Player vs. Player 1 – Ultimate Gaming Showdown

M.K. England's Ultimate Gaming Showdown is the first Player vs. Player book, an action-packed gaming story for 11 year olds about four online players who become a team.

What happens

Affinity is the biggest online battle game anywhere. Josh is a tank, the player who takes the hits so everyone else can do their jobs. He's ranked sixth in the whole game, and he's got nobody to play with, because his family keeps moving.

Then Hurricane Games announces a tournament to launch its first pro league. The winner gets to meet Glitz, the most famous girl gamer in the country.

Josh gets an invitation. So does Hannah, a fierce fighter who games at the library after school because the internet at home is hopeless. So does Larkin, a healer who plays secretly on the family computer. And so does Wheatley, who has something he isn't telling anyone.

The chapters swap between the four of them, so you get inside each gamer's head. That's where the book really works. Hannah's mum works a second job and tea is often from the McDonald's next door. Larkin's parents banned video games after her brother got hooked. Josh's dad slams the door when dinner has to wait. Every one of them has a reason the parent permission slip is going to be a problem.

The game scenes are fast and loud. There are demon punches, robot bees and a moon base exploding under everyone's feet. Your reader will meet plenty of gamer words too (tank, healer, respawn, noob), and the story makes most of them clear.

It's properly funny as well. Josh has a filter that turns insults into things like DELIGHTFUL UNICORN OF SUNSHINE. Wheatley tries hard to make a good first impression and announces that his bees are hungry.

The four of them are twelve and thirteen, so this reads right at the top of the shelf. There's online trash talk and a lot about parents who just don't get it. Who hasn't felt that way about something they love?

What to read next

If they'd like a lighter, younger gaming adventure next, Tom Nicoll's Level Up has a girl who ignores her mum's warning signs and ends up inside her favourite game.