Current Events > TIL Superman 64 got a strategy guide

(+) Yeah! (+)

From BradyGames.

I miss strategy guides there was an art to how they were produced. They always knew how to capture the right screenshots that made the game look appealing(as did gaming magazines.) YouTube guides and text walkthroughs may have made them largely obsolete but there was an art to them that has been lost.

Iirc it was hit and miss depending on the writers. I liked them just for the high quality maps. But iirc the super Mario 64 one was subpar. Banjo kazooie one was great.

Naysaspace posted...

Iirc it was hit and miss depending on the writers. I liked them just for the high quality maps. But iirc the super Mario 64 one was subpar. Banjo kazooie one was great.

A lot of early and mid '90s guides weren't up to par and mostly did the bare minimum. But by the 2000's even Prima had decent ones.

Still waiting for Proton Jon to finish that let's play. It's been like 14 years...

The ones I was buying (aka my parents was buying) was late 90s. I remember I had the goldeneye one too but still could barely beat the game on secret, let alone 00

Had the rogue squadron and jet force Gemini ones too.

TheHoldSteady posted...

Still waiting for Proton Jon to finish that let's play. It's been like 14 years...

Now there's a name I've not heard in a long time.

BradyGames guides were mostly high quality and excellent save for the FF IX guide.

Prima were hit or miss. They are the only company to do a guide for O.D.T. and it was flat out awful. Not only was it bare bones, but it had errors and did not even show where all items were. On the other hand their Tomb Raider guides were actually decent as were their Syphon Filter guides.

Nintendo Power Guides were fantastic!

KFHEWUI posted...

BradyGames guides were mostly high quality and excellent save for the FF IX guide.

Prima were hit or miss. They are the only company to do a guide for O.D.T. and it was flat out awful. Not only was it bare bones, but it had errors and did not even show where all items were. On the other hand their Tomb Raider guides were actually decent as were their Syphon Filter guides.

Nintendo Power Guides were fantastic!

Versus Books were great but they were a flash in the pan. Nintendo Power guides were mostly good but seemed to have blindspots in pointing out boss attacks. At least from what I remember.

Bradygames frequently had incorrect information in them. I learned to avoid them as a kid.

Pretty sure every game got a published Strategy Guide from 1995-2005

Sometimes multiple guides from multiple publishers

I have like 5 different OoT guides alone

I_is_smart posted...

Bradygames frequently had incorrect information in them. I learned to avoid them as a kid.

Bradygames was easily the worst, yeah

It goes Versus Books > Nintendo Official Guides > Prima > Bradygames

Versus Books guides were legit hilarious. Prima was too dry and Bradygames was just wrong.
Nintendo's own guides were okay and often had killer original artwork

I didnt know Superman 64 was a strategy game

But one of the best guides I ever got was a little Shadows of the Empire one from EGM

Not only did it have a full walkthrough it had a TON of behind-the-scenes stuff and developer interviews. It would have been sick if every guide were like that...

I_is_smart posted...
Bradygames frequently had incorrect information in them. I learned to avoid them as a kid.

Prima really seemed to phone it on some guides although their Tomb Raider and Syphon Filter guides are great. They made serious mistakes like O.D.T.'s guide not only is half baked, but it lists items in wrong location or even does not list all items location. Urban Chaos guide does not even list where the skill points are in levels. Their level maps have white squares on it, and I thought that they were skill points marked, but nope they are not. Lost Odyssey guide had incorrect info.

My favorite guide definitely goes to Acclaim's Shadow Man. It a interview with the directors and even including trivia and bonus facts.

I don't know if any one remembers them, but Dimension Publishing were pretty good. Their Deathtrap Dungeon good is fantastic.

The Majoras Mask Game Informer guide was great

I remember when, if it was a prima guide then you didn't want it.

My condolences to Craig Wessel

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/74fd7346.jpg

God i miss the pokemon strategy guides. I had one for red and blue. Then I had one for yellow. Thats how I memorized all 150 pokeman in numerical order.

