In this article, we’ll be reviewing Game Fuel, one of the most popular gaming energy drinks in the industry. Produced by Mountain Dew, Game Fuel is designed specifically by gamers for gamers.
Erin Chin, the senior director of marketing in Mountain Dew, says that they know gaming is an endurance sport and they’ve listened to what gamers have wanted for a beverage which gave them the drive to make Game Fuel what it is now.
So is Game Fuel all it’s cracked up to be? Is it a good energy drink for gamers?
The quick answer is yes since Game Fuel has a sufficient amount of caffeine that’s suitable for gamers. Their can is also legitimate in the sense that it doesn’t really spill when you knock it over! However, opt for the sugar-free version.
Read on for a more detailed review on Game Fuel, letting you know its pros, cons, and what other gamers think about the gaming energy drink.
Contents
Is Game Fuel an energy drink or soda?
Game Fuel is a type of energy drink. Game Fuel is an energy drink with caffeine and other ingredients that are said to boost mental and physical performance.
On the other hand, soda is a carbonated soft drink loaded with sugar with cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Compared to Game Fuel, soda has a relatively lower caffeine content.
Game Fuel Pros
To start off, here are a few advantages that Game Fuel brings to gamers like you:
Spill Proof
One of the features that Game Fuel is proud of is its resealable lid, it guarantees that not even a little amount of liquid will be spilled if you accidentally hit the can.
On top of that, it also has a “textured no-slip grip” which they explain as a coating related to what you might feel when you’re holding a gaming controller — now that’s unique!
L-theanine
Found in green and black tea, L-theanine is an amino acid that can help ease anxiety, stress, and reduce insomnia.
If you’re considering adding L-theanine to your daily wellness practice, a dose of 100-400mg is recommended, beginning with the smallest dose and gradually increasing until you feel the effects. When used in combination with caffeine, consider 12-100mg of L-theanine to 30-100mg of caffeine.
MD Linx
In your case, if you’re thinking of drinking Game Fuel, you should limit yourself to 100 mg of L-theanine since Game Fuel contains caffeine. According to Healthline, although there are no reported side effects from taking L-theanine, the caffeine content can lead to
- Nausea
- Upset Stomach
- Irritability
No Jitters
Overconsuming caffeine can make your hands shaky — and for gamers, this is a nightmare.
Game Fuel only has 90mg which is below the daily recommended intake (400mg). That means that if you drink a second can of Game Fuel, you don’t have to worry about your hands jittering.
However, if you plan to drink more than one can of Game Fuel, it’s better if you would only do it occasionally. But if it ever happens that you’re playing a game and you suddenly have shaky hands, watch this video to
Vitamins
Game Fuel contains B vitamins which has their own unique benefits. All vitamin Bs are water-soluble and if you want to know more about this vitamins, here’s a table:
| Vitamins | Benefits | Recommended Intake |
| Vitamin A (Retinol) | Protects your eyes from night blindness, lowers the risk of certain cancers, supports a healthy immune system, reduces the risk of acne, supports bone health, and promotes healthy growth/reproduction. | 900mcg for adult men and 700mcg for adult women |
| Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid) | Helps the body convert food (carbohydrates) into fuel (glucose) which is used to produce energy, helps the body use fat and protein, promotes healthy skin, eyes, hair, liver, and also helps the nervous system function properly. | 5mg for 14 years and older (different amount are suggested for different ages, visit here to know more.) |
| Vitamin B6 | Improves mood, reduces depression, promotes brain health, reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, prevents/treats anemia by aiding hemoglobin production, can treat symptoms of PMS, may be able to help treat nausea during pregnancy, reduces the risk of heart disease, and can even help prevent cancer! | 1.3 – 1.7mg for adults over 19 are the recommended daily amount (RDA) for the present time. |
Taste
First of all, everyone tastes different. Some may agree that Game Fuel tastes good and some may disagree, but I based it on a video review named, “Gamers Try Gamer Energy Drinks For The First Time” and wrote the results based on their rankings.
Two gamers ranked it as their favorite but the other gamer stated that the taste used to be crisper. Another gamer ranked Game Fuel as his third choice since it tastes just like soda. The last gamer ranked Game Fuel as his last choice yet agreed that it tasted good once he mixed both flavors.
Game Fuel Cons
You should accept that there’s no such thing as a perfect product — oftentimes it’s just a marketing strategy for you to splurge, so be careful! So here are a few factors on why you may not opt to buy Game Fuel:
Too Much Sugar
Sugar, sugar, sugar. The destroyer of a healthy body.
It may be sweet for your taste buds, but sugar certainly feels bitter once you decide to try and live a healthy lifestyle. Sugar is everywhere, almost everything you consume has sugar, whether it be a healthy food/beverage or not.
Yes, even fruits and vegetables have sugar. However, the sugar that fruits and vegetables have is known as natural sugars. You shouldn’t worry though since our body’s fuel relies on glucose (blood sugar) that gives energy to your body and also provides nutrients to your body’s organs, muscles, and nervous system.
To simplify, there is bad sugar and good sugar.
According to the American Heart Association (AHA), about 22 teaspoons of added sugar is consumed by an average American and they recommend that you should limit your sugar intake to 24g (6 teaspoons) for women and 36g (9 teaspoons) for men.
