• Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Aug 19, 2020
User Score
9.1

Universal acclaim- based on 978 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 83 out of 978
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User Reviews

  1. Aug 26, 2020
    0
    Really damn boring. Crappy tv show, just pure garbage **** tv that sucks balls
  2. Sep 8, 2020
    0
    As pretty much a lot of other people said - this was a great, wasted potential. Netflix had the power and ability to instruct the world about the history of what 90% of teenagers spend their afternoons doing today, and completely failed doing it.

    The show does not follow a chronological path; events are often reversed historically and someone who doesn't already know about it, will
    As pretty much a lot of other people said - this was a great, wasted potential. Netflix had the power and ability to instruct the world about the history of what 90% of teenagers spend their afternoons doing today, and completely failed doing it.

    The show does not follow a chronological path; events are often reversed historically and someone who doesn't already know about it, will hardly be able to follow.

    Instead - imho - too much time was wasted on political matters. It's common knowledge that Netflix is pretty far left-wing, and given the moment in time we are living right now, this feels more like a show made for the purpose of sponsoring a political ideology, hidden behind videogames, rather than teaching about videogames and how they influenced people's lives.

    The main problem is that a too high amount of events, technologies, companies and countries were completely left out of the story. The show screams about how inclusivity and respect are important, and yet manages to completely disrespect (by completely ignoring and not acknowledging) so many great inventors, engineers, gamers - who are (by far) more important than, arguably, some of the shown characters. Japan *had* to be portraied, since that's where everything began - but the fact that USA is the only other country that the show talks about, only reinforces the idea that this show was not developed to be a thorough documentary, but more of a TED Talk for unheard voices.

    This is by no means historically accurate and complete. It's a really heartwarming novel about people who loved videogames. The videogames history is used to make viewers understand about what those people were going to talk about - not to teach them about how the industry was born, how it developed, and how it influenced the whole world and technology.
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  3. Aug 28, 2020
    0
    I'd love to be able to watch one modern thing without hearing about modern politics. I watch stuff for escapism and this still managed to shove that garbage into it.
  4. Sep 5, 2020
    2
    Not much of a documentary. Random bits and pieces of video game in the USA, the rest of the world doesn't exist, maybe a bit Japan with Nintendo. Oh, and it is Netflix, so they managed to make a videogame documentary about current politics, race, sexual orientation and virtue signaling.
  5. Aug 31, 2020
    2
    Netflix is not even capable of making a video game history documentary without turning it into some quest to virtue signal. If you don't like to attend church and be told you're a sinner, why would want to watch this and get preached down to?
  6. Sep 3, 2020
    2
    Instead of establishing cohesive timeline or presenting interesting facts, documentary highlights stories of random people in industry and other people NOT IN INDUSTRY. Half of stories are about random gays who heard about video games. There are so many more interesting historical videos and interviews on youtube.
  7. Aug 19, 2020
    3
    Has awkward sidetracks from it's narrative, and includes jarring and forced political segments that confuses the scope. Content is overly watered down and doesn't follow a strict/sequential enough progression of the history it covers, nor does it dig into many technical/detailed oriented aspects, which is why it comes off as bland and dumbed down.
  8. Aug 24, 2020
    0
    Just another annoying forced narrative **** show that insults historical facts. Didn't surprised....
  9. Aug 22, 2020
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. If you think this show about video games and video games industry - you are wrong. It's more about persons, who identify themselves as women, playing video games. You know, Netflix. Expand
Metascore
62

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 10
  2. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Reviewed by: Keza MacDonald
    Aug 27, 2020
    60
    High Score is narrowly focused – the US and Japan dominate, as if the rest of video game history never happened, and while Atari’s early consoles and the Nintendo Entertainment System crop up in almost every episode, the Amiga, Spectrum and Commodore 64 are never so much as mentioned. ... But this series does well at explaining what was exciting about this time, and the way that each of the landmark games featured built on the foundations of what came before.
  2. Reviewed by: Garrett Martin
    Aug 20, 2020
    45
    It’s less “here’s what happened,” and more, “hey, remember this?” Given how bad the game industry itself is at preserving and analyzing its own history beyond merely capitalizing on nostalgia, that makes High Score a huge missed opportunity.
  3. Reviewed by: Dave Trumbore
    Aug 19, 2020
    91
    High Score may not be the most in-depth or lengthy documentary series you’ll ever see, but the curated interviews from folks with compelling stories and charismatic personalities bring a personal touch. Nostalgia does the rest. And we’re here for it.