Customer Reviews

Pokemon Gold & Silver: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book does NOT measure up to previous Prima guide standards. The only reason I gave it two stars at all is because the maps are good. If you're looking for a book to help you find the new Pokemon and complete your Pokedex, this is no help. Unlike Prima's previous strategy guides, there is no appendix in the back telling evolution requirements, listing moves, or stating locations. There's not even a checklist for the pokemon! It seems that they tried to print this book before thouroughly researching it, because in some places where a new pokemon is being discussed, there is a big question mark where the picture should be.(No, not on the legendary ones, on ones I saw pictures of on the internet months ago.) In some route descriptions there are no new pokemon listed as being found there, but there's a small note that says there MAY be new pokemon there, like they're not sure. On one of the last pages there's an advertisement for a separate Prima guide, the Pokedex. In the Red/Blue/Yellow books this feature was included. One less important carelessness, there are frequent spelling/grammatical errors throughout the book.

In conclusion, if you want a good Pokemon guide, save your money and look elsewhere.

Not sure what the other reviewers are annoyed about, but you MUST get this.

It's well written and easy to understand, with GREAT maps that are really clear. Without these maps you migh tfind yourself bumbling aroudn the cities and forests forever.

The guide also gives you th einside scoop on gym leaders, elite four, which pokemon to use when, etc. There is NO WAY you can know all this info without the book.

If you consider not knowing where to find all the different Pokemon a drawback, then you are missing the point. It is a STRATEGY guide, not a TELL-ALL book! You need to be able to do some of this stuff yourself. Trust me, if you are told this info, there is no point in playing the game - NO surprises left.

Get this book, you'll be glad you did!

I have mixed feelings about this Strategy Guide, which I bought as a companion book to Pokemon Gold on the Game Boy. Generally, I think it`s well written and easy to understand, with superb maps which clearly tell you where items are and how to get around in the different cities (which I found really useful, as I`m not very good at navigation in RPGs). It also tells you about the different Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, and what the best Pokemon to use against them are. There is a section on how to breed Pokemon too, plus charts telling you what Pokemon are found in certain areas during the morning, daytime and nighttime and the stages of evolution for a few new Pokemon.

Unfortunately, this book doesn`t really go into detail about where different Pokemon can be found and how to complete your Pokedex. It seems this book was intended just as a walkthrough to help you complete the game quickly, which kind of spoils your fun. If you want help with filling up your Pokedex properly, you have to buy another Prima book, which is advertised in the back.

Overall I`d recommend this book if you`re a novice at the Pokemon games, because the maps and walkthroughs are very good. But sadly, the lack of a proper Pokedex stops the book from being excellent.

Although there are plenty of details necessary for winning the game, this new guide for the Pokemon Gold/Silver games is lacking in a few areas.

First and foremost is the detailed Pokedex information (that which lists all 251 Pokemon, what attacks they earn at each level, when they evolve, etc.). There is a little bit of this sprinkled in for some of the new Pokemon in the guide pages, but not nearly as detailed as they have done for past versions of the game. I understand that all of this information will be detailed in a companion guide - I don't have a problem with that given how much stuff Prima already had to cover in this new guide; it would have made more sense for the Pokedex companion guide to have been available at the same time.

Second, the info on what Pokemon are available in each area is not always 100% accurate (I've had many surprises show up for battles). This could have been researched a bit more thoroughly.

One positive though was the idea to "seal" the hard challenge puzzle answers in the back of the book. This way one can casually read the rest of the book and not get completely spoiled for some of the games more interesting challenges. This was a good thing.

Now Im a big Poke Fanatic and I have seen past guide books and the one feature that makes it great is a pokedex. WHY DOESN'T THIS BOOK HAVE ONE?!?!?! But I noticed that theres an ad in this that shows a POKEMON COOMPLETE POKEDEX!!! I have looked for it everywhere and I can't find it. If you are looking for a pokedex go to http://www.pokemoninfodex.com/ its the best online pokedex. Make sure to check it out.

This guide has almost everything you need to know. It has maps of the areas, what pokemon are located on each route, what each pokemon attack does, and much more. ( They also have a great cheat section. ) The only thing they didn't do very well was put the pokemon names with their attacks under them. The pokemon weren't all in one place. They were spread around the book in not any order! This makes them hard to find. Also the didn't include all the pokemon! Still, I think you should get this guide! The game is very hard without it. Also isn't it better to have a guide that is ok than no guide at all? ( I don't think there are any other Pokemon Gold and Silver guides. )

Have being considering for quite some time whether to buy the Brady Games strategy guide instead, due to the attractive shiny Gold/Silver cover ... heard it may be a collector item too.

However, finally decided to pick the Prima one. Reason? ... it is more informative and easy-to-understand after flipping through both the guides.

No doubt, unlike the previous Red/Blue/Yellow guides, Prima fails to consolidate the Pokedex at the back of the book to give a clear-cut listing this time round. Neither does it have a checklist for one to keep track of the Pokemons captured. The Pokedex is actually found throughout the book, making it difficult to refer as and when requires! This feature is similar for the Brady Games one too.

Personally, I like the tables found inside this book. They make it easier to understand certain concepts, eg. there are tables showing the evolution examples (Eevee + Fire Stone = Flareon), breeding examples (Male Pikachu + Female Pikachu = Pichu), and so on.

Moreover, when discussing about an area (eg. Route 30), there is always a table showing the wild pokemons that would appear there at different time of a day (Morning, Day, Nite). This feature does not seem to be found in the Brady Games guide when I glanced through.

Like always, there is a 2-pages rough outlines of what one needs to accomplish at different places and an overview map, serving as quick start tools.

So far the book has being helpful in leading me through the journey, and I am on my way to complete the game.

I think this guide is pretty good! The only thing I don't like is that it seems incomplete with no Pokedex but I don't really use the Pokedex anyway so... You pretty much need a strategy guide if you are seriously thinking about completing the game. I don't think I could have done it without, the game is very hard and I was frequently stuck. I would get this guide because it helps in the places where a lot of people need help! Don't worry about the missing Pokedex. Also, the maps help a lot since you can see where you're going. Use them!

Missing a few baby pokemon pictures, needs to tell about all the pokemon in an area, not just some. But the maps are helpful, and the information is accurate. I would have been lost in Tin Tower getting Ho-oh if it wasn't for this book! A good guide compared to Nintendo's guide. I'm going to get the Pokedex too.

I was disappointed in this guide, due to the lack of detailed strategy. Also, it seemed to gloss over a few of the important areas and treat them like they didn't even exist.

It seemed as though the authors quickly wrote it, without verifying strategy and concepts that they described. I expected much more specific and accurate strategy from an official strategy guide. It sure wasn't worth the money in my opinion.

If you're really into the game, this "guide" will leave you extremely disappointed. I have used Prima's other Pokemon guides and loved them. As a result, I didn't even look through this one before I bought it. I wish I had. If I had known that it didn't even have a pokedex I wouldn't have wasted my money on it. The "guide" part isn't that great either. It leaves you guessing on many, many points and is just really confusing. I'm sure there are better guides out there somewhere.