Game Boy: Nintendo Player's Guides

A part of what makes collecting videeo games so much fun is that getting a package in the mail is exciting. It's always been this way for me. And it goes back to those elementary school days when I would receive my monthly issue of Nintendo Power. Each magazine would be filled with rumors, reviews, tricks & tips about all the latest Nintendo games. And of course there would be feature-length walk-throughs, with screens cut and paste (literally! cut and paste!) of entire levels. Back before the days of the internet and it's endless FAQ's, all we had was Nintendo Power and our friends on the playground.

Two years after the release of the Game Boy, the editors of Nintendo Power released a book that served as an inventory of every Game Boy game released up until that point along with some collected walkthroughs.

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Game Boy: Nintendo Player's Guide (1991, 176 pages) is a must-own piece of history for any Game Boy enthusiest. Although I generally tend to stay away from FAQ's, I feel like the walk-throughs contained in these pages are fair game. There's something extremely fun about an old-school paper walk-through straight from the nerdy writers at NP. The back of the book contains cover art and brief reviews of over 130 Game Boy games, which makes for a truly great pick-up-and-thumb-through coffee table (or bathroom) book.

The games that receive In-Depth (generally 6-8 pages) reviews and walk-throughs are:

Batman
Castlevania: The Adventure
Cosmo Tank
Days Of Thunder
Dr. Mario
Double Dragon
Duck Tales
F-1 Race
Final Fantasy: Legend
Fortified Zone
Gargoyle's Quest
Golf
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Kwirk
The Hunt For Red October
Nemesis
Operation C
Quarth
Revenge Of The Gator
R-Type
Solarstriker
Solomon's Club
Super Mario Land
Super RC Pro-Am
Sword Of Hope
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan
Tetris
Ultima: Runes Of Virtue

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Three years later, a companion book was released entiteld simply Super Game Boy (1994, 72 pages) which is a little less necessary, but certainly interesting. It mainly focues on the concept of the various color palettes that were made available through use of the SNES Super Game Boy adapter. However it also contains some extended analysis (usually 4-6 pages) for some games that were released after the first book, and especially ones that contained enhanced features for use with the Super Game Boy.

Games outlined:

Alleyway
Donkey Kong
Dr. Mario
Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Pinball Land
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Metriod II: Return Of Samus
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
Tennis
Tetris
World Cup
Yoshi

Okay book club, let's read and discuss!