The Bradley Games Majora's Mask guide I bought had so much wrong info in it, it was pretty much useless.

b_nolan posted...

The Bradley Games Majora's Mask guide I bought had so much wrong info in it, it was pretty much useless.

I had one for Shadow Man. They acknowledged that parts of their walkthrough was taken out of the PS1 version, but didn't provide a walkthrough for PS1 players.

I remember the original Tactics Ogre guide made by Prima was riddled with typos and a bunch of wrong or useless information. It was the first time I realized where a guide should have never been allowed to be printed.

I only paid five bucks for it and quickly threw it up on eBay and was happy I got maybe 20 for it.

KFHEWUI posted...

Prima really seemed to phone it on some guides although their Tomb Raider and Syphon Filter guides are great. They made serious mistakes like O.D.T.'s guide not only is half baked, but it lists items in wrong location or even does not list all items location. Urban Chaos guide does not even list where the skill points are in levels. Their level maps have white squares on it, and I thought that they were skill points marked, but nope they are not. Lost Odyssey guide had incorrect info.

When stuff like that happens I wonder if they were given an earlier version of the game to use for their guide.

I distinctly recall the Official Nintendo Guide for SSB Melee had Ditto listed as a Pokemon you could summon and a number of Bonuses that were all removed from the retail version.

The worst strategy guide was the Dragon Quest VIII guide that was missing half the content because Square wanted you to use their short lived game help web site.

HylianFox posted...

When stuff like that happens I wonder if they were given an earlier version of the game to use for their guide.

I distinctly recall the Official Nintendo Guide for SSB Melee had Ditto listed as a Pokemon you could summon and a number of Bonuses that were all removed from the retail version.

I've heard of that. Where the guides have the only screenshots of beta content that was completely removed from the retail version.

creativerealms posted...

The worst strategy guide was the Dragon Quest VIII guide that was missing half the content because Square wanted you to use their short lived game help web site.

FF IX was the same.

i have a bunch of PDFs of these. iirc finding some awesome Web 1.0 website with a shit load of these things catalogued.

I have the Bradygames FF9. yeah, seems pretty low-effort. See:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0c7732d4.jpg

DarthDemented posted...

FF IX was the same.

Oh yeah they did that stupidity twice.

The Prima guide for Kirby 64 doesn't even mention the final boss

It literally ends with a "The game is over... or is it? DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!!!" on the final page
>_>

This is made worse by the fact that the final boss (0) is listed among the Enemy Data, but with completely erroneous information.

creativerealms posted...

The worst strategy guide was the Dragon Quest VIII guide that was missing half the content because Square wanted you to use their short lived game help web site.

I still have that guide. I thought it said something along the lines of we don't want to spoil everything for you and just want to give you a framework of the game. Which is equally lame because if I paid 20 plus bucks for a guide, I want to be spoiled and know as much about the game as possible.

Didn't one of the square guides though actually print web links they wanted you to go and visit?

I remember seeing some Pokemon Colosseum ones that had a list of each Shadow Pokemon and where to find them, but it was useless because it had the Japanese trainer names even though the game was out in English.

Kamil posted...

I still have that guide. I thought it said something along the lines of we don't want to spoil everything for you and just want to give you a framework of the game. Which is equally lame because if I paid 20 plus bucks for a guide, I want to be spoiled and know as much about the game as possible.

Didn't one of the square guides though actually print web links they wanted you to go and visit?

I might have been confusing Dragon Quest VIII with Final Fantasy IX. I might have merged my memories of those two guides together.

creativerealms posted...

I might have been confusing Dragon Quest VIII with Final Fantasy IX. I might have merged my memories of those two guides together.

That's likely. I just looked at my DQVIIi guide even took a picture of that page but the picture was too big for gamefaqs. Uploading from mobile is always brutal unless it is a simple gif.

But I was right, "We wanted to guarantee that players could fully enjoy the intense experience of a Dragon Quest game without losing any of the suspense or surprises."

