This was a reasonably fun read, but not exactly well written. You know when a puzzle takes years in a book to solve, but then you read it once and think "it can't be that obvious" and then it is? Yeah, the first clue was a bit mediocre and that doesn't even get into the annoying protagonist, the comically evil villain, the autistic overexplanation of every reference and joke, and the predictable self-insert wish fulfillment of a plot.

But in spite of it being pretty bad, I was entertained. The references are nostalgic, the game system is typical of the genre but sounds fun, and the weird details in the worldbuilding were entertaining.

I'd give it one star for the writing and three for the entertainment value, so... let's peg it at a two overall.