NINTENDO POWER - the good, the bad, and the ugly?

[lendelin]

I reorganized my NP collection for space reasons. It hit me how much different this game mag looked compared to the NPs today, how much more "innocent" the game mag scene in general was compared to today.

When you think about NP during the NES and SNES times, what comes to mind? Fond memories, and if so which ones? Which sections appealed to you in particular? Or was it maybe a mere laughable marketing tool of the big N?

All the weaknesses and strenghts you can think of, everything from the good to the ugly is fair game.

[Dahne]

I always loved the stories people would tell about the horrific ordeals their Nintendo systems went through...and survived!

[Push Upstairs]

My memory is that they never really told you if a game had shitty control or not....you sort of had to buy, rent, or ask friends about the game to find that information out.

I also remember that the scale they used to rate games was totally incomprehensible (like the mags before issue 40).

The "Celebrity Spotlight" thing was a waste. I don't really care what the star of "Blossom" thinks about the newest Nintendo games

The later "Link to the Past" and "Super Mario World" comics were good stuff though.

[ghostangelofcky]

I don't remember which issue it was but it was back in 87. The first NP I ever laid eyes on had super mario 2 as the main story. I remember staring at every picture for hours, it was also the first video game mag I had ever seen. It was my freinds in my 3rd grade class,I took it home with me and didn't give it back for days. The funny thing is I acted the exact same way when I laid eyes on my first porno mag, good times.

But yeah I do agree the mag has lost a lot the innocent factor over the years.

[SoulBlazer]

Nintendo Power was really good, and usually GREAT, for a long time. They had good articles, a lot of helpfull game coverage, a nice hints and tips sections, bonsues like the cartoons and players guides, and the upcoming releases. A lot of this stuff was a godsend to a gamer before the advent of the Internet.

Yes, it was the official mouthpeice of Nintendo, but they were accurate most of the time and were not afraid to give low marks to a bad game.

All of that changed when the N64 started to lose big time to the PlayStation, circa 1997. That's when I let my subscription lapse, and I had one since before it even started! The magazine got very defensive, not as good overall, and gave even bad games good marks.

I got a free years worth to get the Zelda Collection disc, and it still has'nt changed much. Now it's just subpar. But the old NES/SNES days were top notch.

[The Manimal]

This mag was great up until issue 32, then they changed it around a bit and made it worse IMO. Then somewhere around issue 75, they made it even worse. However, I have gone back and those issues from about 32 to 75 are still excellent and I don't think there was anything wrong with those anymore. So now I believe the mag went downhill during N64 launch time...

I still buy it, though.

[EnemyZero]

Def agree the np has changed over the years...but hasn't all the mags? i used to love reading articles about games like sonic & knuckles or mk2 in egm.....or even reading about the early games from the 32 bit days in gamefan....now the mags don't catch my interest much

[Graham Mitchell]

When it first arrived, I loved Nintendo Power, and didn't really care that it was basically a 100-page ad for the NES. It was the only magazine I'd seen that covered video games, and it was a big improvement over the Nintendo Fun Club. Pretty much every game they had on the cover or had in-depth reviews on during the NES-era was great, regardless of whether or not it got popular (we were talking about this with Metal Storm in another thread yesterday). After awhile, though, I became aware that they never said anything bad about any game ever. I had also bought an SMS, a Genesis, and a TG-16, and I liked those consoles way better than the SNES, so I switched to EGM and Die Hard Game Fan so I could have coverage of those machines.

I loved NP during the early years, though; I don't think there are very many bad NES game in general, so this may have to contributed to why I thought they never hyped-up a bad game; I felt that with SNES, though, NP was trying to shove a lot of crappy games down people's throats.

[jdc]

Nintendo Power is a really strange magazine.

The earliest copy that I have is the issue right before the N64 launched. It has a big article on Goldeneye in it. The content is half N64, half SNES. If you look at this issue, it is written in a more mature vein, clearly with older gamers in mind.

Take a look at the "Pokemon era to the end" of Nintendo Power's N64 coverage, and you'll see a very juvenile magazine. The letters section is a kindergarten gaming forum.

Along comes the Cube. The first few issues are a return to an older gamer focus. It's almost as if they were thinking "we have a new chance to capture the gamer that disregarded the N64". Now? It's back to the kids again.

I own the complete library from the N64 years but I just don't buy it any more.

[YoshiM]

I think this was the first real game magazine I read. I received the Nintendo Fun Club newsletter after I got my NES Action Set and talked my mom into paying the $15 to subscribe so I could get the Tips & Tactics: The Legend of Zelda book. At the time it was the only source for Nintendo info (as I don't think Game Players, Game Pro, VG&CE or EGM were available yet or at least not available in my area), so I treated it as an ever growing tome of gaming knowledge.