I never realized how InTensE Dragon Quest was lol there are maps but the guide is very vague at times.

I miss instructional booklets in physical copies, as well as the decorative maps. Every game these days comes with the plastic tabs where a manual should go, but they never give the manual with the game.

I actively search yard sales, community sales, the local antiques mall, and the used game stores for old strategy guides and video games magazines. Sometimes I strike gold. Most of the time I don't

I_is_smart posted...

Bradygames frequently had incorrect information in them. I learned to avoid them as a kid.

I have the Smash 64 strategy guide and it has several major errors iirc

LonelyStoner posted...

I miss instructional booklets in physical copies, as well as the decorative maps. Every game these days comes with the plastic tabs where a manual should go, but they never give the manual with the game.

Sadly, manuals have become redundant in modern gaming, since anything the manual could tell you is in the game itself.

In the olden days, the manual really was a major part of the gaming experience.

Garabandal posted...

I have the Smash 64 strategy guide and it has several major errors iirc

I have that one too.

I recall that it distinctly refers to Link as an "elf"
>_>

It also says to NEVER use Jigglypuff's down+B, not mentioning that it does tons of damage if performed right on top of an opponent.

HylianFox posted...

The Prima guide for Kirby 64 doesn't even mention the final boss

It literally ends with a "The game is over... or is it? DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!!!" on the final page
>_>

This is made worse by the fact that the final boss (0) is listed among the Enemy Data, but with completely erroneous information.

BradyGames Final Fantasy VIII guide was the same at least for consoles they literallysay here'sthe final boss good luck! For the PC re-release I think they added a part for the final boss but it was in black and white.

HylianFox posted...

When stuff like that happens I wonder if they were given an earlier version of the game to use for their guide.

I distinctly recall the Official Nintendo Guide for SSB Melee had Ditto listed as a Pokemon you could summon and a number of Bonuses that were all removed from the retail version.

Acclaim's Turok 2 guide definitely did. The order of the bosses are completely different and even levels had differences. The guide even mentions that it was written before the game was finished so there might by differences.

Although their other guides were good, but Turok 2 was a mess.

Didn't one of those companies use a guide from Gamefaqs?

Revelation34 posted...

Didn't one of those companies use a guide from Gamefaqs?

Omg is that real? Lmao

Ragtag28 posted...

Omg is that real? Lmao

I vaguely remember reading this years ago somewhere. Think it was Breath of Fire 3.

Revelation34 posted...

I vaguely remember reading this years ago somewhere. Think it was Breath of Fire 3.

Couldn't that person who wrote the guide sue?

Page 1:
Put Superman 64 cartridge back in box
Return box to store
Leave store
Congratulations! You win!

McMarbles posted...

Page 1:
Put Superman 64 cartridge back in box
Return box to store
Leave store
Congratulations! You win!

Hahaha the trick to winning is to not play it in the first place.

Ragtag28 posted...

Couldn't that person who wrote the guide sue?

Possibly. I'm not sure how they would even be able to prove it though unless they also copied things that would only be in on the site like a special thanks section.

FFIX was probably the last strategy guide I bought. So frustrating

McMarbles posted...

Page 1:
Put Superman 64 cartridge back in box
Return box to store
Leave store
Congratulations! You win!

Superman 64 the official strategy pamphlet!

HylianFox posted...

When stuff like that happens I wonder if they were given an earlier version of the game to use for their guide.

I distinctly recall the Official Nintendo Guide for SSB Melee had Ditto listed as a Pokemon you could summon and a number of Bonuses that were all removed from the retail version.

Yeah, that's what happens. I forget who published it, but I have a Silent Hill strategy guide and some of the answers to the puzzles are just plain wrong.

DD_Divine posted...

FFIX was probably the last strategy guide I bought. So frustrating

Is it usable?
The first time i played that game, i got stomped but people rave about it so i bought a strategy guide last year to try it. Now I'm wondering if that'll help...