The books that taught us how to play — Nintendo Power, Prima, Brady, and beyond
Nintendo Power's landmark coverage of Super Mario Bros. 3 — spread across a special issue and supplementary guide — was the definitive English-language resource for the game and set the template for magazine-format strategy guides for years.
Nintendo of America's official player's guide for A Link to the Past was a lavishly produced full-colour volume that documented all dungeons, overworld secrets, and items in a format that became the gold standard for official SNES guides.
Brady Games' Final Fantasy VII guide was a massive reference volume covering the game's sixty-plus hours of content and became one of the best-selling strategy guides ever published, with sales driven by the game's unprecedented mainstream crossover success.
Prima Games' official Doom guide arrived as shareware copies of the game were circulating in millions of office networks and dorm rooms, providing level maps and secret locations for a game whose non-linear secrets were genuinely difficult to find without assistance.
Nintendo of America's official Pokémon guide accompanied the landmark 1998 North American launch and became one of the best-selling strategy guides in history, carried by the franchise's explosive entry into Western popular culture.
Nintendo of America's Super Metroid player's guide was a production landmark in the strategy guide format — artistically designed with in-world photography and environmental atmosphere that matched the game's isolation and mystery.
Nintendo of America's EarthBound Player's Guide is the most distinctive strategy guide ever produced for a console RPG — packaged in a box with a scratch-and-sniff insert and designed in a tone of knowing suburban absurdism that matched the game's irreverent personality.
Nintendo of America's Donkey Kong Country player's guide documented Rare's graphically revolutionary SNES platformer with full-colour production that attempted to capture the game's pre-rendered 3D visual style in print.
The official Street Fighter II Turbo guide for the Super NES covered the full character roster's moves and combos in a format that became the template for fighting game guides through the 1990s — a move list compendium with strategic guidance for each matchup.
Sega's official guide for the original Sonic the Hedgehog documented all six zones and their secret routes, serving as the primary reference for a game that made hidden paths and speed optimisation part of its core identity.
Square's official Japanese Chrono Trigger guide was an unusually lavish production — containing Toriyama artwork, complete enemy bestiary entries, and a level of technical detail that reflected the game's status as Square's most ambitious Super Famicom project.
Midway's laminated move cards for Mortal Kombat arcade cabinets were the primary information delivery system for the game's fatalities — the finishing moves whose deliberate withholding created the first viral gaming secret of the home console era.