My favorite sections at the time were the Tips section (what was it called, Classified Information or something?), Howard and Nester, Pak Watch and the Power Charts. I typically skipped over the celebrity section and glossed over any reviews as I knew they were a bit biased. If there was a feature game that looked interesting I would also read their big strategy article.

When I found out about other magazines (I think my first non-Nintendo magazine was the first issue of Game Player's which I bought at Fleet Farm) and liked them better, I just let my subscription run out. I didn't really read any issues again until maybe the N64 era (one or two) and the Gamecube era (would pick up a few issues at Wal-Mart for their strategy sections and then I subscribed to get the Zelda Collector's disc).

[kainemaxwell]

NP was great for its time, especially with its maps. The Zelda and Mario comics rocked too.

[Zing]

I subscribed to NP on issue 5. I actually ordered the 3 back issues that I missed (I got issue 1 for free with purchase of the NES). This is still the best video game magazine that I have ever read. The presentation was very well done. No ads. A little something for everyone. Free strategy guides (the Link To The Past guide was awesome). I maintained my subscription until around issue 60. I don't remember why I stopped, but it was probably a combination of the quality of the magazine going down and my lower interest in Nintendo.

Sadly, I left my collection behind when I moved from my mother's house. Needless to say, they are long gone. :(

[Ed Oscuro]

I reorganized my NP collection for space reasons. It hit me how much different this game mag looked compared to the NPs today, how much more "innocent" the game mag scene in general was compared to today.
Yeah, today there's that Metroid Prime style gloss to everything...though it seems that today's F-Zero fits right into the new theme.

The old (early 1990s) NP was great, there's no question about that. 1997 era NP...well...they finally figured out how to do really good looking screenshot guides (anybody remember the ones like for, say, Monster in my Pocket with obvious seams and the character appearing every screen length?) and the layout was looking better than ever, but they started hyping games for all the wrong reasons (Xtreme G has great graphics?! They thought so, scoring it higher than any other game they reviewed that issue...)

From the (admittedly few) modern NPs I've read through, comparing them to the old ones from the early 1990s, that there are many more blatant appeals to the fandom than there used to be. The newest NP I've picked up has a pretty stupid dig against Sony at E3 (something along the lines of "this is the Sony booth after they closed it down because nobody was coming, poor Sony," seriously, what the hell?) and that 1997 issue (for many years the ONLY one I had) printed some ridiculous fanart of a Star Wars stormtrooper throttling Sonic...whatever conflicted thoughts lead to that one I can't guess, though I suppose N64 fans could be contented in the post-Shadows era with Rogue Squadron II and...Pod Racer...hrm.

Well, I could be totally wrong about there being less anti-competition garbage found in NP in the old days, but from what I've read it seems they dealt with the competition by just not mentioning it, which was the fair thing to do.

[Push Upstairs]

...bonsues like the cartoons and players guides, and the upcoming releases. A lot of this stuff was a godsend to a gamer before the advent of the Internet.

The guides were grand stuff. I remember getting a subscription when they gave away the four orginal guides free (Mario Mania, NES Game Atlas, SNES Guide & Gameboy guide).

Mario Mania and the NES Game Atlas are "must own" guides even in modern internet era.



But the old NES/SNES days were top notch.

I quit getting NP around issue 50 (I think 50 was my last issue) because the coverage of NES games had dried up and i did not own a SNES.

[Aussie2B]

Nintendo Power is a really strange magazine.

The earliest copy that I have is the issue right before the N64 launched. It has a big article on Goldeneye in it. The content is half N64, half SNES. If you look at this issue, it is written in a more mature vein, clearly with older gamers in mind.

Take a look at the "Pokemon era to the end" of Nintendo Power's N64 coverage, and you'll see a very juvenile magazine. The letters section is a kindergarten gaming forum.

That really sums up why I lost interest in the mid-N64 lifespan days and let my subscription run out (last issue I got was for the first Tony Hawk game). I absolutely agree with you about the letters. The envelope art was embarassing; it did truly look like the efforts of kindergarteners most often (I'm all for being nice to little kids and giving them praise, but in this situation I think they should print whatever looks best). The letters just got plain boring... The ads were becoming overwhelming (and started to be about stuff OTHER than games, which they said wouldn't happen), the millionth layout and style change was ugly as ass, and the Pokemon coverage was taking over the entire magazine (and I had absolutely no interest in the Pokemon craze; I didn't own a single Pokemon game at the time).

So yeah... there's my little rant. o_O Now onto the good...

