why would you ever use a guide in a game like metroid, unless you're a 100%fag you don't need it.

If you had fun it doesn't matter, shut the fuck up you little baby.

didn't beat the game

>>12427051
Literally everyone used guides if they could get them. The modern era where everyone insists they "go in blind" is all brand new pretentiousness people engage in. Back in the day it was a lot of fun to buy a new big game with a strategy guide book, like Elder Scrolls Morrowind, and just read it alongside playing. Gamepro magazines featured entire walkthroughs for Brave Fencer Musashi and Ocarina of Time between issues. This idea that nobody played these games with guidance is a falsehood.

>>12427106
didn't beat the game

>>12427106
I started on the NES / Apple II and never used guides. I could have probably gotten them if I asked, and I knew they existed but never used one. And I played a lot.
SM, aLttP, and OOT were iirc my favorite games then and I beat them no issue without a guide, my autistic elementary school ass could do it.

>>12427106
this. getting a new game with a big beautiful guide packed with official artwork and lore and all the secrets was a great feeling and literally no one thought of it as cheating. zoomoids can only cry and shit their pants about it since that's never coming back.

>>12427106
Well said. This hit especially hard before the Internet became widespread for us boomers.

Games you needed help finishing, pave the way towards finishing the next game without help.
Don't feel bad about it, learn from it and develop critical thinking skills and finer motor skills.

>>12427124
>literally no one thought of it as cheating
Sure. It's literally a guide that tells you what to do. It's the epitome of cheating and always has been. I knew some kids that did use guides and they'd just brag about their money or secret weapons and never let me say anything or play their games. Absolute buffoons.

When I was a small child, I made a grave error. I borrowed my friend's copy of the issue of Nintendo Power with the guide for Castlevania 2 in it, and read that issue cover-to-cover, multiple times, including the guide. If only I knew back then what I know now! As every real gamer knows, if you look up a guide, you didn't beat the game. I looked up a guide for Castlevania 2, therefore, I can never, ever, legitimately beat Castlevania 2 in this lifetime. I have beaten Castlevania 1, Castlevania 3, Castlevania 4, Dracula X, Rondo, Bloodlines, and more. But Castlevania 2 will forever be a gaping hole in my list of beaten games. I have achieved the good ending several times, on original hardware, on a CRT produced in the 80s, in one sitting, but I know that it does not count, all because of an ignorant mistake that I made as a youngster. What a horrible night to have a curse!

>>12427152
We all played on original hardware on CRT. If you followed a guide you very literally didn't play the game.
>Figuring out where to go or overcome challenges with context clues? That isn't gaming at all!

using a guide IS cheating but in the 90s people still went outside and weren't terminally autistic brainrotted morons from staring at a skinner box echo chamber 24/7 yet so we didnt engage in pointless pissing matches over cheating in single player games, in fact many games had built in cheat codes that we used simply to have fun.

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>>12427116
This is Nintendo Power magazine

>>12427135
Again, this idea that you go through games without any outside reference material is bullshit pretentious people engage in now. Back in the day we exchanged tips and tricks with each other, and sometimes we didn't know if it was true even. (do this a bunch of times and something happens, true for one game, lie for another game, mew is under the truck, ect)

>>12427163
>in the 90s people still went outside and weren't terminally autistic brainrotted morons
Speak for yourself, man. I was asocial from birth. I used games to get away from this world and still do. I guess because I use games as escapism, the idea of guides seems even worse to me. I want to explore and experiment, I want to naturally lose sometimes. If you've beaten the game already it's fine, but the first experience should be *your* playthrough.
Codes really blew up when ppl started getting internet in '97-'98, I do remember that. Before that it was the occasional one in a magazine. Or Game Genie I guess, that was in the realm of definitely cheating but cool to play with.

>be you in 1999
>your friend tells you something he found in the game
>you are now unable to beat the game honestly for the rest of your life

>>12427178
>Back in the day we exchanged tips and tricks with each other
That's different, it's part of the social experience

>>12427178
>Again, this idea that you go through games without any outside reference material is bullshit pretentious people engage in now.
No it is not. Most people I knew didn't use guides, I actually never used one and I was a dumb kid. Beating video games isn't some impossible task, children do it. This is not a bragging thing, I just feel like others miss out on the real experience of learning a game themselves.
It was a thing, and still is, but no - most people beat games without guides or cheats.
We had a lot of time back then, I never saw the internet til '98 I think. So much time.

