GamePlayers' Castlevania II Strategy Tape
About eight or nine years back I had the incredible stroke of luck as I rifled through some bargain bin videotapes in a clearance section of Best Buy and come across some video game strategy guide tapes from the makers of the no longer existing GamePlayers' Magazine. Appropriately titled GamePlayers' Gametapes. My friend picked up a tape that had strategies for, among other titles, Milon's Secret Castle. Since she's already so darn familiar with the game knowing where every secret is anyways, I feel that in retrospect I could have done well with that one. Oh, who am I kidding, even if I knew where to shoot the bubbles I probably still would have been too frustrated with the game.
The tape I picked up covered Castlevania II, P.O.W. and Strider. Since I only own Castlevania II out of the bunch, that's the only part of the tape I've really watched. In addition to covering most of the tips you'll need to beat the game, the tape feels the need to assume you're retarded by mentioning that you'll get the most from watching this tape if you've actually played the game previously.
Overall I'd have to say that this idea was really ahead of its time. It's a great idea as supplement to a strategy guide, where the magazine could contain the maps, and the video could show things that are harder to explain like boss strategies or other tips. And that's where this particular tape really fails; in two instances it will show Simon encountering bosses. The first is the Grim Reaper and the second is Dracula himself. Both times, instead of showing you what to do, they simply say "Good luck!" Good luck?? That's all this strategy guide has to tell me for the final boss? Oh, well. Like I said, the idea was truly ahead of its time, proven by 1Up's own strategy guides like the one for Dead Rising, which contain videos of key gameplay elements. A few blemishes can be overlooked I suppose. I've video captured the strategy guide for Castlevania II, as well as the awful intro music to the tape, and even left the wireless controller ad in the end. Bonus!