Nintendo Power

First issue cover.

Nintendo Power was a video game magazine published by Nintendo from 1988 to 2012 with a total of 285 printed magazines. It began as a bi-monthy publication, but switched to monthly starting with the May 1990 issue. It is one of the longest running video game magazines in the Western world.

Each magazine included in-depth segments on a couple games, but also several recurring segments like "Counselor's Corner," which answered reader's gaming questions, "Classified Information," which usually contained cheats and secrets, "Howard & Nester," a comic which always gave a game hint, "Pak Watch," which talked about the upcoming games, the "Top 30," which ranked the most popular games (Nintendo's own always made the most appearances).

I adored Nintendo Power in the late 1980s and early 1990s because it offered video game information that was otherwise unavailable to us pre-Internet kids. Since my parents would never buy me a video game magazine, I had to rely on reading copies from friends, or viewing them in my school's library. While I would make hand-drawn copies from them, my older brother would just rip out the pages for the games we owned. I stopped caring about Nintendo Power around the time the Nintendo 64 came out.

Review

Good

• Each issue contained a wealth of information that you couldn't find anywhere else on dozens of games.
• The artists created attractive cartoons, photos, paintings, and dioramas of various games.
• The Top-30 section was pretty trust worthy, and the top 10 was pretty much always filled with quality games.
• The magazine also published letters to the editor and player's high scores.
• To keep things interesting, the magazine talked about other issues popular to kids and teens like celebrities, theme parks, and television shows.

Bad

• Probably due to the magazine's tight schedule, sometimes terrible games would get several pages devoted to them. This would hype kids up for a huge let down. For example, the third issue spent 14 pages on Track & Field II.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Page Scans

• Page Scans.

Secondary Magazines

Nintendo Power released several additional magazines which either focused on a single game or covered all the upcoming games for a new system. These magazines included:

• The Official Nintendo Player's Guide
• Tips & Tactics: The Legend of Zelda - Instruction Booklet
• How to Win At Super Mario Bros.
• Nintendo Power Strategy Guide: 4-Player Extra
• Nintendo Power Strategy Guide: Final Fantasy
• Nintendo Power Strategy Guide: Dragon Warrior
• Nintendo Power Strategy Guide: Ninja Gaiden II
• Nintendo Power Strategy Guide: Super Mario Bros. 3
• Nintendo Player's Guide: Earthbound
• Nintendo Player's Guide: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Nintendo Player's Guide: Mario Mania
• Nintendo Player's Guide: NES Game Atlas
• Nintendo Player's Guide: Pokemon
• Nintendo Player's Guide: Super Game Boy
• Nintendo Player's Guide: Super Mario Bros. All Stars
• Nintendo Player's Guide: Super Metroid
• Nintendo Player's Guide: Super NES

Links

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Power - Wikipedia.