>>12427124
It came back, they are called Wikis and yes playing Morrowind/Oblivion while checking UESP is pretty fun

>>12427051
It's not too different than talking about a game with a friend if you're stuck and need a hint. I consider cheating to involve manipulating the game in some fashion like game genie or cheat codes or bugs etc.

>>12427129
I remember printing off pages or entire walk throughs from the library as late as like 2005 or so when I didn't have regular access to the information super highway.

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>>12427279
>xhe thinks searching through a soulless fan wiki is comparable to the real thing
sad

>>12427051
It counts and you beat the game. You didn't modify the game or anything to win. But you lose out on the bragging rights of saying "I figured out everything without help," for whatever that's worth to you. Just play how you enjoy it.

>>12427106
nintendo power was full of guides and even the most autistic nerds at school didn't consider it cheating to read them.

>>12427106
>>12427342
Yeah, I remember guides being very common and we shared tips all the time. Obviously figuring it out on your own is satisfying, but I don't recall any stigma attached to guides among anybody I knew. And then when the internet and GameFAQs became available to us, we were all over it.

Honestly half the time having a strategy guide was fun just to read about the game when you couldn't be playing it. They also often came with special art and other stuff that made them cool to look at.

>>12427051
depends on if you FOLLOWED a guide or if you just used it in one or two spots where you got stuck. following a guide doesn't count, someone else is basically playing the game for you.

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>>12427203
Yes, it is. Blizzard would include Prima Official Strategy Guides in their battle chest releases with all their games.

>>12427453
>having a strategy guide was fun just to read about the game when you couldn't be playing it
That was a big pull too. I would read through Pokemon guides just to see pictures and read about the game. I remember many occasions we would bring our guides to school and just flip through them to pass time.

>>12427462
>depends on if you FOLLOWED a guide or if you just used it in one or two spots where you got stuck. following a guide doesn't count, someone else is basically playing the game for you.
Yes. This is a huge distinction between two very different things.
Did you look up the steps for Biggoron Sword or Chocobo Forests or the encounter rates of different enemies in an area?
Yeah, whatever.
Did you play an RPG already knowing the classes and best upgrade strats and just follow where the game says to go instead of adventuring?
That's horseshit, and you're ruining your own experience.
>>12427475
Okay? And?

Imagine not looking up builds for Diablo 2 classes, lol.

>>12427619
I don't even look up strats in competitive online non-/vr/ games because I feel it takes away from autonomy and discovery, often to my own detriment but it just means something to me to make my own decisions and see how well I can suss things out.

>>12427051
Do whatever you want.

>>12427183
born too early for 24/7 vr/ar right? maybe in another life

>>12427051
Yes, any guide is cheating.

>>12427051
If you can beat a game without using a guide then it's a baby game not worth playing. If you used a guide you didn't beat the game. I don't make the rules.

>>12427051
Your first playthrough in a Metroidvania, specially Super Metroid, is just the tutorial. You have not beaten Super Metroid until you can do
>Less than 1 hour any% run
>Less than 1 and half hours 100% run
>At least try a low% or RBO run
And something similar applies to every 2D Metroid game

>>12427051
Depends on the game. As a guy who is pretty autistic about not using guides, SOTN is fucking bullshit and is unfinishable without outside knowledge. If we are talking SM, then I would say guides are unnecessary unless you want to 100% items.
IDK though, do you feel like you cheated? Why are you getting all bent outta shape about what other people think? Don't let some guy tell you how you feel about something. That's kinda gay.

>>12427135
lmao poorfag

I think guides are cool in the sense of something more involved like a fighting game or a racer, it's a guidebook to help you learn a skill and then perform.

>>12427060
>as long as you had fun
>metroidvanias
Not a chance

In Germany the game came in a large box with a guidebook. Official guidebooks are kino, even if a wiki is very likely to be better.

>>12427051
I understand the use of guides for some games, but for Super Metroid on a first playthrough??? Exploration and random discovery is so important to your first playthrough. Knowing where everything is would take all the magic away. It's not about "having beat" the game or any retarded metric like that, your reason for gaming shouldn't be to check it off your list, it should be to experience the game fully and to have fun while doing so. I can't think of a worse game to use a guide for on your first run, you're doing yourself and the game a huge disservice. It would completely warp your perception of the game.

>>12427051
I've beat them legit by brute force. Also the game has a map and a symbol for if an item is present in the room. Fill in blank parts of the map, use super bombs to locate breakable tiles, find the item hidden on that screen.