As you can see, a lot of people are exceeding the limit, all this excess sugar can lead to signs like:
- Increased Hunger and Weight Gain
- Irritability
- Fatigue and Low Energy
- Foods Don’t Taste Sweet Enough
- Cravings for Sweets
- High Blood Pressure
- Acne and Wrinkles
- Joint Pain
- Sleep Issues
- Digestive Issues
- Brain Fog
- Cavities
Caffeine
400 mg is considered as a safe amount of caffeine intake for healthy adults and Game Fuel has 90mg of caffeine per can (16 fl.oz) which means drinking a can or two of Game Fuel won’t make you exceed the recommended daily intake unless you drink too much Game Fuel. So why did I consider it as a con?
That’s because Web MD stated that you need 100mg to 200mg (depends on your weight) of caffeine to reap the benefits of caffeine.
So if you drink Game Fuel, it won’t give you much energy like what coffee and other energy drinks can do and you have to boost your energy with other ways like exercising and drinking water.
Game Fuel Flavors
As you can see in the image above, Game Fuel has a lot of flavors that may tickle your fancy. Here’s a list of all the Game Fuel flavors:
- Charged Tropical Strike
- Charged Original Dew
- Charged Berry Blast
- Charged Berry Burst
- Charged Orange Storm
Seems like all their flavors remind you that you’ll always get charged/energized once you take a sip of Game Fuel!
Price of Gaming Energy Drinks
If you want to more about the different gaming energy drinks in the market, I made a table showing the price of different gaming energy drinks along with Game Fuel.
| Gaming Energy Drinks | Price (Around) |
| Ghost Gamer (Powdered) | $40 |
| Rogue (Powdered) | $33 |
| Sneak (Powdered) | $30 |
| Game Fuel (Cans) | $23 (12 Pack) |
| G Fuel (Powdered and Cans) | $20 (8 Pack) |
Is Game Fuel Bad For You?
The only way that Game Fuel will be bad for your health is if you have a habit of drinking too much of the gaming energy drink. One can do no harm, but the second one can lead to unhealthy habits.
In addition, you’re burning a lot of money for something that won’t add much nutrition to your body.
Yes, Game Fuel has some vitamins, but there are far cheaper and better beverages and even foods that have a higher nutritional value all things considered.
Water is cheap and it’s more beneficial to your body than Game Fuel, it can promote weight loss, flushes out toxins, improves skin complexion, helps digest foods, and even increases your energy as well!
Is Game Fuel Vegan?
Game Fuel doesn’t have an official vegan certification, so it’s not certified vegan. However, in a previous article where we analyzed whether Game Fuel is vegan or not, we found that two ingredients you should look out for are l-theanine and sucralose.
Some l-theanine compounds are derived from bacteria. This biosynthetic version is considered an animal byproduct that vegans don’t consume. However, food and beverage brands are required by law to state if any of their ingredients contain animal-based ingredients.
The next ingredient you should watch out for is sucralose, specifically the brand Splenda, which has a dark and bloody past concerning animal testing. Sucralose may be vegan, but animals were still sacrificed in its name, so it’s up to you to decide to support the brand.
Is Game Fuel Gluten-Free?
Game Fuel has no official gluten-free certification or label either, but we have reason to believe that Game Fuel’s ingredients are gluten-free, which I covered in an article titled Is Game Fuel Gluten-Free?
Since Game Fuel ingredients appear to have no wheat, rye, or barley. It’s safe to hypothesize that it’s gluten-free. However, if you do indeed have some form of gluten allergy like celiac disease you should definitely
Does Game Fuel Actually Work?
When we ask the question of whether an energy drink works on not we look at the product’s claim. I’ve covered this in a previous article called Does Game Fuel Actually Work? To summarize, Game Fuel promises to improve “accuracy and alertness” through its two main active ingredients: caffeine and L-theanine.
Caffeine has been shown to improve mental performance, memory, alertness, reaction time, and short-term recall, as well as improve your mood and reducing your risk of depression and suicide. So caffeine definitely backs up some of Game Fuel’s product claims
L-theanine is shown to improve cognitive performance and mental alertness, as well as enhance task-switching ability. However, you need to consume at least 200 mg of L-theanine for it to be effective and we don’t know how much of it there is in a can of Game Fuel.
Can you drink Game Fuel every day?
It is not advisable to consume Game Fuel on a daily basis. Energy drinks are strongly not advised for daily consumption due to their high sugar and caffeine content. Excess sugar and caffeine consumption can lead to weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease to name a few.
The bottom line is that energy drinks should be taken in moderation. According to the American Heart Association, men should ingest no more than 36 grams of sugar per day. Meanwhile, women should limit their caffeine consumption to no more than 25 grams per day.
Final Verdict
So as we can see Game Fuel as its pros and cons, it’s up to you to decide whether those pros outweigh the cons or vice versa. But whatever you decide, you should always base your decision on your health and well-being.
Nutrition and food safety should take precedent over things like flavor, caffeine content, supplements, and other extra features like having a spill-proof container.
One of the disadvantages that I like to point out is that Game Fuel contains a lot of sugar, although there are other energy drinks out there with much higher sugar content.
However, not all is lost. Game Fuel does have a Zero Sugar version that is sweetened with sucralose instead of sugar, so it’s less unhealthy than the regular one.
All in all, Game Fuel doesn’t seem too bad of an energy drink, but like most energy drinks, it can easily be misused, or should I say over-used. So always watch how much you drink in a day, because if you take one too many, your next can might just be your last.