8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
You couldn't have gotten more info in here?, July 14, 1999
This review is from: Super Mario Brothers Deluxe: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
OK--I figure that there are two reasons one would want to shell out the money for this guide: 1) you're a collector, like me, or 2) you want to a convinient guide with maps showing you the locations of all the new "deluxe" secrets and items in the game. For the latter, it does a decent job, but so much more could have been included, in a much less amount of space. There is a very large introductory section that is nothing more than a rehash of the instruction booklet (going over gameplay, items, enemies, power-ups, etc.) with some color artwork in the background. Nothing noteworthy, except for the mere fact that the screenshots are more blurry than if you were to shake your Gameboy Color up and down as fast as you could! There's no excuse for this--you NEVER see blurry screenshots of Gameboy games in magazines. The [much better looking] maps that make up the rest of the guide cover each stage in very good detail, and are decorated with captions that point out the tricky areas in many of the stages. For those of you who are wondering, the Lost Levels, or "Super Mario Bros. for Experts" stages have been mapped out and captioned as well. Following those sections of the book is a repeat of the first 32 maps of the original game, this time showing them as they appear in the Challenge mode; finding the red coins, the Yoshi egg, and beating the target score are covered in detail. However, why this information couldn't have been printed on (or at least adjacent to) the same map that appears in the first section of the guide baffles me. Here's 30 or so more pages that could have been used for more info on the racing courses (which turned out to only spread over 4 pages, with no strategies for them mentioned WHATSOEVER, even though this is boasted on the back cover of the guide) or some extra Mario tidbits. The final section of the book points out the numerous secrets that are unlocked as you achieve things in the game, but alas is rather incomplete (don't think you're gonna find out how to unlock all of those secret pictures in the Options menu--those continue to remain a mystery). For an official strategy guide, I expected more. If it's just beating those challenge courses that you care about, spend 5 bucks and pick up the August 1999 issue of Expert Gamer magazine. But if you just like to have as much info as you possibly can about games, or are just a guide collector, go for it. You won't be TOO disappointed...
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2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is really cool!, June 11, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Super Mario Brothers Deluxe: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
This book is awesome, buy it
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