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modernzorker's review
5.0
My review is heavily tinted by nostalgia, and I'll admit that up front. The fact is, I've owned multiple copies of this book over the years ever since it came out in the 1980s. That's not because it's a particularly well-written book (you can tell the obvious translation from Japanese to English wasn't polished), not because it's got some amazing screen shots, maps, box art and strategy tips (yes to all of the above). It's because, at the time of its release, it was THE holy grail for all avid NES gamers.
While larger, better-written, and more expansive guides are now available online for free, and YouTube provides video footage and walkthroughs to the masses, The Official Nintendo Player's Guide offered stuff you just couldn't get anywhere else. Nintendo recognized early on the money to be made by going all-out with their guides and their magazine, and they held very little back when it came to the production of this guide.
Need maps for Zelda's dungeons? Locations of all the essential items in Metroid? Don't know where the Warp Zones are in Super Mario Bros.? Other books at the time told you where to go and what to do in black-and-white text. This one SHOWED you via screenshots stitched together to form the best maps you could ask for. The only thing it didn't offer were start-to-finish spoilers. Nintendo's philosophy at the time was one of getting you close to the end, then leaving you to finish the rest on your own. Even calls to their 1-900 number hint line begging for assistance on beating the final boss or navigating the last maze would go unanswered. This guide maintains that tradition.
If that turns you off, just head on over and check out the NES Game Atlas, produced by Nintendo a few years later, which was happy to hold your hand all the way from start to finish.
So, a comical translation, incomplete walkthroughs, and dated information that can be found for free elsewhere online for games out of print for twenty-five years ...why give such a book five stars?
Because I loved it as a kid, read the hell out of my first copy, read the hell out of my second copy, and had the sense enough to keep my third copy in relatively good shape. At the time, this was light-years beyond anything else available and paved the way for our modern-day Prima and BradyGames strategy guides. Worth five stars to me for that alone.
While larger, better-written, and more expansive guides are now available online for free, and YouTube provides video footage and walkthroughs to the masses, The Official Nintendo Player's Guide offered stuff you just couldn't get anywhere else. Nintendo recognized early on the money to be made by going all-out with their guides and their magazine, and they held very little back when it came to the production of this guide.
Need maps for Zelda's dungeons? Locations of all the essential items in Metroid? Don't know where the Warp Zones are in Super Mario Bros.? Other books at the time told you where to go and what to do in black-and-white text. This one SHOWED you via screenshots stitched together to form the best maps you could ask for. The only thing it didn't offer were start-to-finish spoilers. Nintendo's philosophy at the time was one of getting you close to the end, then leaving you to finish the rest on your own. Even calls to their 1-900 number hint line begging for assistance on beating the final boss or navigating the last maze would go unanswered. This guide maintains that tradition.
If that turns you off, just head on over and check out the NES Game Atlas, produced by Nintendo a few years later, which was happy to hold your hand all the way from start to finish.
So, a comical translation, incomplete walkthroughs, and dated information that can be found for free elsewhere online for games out of print for twenty-five years ...why give such a book five stars?
Because I loved it as a kid, read the hell out of my first copy, read the hell out of my second copy, and had the sense enough to keep my third copy in relatively good shape. At the time, this was light-years beyond anything else available and paved the way for our modern-day Prima and BradyGames strategy guides. Worth five stars to me for that alone.
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