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[Ed Oscuro]

On a side note, I hate how so many people slam the legacy of NP Magazine. IMHO, they really hit their stride in the SNES' prime years ('93-'94). Each issue would highlight a handful of SNES games with 4-10 pages EACH. I loved those mega showcases... they were arguably better than GameFan's or EGM's. NP's review system sucked though, but their showcases really dug into the games.

Underrated publication IMO, esp. during the mid '90s when they hit their high point.
I liked all the issues I read. There've been a lot of good magazines, and they come and go, but NP was really an epochal publication. It makes no sense to me that Nintendo would let it totally close - shouldn't there be some online presence at least? - but perhaps this has something to do with the name "Nintendo Power" having essentially no brand recognition in Japan. Other companies do things like this all the time, so it's not unique. Part of me wants to say "well maybe it made sense," part of me wants to say it was horribly myopic and they lost a premier marque for advertising their system in a semi-respectable way. It is pretty amazing, when you think about it, that anybody could bemoan the death of what was essentially advertising for Nintendo.

I wonder how much space a complete NP collection takes up? I have some older issues myself, but not very many. I'll definitely go pick up a copy of their last issue for old times' sake, although I have the feeling not a lot of it will really grab me - Nintendo has moved on.

[Jorpho]

but perhaps this has something to do with the name "Nintendo Power" having essentially no brand recognition in Japan.Well, technically it was the name of a flash RAM cartridge and distribution service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Power_%28cartridge%29).

[Aussie2B]

I don't know about recent years, but I know around the mid-90s the Japanese actually took interest in what Nintendo Power was doing. I have some Japanese magazines that had a section with photos and summaries of the latest issue of Nintendo Power.

[slapdash]

It...might be [Game Candy]. I only ever saw it once. It was a pink colored issue, advertising games girls might like, such as Cooking Mama, Super Princes Peach and the various Nintendogs games.

If it had Super Princess Peach, it definitely wasn't Game Candy -- it was basically an ad mag, and only had the Ubisoft game in it (IIRC); it had a bunch of Petz (I think) games, not Nintendogs.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, technically it was the name of a flash RAM cartridge and distribution service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Power_%28cartridge%29).
Hence "essentially."

I don't know about recent years, but I know around the mid-90s the Japanese actually took interest in what Nintendo Power was doing. I have some Japanese magazines that had a section with photos and summaries of the latest issue of Nintendo Power.
That's interesting but it doesn't really prove there was great interest from all Japanese. My local paper prints Thomas Sowell, after all.

I think that to get the Western (or at least the American) perspective on gaming you'd need some coverage of NP but that really says more about the scarcity of good (or any) coverage over here.

[Superman]

Did anyone have any luck finding the last issue at a store?

I looked at supermarkets, supercenters, convenience stores, etc. I even went to the local big box bookstore, but I couldn't find an issue anywhere.

At the supercenter, the first time I went, there was nothing there (right around the release date on the 12th or 13th). I tried again a couple of weeks later and there were a couple of issues for November. I tried again after the new year, thinking that if they had November issues showing up in December, maybe they would have the December issue in January, but there was nothing to be found.

[JSoup]

I got my copy at a S-Mart a few weeks ago. Last I checked, yesterday, they still had several. If this bizarre shortage that people keep going on about persists, I might buy them out for future eBay flipping.

[YoshiM]

I still see some copies around my neighborhood at Wal-Mart, a couple grocery stores and such.

[mailman187666]

Picked up a copy at Walmart yesterday. Very nice look back at the entire history of the mag. Stupid cartoon at the end even made me tear up a little. Love the way the cover homages the first issue, and the every cover ever poster was a great bonus.

I just read that cartoon today, and holy hell is it sad. Then again I'm a damn sucker for shit like that.

[Aussie2B]

I asked for a copy of the final issue for Christmas, and all I know is that my fiance had a hell of a time finding a copy. He ended up buying it online. Luckily he got it at a fair price, since there are a lot of people attempting to price gouge online.

Oh, and I'm not sure where all that mystery over the top game list came from. The list is a Top 285, which is the same as the issue number.

[mightykendar]

My brother and I had a subscription to NP in the early '90s, and I wanted to pick up the final issue for both nostalgia's sake and the fact that I'm a sucker for a good retrospective. After seeing the cover online -- a homage to the very first issue -- I was really looking forward to reading the issue in its entirety. I searched every magazine-selling establishment in my area (Bangor, Maine) on the day that the issue was scheduled to be released, as well on multiple occasions throughout the next week, but to no avail. :\

Incidentally, I did pick up the next-to-last issue at my local Target, but, although they were the only place that still had a shelf location for NP, the final issue never showed up.

The bookstore that I shopped at throughout my childhood and well into adulthood, which was local to Maine, shuttered last year...naturally, they were the retailer that, prior to their closing, I would have been able to count on to carry something like that.

I was hoping my husband or some other family member might pull off a Christmas miracle and surprise me with it, but no luck there either! :|

@BlastProcessing, I did read that Nester comic online, and I'll be honest, I did tear up a bit as well. Nintendo, and the marketing around Nintendo, was such a huge part of my childhood that it saddens me a bit to bid farewell to any part of it.

[Casati]

I bought about 70 volumes from volume 8 through 90 at a local thrift store for a dollar each, plus volume one for a dollar which I bought last week. There were about 100 volumes including some of the volumes 1-20 last week when I spoke to the store owner, but the store was closing and I had only a few dollars on me. That's the best thrift store find for me in a long time.