video games. We will definitely be watching for more!

I bought this book for my video game-loving 8-year old.  He loved each level and was completely engaged in solving the puzzles.  Many of the puzzles he was able to figure out on his own, and the clues in the back of the book were great for nudging him in the right direction when he got stuck.  Punching out the puzzle pieces was the biggest struggle for him.  I ended up doing most of punching to prevent tears.  Overall this is a great activity book for 8 years and older.  I'd love to see more books like it!    

My 6 year old and I enjoyed working through this book. He loves puzzles but would not have been able to do them completely on his own but with just a little help he really enjoyed it.

The story line was great. The graphics were great my kids had a wonderful time trying to solve these little puzzles as a family BUT the paper they are supposed to fold and use to solve the puzzles was SO FLIMSY we had huge huge frustrations over trying to get it to work. Thicker paper would have made this an EPIC adventure rather than only a unique one. I really hope that the company can up the quality on the clues to not make it a huge time consuming source of frustration and tears.  

I had my students, eighth graders, write book reviews after engaging with Can You Escape the Museum and Video Game books in small groups. This was a FUN class activity and writing assignment! Below are excerpts from their reviews for Can You Escape the Video Game:

"  Escape Room: Can You Escape the Video Game? is an interactive activity book that takes players through a wild journey as they are trapped inside a video game. Created by Dr. Gareth Moore and published by Kane Miller, it is filled with puzzles that readers must solve in order to defeat the dragon and make their way home. Everything needed to complete the challenges is supplied in the back of the book, along with hint cards that can assist players when they are stuck on a task.
  The book had many good aspects that made reading it and solving the puzzles enjoyable. For example, each page was filled with DGPH Studios’ art, which added to the experience by making the world of the book much more immersive than it might have been without such effort. Additionally, each set of puzzles was unique and interesting, bringing a surprise with each turn of the page.
  Despite all its good attributes, the book has some downsides. The main problem I found is that many of the puzzles in Escape Room: Can You Escape the Video Game? involve letters, and are much more difficult for a person with dyslexia than they were intended to be. When I played it, this took away from the enjoyment of one of my group members, as they were not able to assist as much in the completion of certain puzzles. Also, the paper pieces weren’t easy to fold and often didn’t stay together, making them difficult to use. Finally, as good as the story and puzzles may be, it is still an activity book, and therefore can only be read once.
  As far as who might be interested in this book, I believe that while it is better suited to younger individuals, as the “eight and up” rating implies, it can also provide an engaging, challenging experience to older players. The book would likely be a good fit for small family groups, who could complete the activities together." (-CC)

"What they could improve on is when you're building the pop out pages in the back of the book they could maybe label the page. Example: level 1 matching up with level 1 pop out page. It was very good. I just wished that building it would be easier." (-PC)

"What the book did great is it kept the readers engaged in the book! Not like other books where kids get bored after ten pages. Escape the video game did great by adding puzzles and clues to help find your way out to escape." (-BC)

"Many people would enjoy this book. It is intended for kids eight and up, but my class of thirteen year olds (including me) enjoyed it. Someone should buy this book if they're a babysitter or parent. It would be a really fun activity to do with their kid, and the babysitter or parent would probably enjoy it, too!" (-DC)

" In the beginning you find a disk that says not to play it. When you insert it into the machine, you get sucked into the television and get trapped inside a video game. For the rest of the book, you go through the different levels and get power-ups, find codes, and hopefully escape. Something that I like about the book is that most of the puzzles are doable. I like that you have to use a lot of your brain.   I also like that there are multiple escape books made by the people." (-JC)

"The puzzles were fun and hard. That's why you should do this with someone else or like your family. One thing that I liked a lot was that a lot of the puzzles and levels were based on a bunch of games like Mario and Temple Runner." (-JC)

"I liked that it was like a story book but had activities. It has fewer big words so little kids understand it better. It can also be very entertaining. This also takes time to do, so if we go in quarantine, then this would be the perfect book!" (-VH)

"...Building the parts can be a pain. I remember a cube maze you had to put together that, no matter what I did, would not stay together. This hurts the reusability since it probably only works the first few times." (-AJ)

"One thing the book did well kept the reader entertained and focused. The book was also very challenging and fun. The book also did a very good job making the challenges." (-BM)

"I enjoyed the challenges I had to face and the puzzles to help me get through this book. The mysteries were very creative." (-AP)