Your Favorite Strategy Guides

[Anapan]

I used to love the Nintendo Player Guide NES Game Atlas <- (Someone's blog with pics)
My friend still has it in his desk drawer for quick reference, right above the Super Gameboy Nintendo Strategy Guide.
At one point I actually had most of "Top Secret Passwords" memorized too, so I must've read through it a bunch of times.

[Gunstar Green]

Wing Commander I & II: The Ultimate Strategy Guide

What makes this book cool is it's all written in-universe from the perspective of the (at the time nameless) main character recalling his time during the war. It gives you a strategy for getting through each mission but also lots of amusing fiction. It even covers the losing path missions, retconning in a different ship that took part in those missions instead of the Tiger's Claw. It's a really neat concept and a lot of fun to read.



Wolfenstein 3D: Official Hint Manual

This came with the CD version of Wolf 3D and I loved the hell out of it as a kid. It had every map from all six episodes and covered every little secret. It also had hints for difficult sections and had a lot of background information including stories about development and talks about what they were thinking when designing specific levels or how John Carmack was already frustrated with the game's engine and working on something better. I wore the cover of this book ragged.

[ExedExes]

Remember how some old issues of Nintendo Power were strategy guides dedicated to one game? No magazine could get away with that these days. Volume 17 (the original Final Fantasy) was especially impressive.

If it weren't for the Final Fantasy guide and the Dragon Warrior guide from Nov/Dec 89 issue, I wouldn't have gotten into RPGs until probably Super Mario RPG (but hey, I had the Nintendo guide for that one too!)

Nintendo did put out some sweet guides. I LOVED the Top Secret Passwords guide. I've got the original 4 they put out in 1991 (NES Game Atlas/Game Boy/Mario Mania/Super NES), and I've also got Mario Paint, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2, and SMRPG.

[GirlGamer55]

Nintendo player guides were some of the best, I do have some good Brady and Prima guides for non Nintendo games...Tomb Raider mainly. I have nearly all the Tomb Raider guides from Prima. Just missing like one or two lol.

But I have to agree with Popo, that guide was one if not the best guides I have ever read. Shame I no longer own it or my old beat up map. Man I loved looking over that map as a kid, it got used so much that it started to come apart so I had to tape it to hold it together...god knows what I did with it once I moved onto the N64 era. *sigh* Memories.

[MyNameIsVince]

You guys are all wrong. The correct answer is the official Nintendo Player's Guide for A Link to the Past.



Complete, well organized, and full of character. It wasn't just "here's the information", they added stories about the game that brought it even more to life. They even included a little blurb to give an in-universe explanation for sprite mirroring.

That one is amazing.

I also like the Nintendo Final Fantasy III guide. It's packed with wonderful Amano artwork.

Remember how some old issues of Nintendo Power were strategy guides dedicated to one game? No magazine could get away with that these days. Volume 17 (the original Final Fantasy) was especially impressive.

I have that strategy guide. It's one of, if not my favorite strategy guide of all time. Unfortunately, I'm missing a few pages at the end of it (mainly bosses and a few heart secrets). It's also a collector's item too.

As for those Nintendo Power issues dedicated as strategy guides, I have the Final Fantasy and Super Mario Bros 3 guides. The SMB3 guide I used to read the hell out of all the time. It's worn beyond belief, but thankfully, no actual pages are missing (it even has the Target sticker from which my mom bought it from, since I didn't subscribe to Nintendo Power until later in the year). The front and back cover did come off but I taped it back on so....I guess it's as good as new. The Final Fantasy one.....looks just like it came off a magazine rack. I wasn't a Final Fantasy guy and never owned the game so I never really "read" the guide at all. Why did I have it? As part of my subscription (oddly enough it's one of the few issues of Nintendo Power I had sent to my old house before I moved in November 1990).