Smash Bros Stragegy Guide Publisher Prima Games is shutting down but the SSBU guide is still coming

[the8thark]

Prima Games, who made physical stragegy guides for 28 years for many games is shutting down.
Source - http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/strategy-guide-publisher-prima-games-is-shutting-down/

This is a shame as they made so many good guides. I personally liked them for the artwork. However I do get it. Places like gamefaqs and otehr internet sites are used now. Less and less people want to pay for a printed guide that can't be edited when the games are later patched. Also not all of their guides were good. Their Super Mario Galaxy 2 Guide was infamous for being full of totally incorrrect information. To the point of putting the wrong bosses in places and taking people on wild goose chases instead of telling people the right way to go. This the exception and not the rule though. Most of their guides were good.

The Super Smash Bros Ultimate guide is rumoured to be coming still before they shut down though. Which is a very good thing as the other SMash Bros guides were really good. I down't own the N64 one but I do want to get it. I have the other 3 and they were great. I'll show them so people can see them.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

I ended up with the Star Fox Adventures Prima Guide and don't even remember how I got it. It was very useful.

 

[Fraxinus]

I was never the biggest fan of the Prima guides. They were very beautiful from a collector's perspective, and fully illustrated, but the content itself never really held up to standard, in my opinion. Certain guide writers were way too wordy for no particular reason (see: Twilight Princess Premiere Guide), and for the sake of being a written walkthrough, it was very redundantly phrased, which made actually using them quite a pain. There was also the issue where they would completely miss entire parts of some games, and never mention anything about them, which makes the guides stupidly thorough in some areas, and then completely ignoring others. A lot of typos are present throughout their guides as well. Probably because they're so wordy, that no one wanted to proofread them.

But, for maps and quick overviews (and occasional bonus concept art), they did excel in quality, and it's sad to hear they're going under. I do like my Brawl Prima guide, but I can't say I am interested in getting the one for Ultimate. I don't really buy guides anymore, but if they have an art section, I may reconsider.

 

[Princess Niki]

R.I.P Prima you were helpful before the internet was good. I still have some Pokemon guides. I remember my neighbor's had some for some of their N64 games like Donkey Kong 64, Super Mario 64, and Pokemon Stadium.

 

[A Link In Time]

The only Prima Guide I ever owned was for the GBA remake of Super Mario Bros. 3. It was a very detailed book, and it gave me a glimpse of the eReader levels for the first time before I finally got to play them years later on the Wii U Virtual Console.

That said, it's sad to see another piece of physical media go. I know there are great walkthroughs available on the Internet, but it's not the same feeling as using a physical book. I guess I'll pick up my second ever Prima guide in the form of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate guidebook as a sendoff to the work Prima has done over the years.

 

[Spirit]

This is a shame.

I found a few Zelda prima guides in a charity shop once and I quite liked the guides. Their layouts can be difficult to follow but I like them as like encyclopedias for stand alone games since they list all the items and characters with descriptions etc.

They were way too expensive new and i can see why theyre closing down but it is still a bit of a shame.