Coming soon: Video game guides (Mario, Zelda, etc)

[ethana]

Coming in the next week after Apple's review is finished, our game guides will be released. The first six out will be:

- Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
- Super Paper Mario (Wii)
- New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
- Grand Theft Auto 4 (Multiple systems)
- Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
- Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

All guides will be text-only to avoid any copyright issues with the gaming companies, but they will be broke down by level or game section, and include FAQs, Secrets, etc. You can just take your iPod/iPhone with you while playing the game and pop it out when you need some help!

No more search Google and browsing to various web sites looking for help.

Best of all, these are FREE forever.

Expect over 200 video game guides to the App Store over the next 2-4 weeks.

 

[GoCubsGo]

oh wow nice. If only Nintendo games were on the iPhone.
Now I do question the rights here but I'm certain Apple will have more of a say about that since I'd imagine there could be an issue.

Are you certain the App will hit the store?

 

[ethana]

Video game guides fall within the US Copyright guideline laws of "fair use". Since we're not actually copying the game, just making a supplement of how to play the game, we are well within our legal rights to publish this guide. The fact that it's free helps even more in the eyes of copyright law.

We are avoiding screenshots of the games for now until the guides are published on the App Store. We'll then look into our legal rights to see if we can update these apps with screenshots.

At this point, the apps are in review. Because of "fair use" we see no reason why these won't appear within the next two weeks after approval.

 

[SilentPanda]

What does your app buy me that going to GameFaqs in Safari doesn't? Are you guys creating all the FAQS yourselves?

 

[GoCubsGo]

What does your app buy me that going to GameFaqs in Safari doesn't? Are you guys creating all the FAQS yourselves?

It is a free app, I'd say it would be easier to access and view the guides tbh.

Video game guides fall within the US Copyright guideline laws of "fair use". Since we're not actually copying the game, just making a supplement of how to play the game, we are well within our legal rights to publish this guide. The fact that it's free helps even more in the eyes of copyright law.

We are avoiding screenshots of the games for now until the guides are published on the App Store. We'll then look into our legal rights to see if we can update these apps with screenshots.

At this point, the apps are in review. Because of "fair use" we see no reason why these won't appear within the next two weeks after approval.

Awesome. I was curious really.

 

[ethana]

What does your app buy me that going to GameFaqs in Safari doesn't? Are you guys creating all the FAQS yourselves?

The guides are essentially the same. Some guides were actually used with permission from GameFAQ guide creators! The guides are also free.

Here are the advantages of the iPhone apps:

- Don't have to open Safari and zoom in with your fingers. No searching. No URL's.

- The app uses a Navigation controller, so you can just jump to "Level 6" right away. There is no scrolling and searching in that regard.

- The app has an icon of the actual game, so it's easy to find and jump to when you need to get to the guide.

- The iPhone apps have rich text in parts of the guides, and will be updated with more later. They will be full HTML based, with screenshots possibly added in the future. GameFAQ just has plain text files for the most part.