GeekNights 20120124 - Strategy Guides

okeefe

The Super Mario Bros. 3 strategy guide was the best thing Nintendo Power ever published. Mine started falling apart from overuse, so I used the biggest stapler I could find to put it back together.

I was also a huge fan of the Hammer Suit. With that in mind, here's what I'd occasionally do:

1. Warp to Ice Land, World 6, and rack up stored Hammer Suits.
   
2. Warp from World 6 back to Sky Land, World 5, and play that world with a Hammer Suit, which is normally not available there.
   
3. Kuribo's Shoe + Hammer Suit!
   

I never managed to beat Bowser with a Hammer Suit intact. I did beat the game once or twice with no warp whistles used.

Matt

I had a pretty identical experience to what was described in this podcast. There were only very brief periods of time as a child where an NES was available to me (borrowed from an uncle, my family had a Sega Master System), so I owned the Ninja Gaiden II and Super Mario 3 strategy guides and would read those things like nobody's business. For a 6-year-old kid who's primary interest in those games was exploring and seeing everything, those books were fantastic.

I also later owned the strategy guide for the Super Mario RPG on SNES even though I only ever played through the game on a few rentals. I think the last one I ever purchased was for Shenmue.

djfooboo

I'm surprised Earthbound and Ocarina of Time's strategy guides weren't mentioned. They were ace for their time. I even bought the fangamer-made Mother 3 handbook which is an homage to the original Earthbound guide for nostalgia's sake.

HMTKSteve

I bought the guides for the Fallout games AFTER I beat them. Why? Because I love game so much and reading through the guide allows me to re-experience the game when I can't play the game. It also allowed me to find things that I never found in the game, things I never even knew existed.

Funny thing is that I got the one for New Vegas, glanced at it and put it back onto my bookshelf. I only purchased it because Borders was closing and they had it on sale for dirt cheap.

I also purchased the Pokemon books for move lists and to find hidden TMs scattered around the world.

I never use the books before I beat the game. I use the books as a way to squeeze more fun out of the game.

With all the wikia game pages out there the value of a game guide has decreased. Add in the low price of tablets and there is no reason to ever buy a guide book anymore.

Matt

When I bought the original Fallout of of Good Old Games, it came with this awesome "Fallout Bible" book that I haven't even cracked the surface on. I love that GoG put all sorts of bonus content into the purchase.