I’m a real The Onion style sicko for videogame strategy guides. It’s the one thing I’m super into with this medium. I have lots of thoughts on strategy guides but I’m basically just looking to chat about them wholesale.
Anyone have any favorite videogame strategy guides? Any least favorites? Any just odd ones too??
I’m unironically a fan of the Final Fantasy IX BradyGames guide because Brady had to publish this guide to keep the license for future projects. Even though PlayOnline was catastrophic, Brady kept the FF and Square relationship until their merger with Prima in 2015. Also Square learned and allowed PiggyBack to publish their FF IX guide with significantly less PlayOnline integration.
One of the stinkiest guides I’ve ever used is the NintendoPower guide for Luigi’s Mansion. While it should be an easy win across the board, the guide has virtually no tips for catching portrait ghosts and actually doesn’t list most of the cheese mice nor blue money ghosts. So strange especially for first party guides.
A strange one that really stands out to me is Guitar Hero II published by Brady. It’s odd because it lists all the PS2 main tracks as expert tablature which opens the discussion to the five-fret music system as a valid form of musical notation. It also contains the first written form of “Jordan” by Buckethead so that’s fun too.
I’m “used to buy magazines for the tips and tricks section” years old. But also I was lucky enough that I could go to my dad’s work and use this crazy, magic thing called the “Internet” to print off pages from Gamefaqs and put them in a spare binder from the office.
Felt like a wizard until PC Gamer started putting walkthroughs on their cover discs. Guides on a budget, baybee.
P.S shoutout to that patient soul who did an ASCII guide to NiGHTS when a huge chunk of it was describing the optimal routes to get A rank.
I have more than I should lol. I’m always a sucker for a nice hardback guide at a good price regardless of what game it’s for. I have Gears 4 for that reason.
I did manage to get an original copy of the Earthbound strategy guide with all scratch and sniff stickers intact. Any guides you’re looking for explicitly or just whenever they behoove?
Big fan of the online guide presence like GameFAQs but my first and endless love is the paper books. Such a neat cross section of new tech with classic media.
There were so many paper guide publications in the United States before and riiiight after the dot-com bubble burst but they all consolidated into BradyGames, Prima, or Nintendo Power until all that was left was Prima. Luckily Europe still has good guide publishers like PiggyBack and FuturePress.
I honestly never held a guide before the outdated World of Warcraft one that I got with a battlechest in the olden days. The concept of them seems cool, but I just did the “fun” struggle with odd pc games and then give up later strat with 'em.
I do still really like written guides/walkthroughs for things whenever I get stuck on something, so much nicer to work with then any alternative.
It’s not quite a guide but I had the Super Game Boy as a kid and I remember it came with a pretty comprehensive book with tips for a lot of games, especially the ones that were SGB enhanced.
I’d like to own this own again some day. The pictures of Donkey Kong 94 were fun.
that’s a cool one. I have a decently mint version of the Link to the Past SNES Nintendo Power guide. It comes from a similar lineage as the Super Game Boy publication. They’re really neat books. Nintendo Power was doing some cool stuff in the 90s for sure.
The Link to the Past Super Nintendo Guide has a foldout map of Hyrule. They’d reuse that tech for Banjo-Kazooie’s guide to show a full schematic of Grunty’s Lair.
I was hoping you’d make this thread ever since I saw your intro. I love learning more about niche topics from someone passionate about them.
A few years ago I played through Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite on Game Boy Colour, and used a GameFAQs guide for some of the things I could not find on my own. The guide contained tributes to the writer’s actual pet hamsters. I love touching tributes like that.
The only one I’ve ever really used for a playthrough was the strategy guide for Donkey Kong Country GBA Port which was actually lavishly detailed and full of great info! I ended up completing the game 100% thanks to that!
I have fond memories of getting Majora’s Mask for my birthday along with the strategy guide. My grandpa who played Zelda even before I was born got me it. I def owe him for my love of the series!
I still have a small-ish collection of strategy guides. I bought most of them while I was growing up. Most of my guides are for Zelda games. My favorite is probably the official Ocarina of Time guide. I received mine as a bonus for renewing my subscription to Nintendo Power.
I was stuck on the Water Temple at the time, and I was desperate for a guide to help. The guide became lost in the mail and took around 4 months to arrive. By the time I got it, it already looked like another kid had owned it for years.
That never phased me. I beat the Water Temple (which I now have memorized).
My all-time favorite is the Nintendo Player’s Guide for Earthbound. It may not be perfect in terms of information/strategies, but its presentation is unrivaled. All the travel guides, newspaper clippings and ads, clay model photos. I actually think playing without this guide is not as fun as having it.
My latest favorite is Fangamer’s Dwarf Fortress guide. It’s a game where you want the wiki open while you play anyway, so having a small, illustrated hardback that is very informative rules. It is almost more of a manual; another guide that really enhanced the game for me.
The Nintendo Player’s Guide for the original Link’s Awakening is my white whale. It is packed with beautiful illustrations by Katsuya Terada that add an intensity and mystique to the games (that contrasts with the game’s cute artstyle).
Realizing I could keep rambling - I recently bought the fancy hardcover guides for Bloodborne and Metaphor ReFantazio and I am floored by how detailed and dense they are. You could take a reasonable stab at recreating those games from those guides.
Hell yeah, I came across this before. It’s a cool guide and it speaks to the passion of both paper guide writers and digital guide writers.
Generally speaking, people write guides because they love it. That personal touch makes it even better.
One paper guide with cool personal touches is the Majora’s Mask guide published by VersusBook. It doesn’t go into personal detail but the author’s voice shines through
I think I have that guide. Is it the one by Nintendo Power? I have a few DKC guides. The original SNES one has Donkey Kong’s massive dumpy. Dumpy Kong, if you will.
You’re speaking my language. I did find, and buy, an original copy of the Earthbound guide with all the stickers intact. Found it in my town in person. It cost less than you’d think but more than I want to admit.
I grabbed the Fangamer guide for Slime Rancher 1. Really nice finish on it!
I do love the Links Awakening guide. It’s on my list of “next bonus” purchases. I have the LttP SNES NintendoPower guide with some killer art too.
I have those future press guides as well. I keep trying to grab their Bayonetta 1 guide but the last one I bought disintegrated in shipping??? Next time
I am working on a YouTube video about how polished those Future press guides are too. They’re gorgeous
Just for future reference, Ferg (and I’m just figuring this out myself as well), you can select and copy quotes into a single reply. Might make it a little easier to read.
