I’ll be damned, it works on mobile. Can and will do
Real enough. Prima was sort of the catch-all company. I have a few Majora’s Mask guides and I need to grab more. The oddest one I own is the NintendoPower guide for the Zelda Collectors edition on GameCube. You know, the game with four Zelda games.
It’s a 160 page guide that covers Zelda 1, 2, OoT, and MM. It doesn’t do any of the guides particularly well but they tried!
I am currently using the BradyGames strategy guide for Xenogears and it is pretty okay - I think given the tools of the time and the nature of Xenogears that would have been a hard game to guide.
I also recently came across an old/abused Morrowind guide - an incredible tome with an insane amount of information (my favorite being the public transportation map).
I used Nintendo Player’s Guide for Paper Mario last year and really liked it, but it was a little too “play the game in this specific way to win” instead of “here is info and strategies” (which is what I prefer).
@Ferg Figured I might as well ask the expert. Is Prima really pronounced ‘preema’?
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Similarly, one of my weirdest is the tiny dozen-page Ocarina of Time guide in the back of the Prima Wind Waker guide
Here’s the deal.
I don’t know. For the sake of YouTube engagement, I pronounce it “pr-eye-muh”. It’s probably “pr-ee-muh” but screw it.
Hit that “I” big time.
Huge on all this. I typically prefer hand-holdy bc I like it to explicitly guide me but I’m happy using any book tbh. You might like Piggyback interactive’s style of guides. They do a lot of reference book style works where it’s listed but it isn’t explicit in how to succeed.
I love a beat to hell guide. Meant someone really loved it. Unless it’s water damage. Use a closed lid, heavens.
Still need to play Xenogears. A nice reminder
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I have that one. I believe it comes from an era where guides were trying to find distinction as the Internet was kicking off. I have a similar one for Metroid Prime x Fusion as well as a double guide for Sonic Adventure 2 Battle x Sonic Advanced.
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I have guides for most Zelda games. The oldest I have is an unofficial guide for A Link to the Past that is mostly text only with a handful of black and white pictures.
Aside from Zelda, I have guides for Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy 3 (DS remake), Pokemon Red/Blue, Super Smash Bros Melee, Pikmin. I also have a couple classic guides for the early years of World of Warcraft.
I’m sure there are others, but they’re mostly put away in my magazine files (along with my extensive Nintendo Power collection). This is mostly what I can remember off the top of my head. 
I also have the Prima guide for Ogre Battle 64, which is infamous among the Ogre Battle 64 community (which is a real thing) for being terrible. There’s a whole separate guide on GameFAQs just listing the errors…but even the error collection guide is incomplete and sometimes wrong.
I do have 2 strategy guides that I keep readily available as reference material (so I took a picture): I have Japanese guides for both Ogre Battle and Ogre Battle 64.
I have the exact Ogre Battle 64 from Japan as well. I also picked up the guides for P3 Reload, Dragon Quest III 2D- HD, Fire Emblem Binding Blade, Pikmin 1, and Final Fantasy V Super Famicom. There were so many cool guides but I didn’t bring the extra luggage. Next time!
Nintendo Power is very cool. I’m not a huge magazine enjoyer, I don’t love the texture of the pages nor the smell of cheap ink but I do like Nintendo Power a great deal. Their short run of magazine-style guides like the one for Final Fantasy I were very cool. I have a pretty mint copy of that one.
I have a guide for every numbered Final Fantasy except XI, XIV, XVI. I want to get a Famicom guide for Final Fantasy II and III but haven’t done so yet. One of the cooler guides I own is the Prima guide for Pokemon Yellow. It includes all the information for Red and Blue as well so it’s a definitive book for USA gen 1. I have the Wii version of Pikmin 1 in English but not the GameCube. I also love my battlechest guides for WoW.
I have four unique Luigi’s Mansion GameCube guides, each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. I love games that have multiple guides so I can do direct comparisons. They’re very interesting and more common than one would think. Although by the PS3 era print guides really consolidated.\
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I’m not sure I qualify as a “magazine enjoyer” these days. Most of my Nintendo Power issues were collected when I was a kid (I had a subscription for several years). I was very interested in completing the set for a while, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve started to appreciate it less.
I’ve considered selling some of it, but every time I actually pull them out and start deciding what to let go of…I get all sentimental and keep all of it.
I definitely feel this. I consider gunning after every Brady and Prima guide but for what lol. I’m having fun researching what I have and expanding when I need more knowledge.
HA, I didn’t know Bart Farkas was writing as far back as Turok. Fun!
I have a good chunk of these. The Mario 64 one is really fun because of Mario’s cursed stretched face on the front and back inside covers
The Prima OoT guide, I believe, was rereleased for the GameCube release. I don’t think they made any adjustments nor included any info for Master Quest. Just double dipped
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The last strategy guide I bought was second-hand for Oblivion when I played it for the first time a few years ago.
My favorite guide I own, funnily enough, is actually the Cyberpunk collector’s edition guide. It’s absolutely gorgeous and packed with lore/world primer stuff, but it’s also this amusing time capsule in that a decent chunk of it has been rendered irrelevant with overhauls of all its RPG systems. The quest walkthroughs are fully intact, though, as not much of the story progression and branching and side quest dependencies were touched after launch (aside from added content from the expansion).
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I have both the Oblivion and GotY editions of the guide. I love how the original Oblivion guide’s cover is that one book you get in the main quest.
I have this one as well but yet to use it. Piggyback has consistently published bangers. Their guide on Final Fantasy VIII is gorgeous as are their guides on Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Dragon Age II. They’re a strong publisher.
You might like some guides by FuturePress. They have some cool hardback guides. I’m trying to source their guide on Bayonetta 1 but it’s elusive.
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This thread inspired me to finally buy fangamer’s Mother 3 guide. I’ve been on the fence for a while but this thread really rekindled the strategy guide spark.
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Yoooo let me know how it is! I’m intrigued but haven’t done so yet.
I’m glad, truly. There’s not really a place online explicitly for strategy guides but I know most players from age 25 on up have, realistically, interacted with a strategy guide or have a favorite memory with one. They’re the coolest intersection of physical media impacting a digital experience. If I can get people to get back in touch with them, I’ll be happy lol
I only ever owned one strategy guide in my life and it was the Prima guide for Oracle of Ages/Seasons.
The handheld Zelda games are fairly straightforward so there wasn’t much need for a guide, but it really was a beautifully laid-out document and the only place I would have been able to see the neat promotional art for the game.
I only remember two things about it:
One was the guide on which animal friend you get (which you’d need a guide for because it made no sense)
There were some words of encouragement written for the final_final_boss.psd battle that I can credit for being the only reason I never gave up on the game!
It’s funny how profound things are when you’re ten years old, but the fact the authors were able to speak to me on that level proves how much care went into these projects.
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Honestly this was half of the reason I loved strategy guides as a kid. I was very not good at most games, but strategy guides showed detailed illustrations and art of pretty much everything. I loved any strategy guide that included story summaries too instead of just gameplay guidance.
The Final Fantasy Tactics guide was a huge example of one I would read through for what felt like hours just to see the art and read about all the potential classes.