It's kind of funny, I didn't start getting Nintendo until issue 70-something, but I'm starting to feel nostalgic about the older issues. I never even saw any of them until I bought a huge lot of them this summer, but I feel as if I've had them since they were new. I guess it's because I remember that time period and feel nostalgic about it, even if the magazines themselves are new to me. Anyway, as I was going through the magazines this summer, I started to actually feel sad as I watched the magazine change. Howard & Nester was great, but then they got that terrible new artist who ruined it. Then Howard Phillips left... :( It's funny to feel sad about something that already happened over 10 years ago, but I was enjoying those early issues with him so much. He was really the face of Nintendo of America at the time. I loved his letters and stories.

I also really like those old technical articles. I don't know who they thought they were writing for (I bet the average kid totally didn't understand them and didn't have any interest in the technical aspects of their systems and games to begin with), but I sure found them interesting.

I'll skip ahead since there are still a ton of issues in the mid hundred range that I haven't read yet. :P Getting back to my original subscription, I really loved those late SNES/early N64 days. The articles about the N64 were very endearing (how excited the creators were, and all their dreams, and so on). The SNES scene was a little depressing because it was slowing down, but that was the golden age of Epic Center. I guess they just needed to fill space or something, but those articles about Super Famicom imports were AWESOME. Years later when I started importing, I came to realize that a lot of their information was off, but I'll take slightly incorrect information over no coverage at all. The art and screenshots were just beautiful, and I now own a lot of those games they covered back then (Star Ocean, Wonder Project J, Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem, Marvelous, etc.). Best purchase decision maker ever, next to the Top 100 list. Speaking of the Top 100 list, that was sort of when Nintendo Power went out with a bang for me. I didn't care much about the magazine after issue 100, but that one rocked. It was a godsend for when I started to reclaim my childhood and buy NES games again. I got so many ideas from that list (StarTropics, Crystalis, Shadowgate, Maniac Mansion, etc.) Of course, I wouldn't agree with the order of it (nobody can agree with a list unless it's their own anyway), but no matter, I still loved it.

[Famidrive-16]

ahhh, I subscribed from 1995 - to recent (I forgot to renew my subscription, yhoops) The N64 coverage WAS pretty good 96-98 but then Pokemon came and the magazine shifted towards the hundreds of awful GBC games while ignoring some of the great 64 games that came out at the time. They must've done like three cover stories on the GBA in the first couple months of 2001, before the GBA's release, while Paper Mario and CBFD were off the radar. Yeah, I sure could use in-depth maps and strategies on Arthur's Day at the Fair! :roll:

There were times when the Nintendo defense was really cheesy and laughable, but hey, it's created by Nintendo, it's not like they were gonna do pages on the new Playstation steering wheel or anything. I had a BIG laugh though, in their 1998 new year's issue, they did a good/bad column and they had 'Good: Zelda 64, Bad: FF7'

This was 11 months before Zelda 64's release too. Talk about crying a bitchy mess over lost Square buddies, eh.

[Querjek]

I recently looked back over some prototype screenshots from Mario RPG and I started crying. THe end.


(Not a joke)


Seriously!

[Jorpho]

Yup, happy memories, definitely. I might compare the old NP to movie trailers: even if the games themselves were lousy, the right sort of slick, pretty presentation could be entertaining.

The quality wasn't entirely consistent, though, and at times there were some brazen inaccuracies or omissions, but they were not overly frequent.

Why on earth did they ever decide to start carrying ads? Some of them were pretty sad ads, too. I can't believe they actually found some letters in support of the move at the time.

And let us never forget the good people on Nintendo's Customer Service Line, who probably put up with more prepubescent abuse than we will ever know.

[Dangerboy]

Practially every mag has changed, in the same way most corporate stores have changed; they need marketing money to make bills and feed families. It's promising companies coverage in exchange for exclusives etc. In Nintendo's case, it was hiding the fact that they were getting whomped by Sony.

I agree, the original NPs were the end all be all magazine; fun articles, competent writing, and above all else, love for the gamer with the free guides and other fun things.

The first time I ever saw a NP was the issue where they had mapped out BY HAND a ton of Nintendo games. Being an artist, graphic designee, and completist freak, this was astounding. I can still vividly remember the issue they switched over to screen captures and you could see how many snapshots they needed to take just to get a full map. O_O

How I miss the old days.

Jason

[Avatard]

I loved to see every month if anything ever got close to ousting The Legend of Zelda from the top spot of the NES charts.

[Oobgarm]

I was subscribed to NP from issue one, and the Fun Club News which proceeded it. I stayed with NP all the way through issue 100 or so, at which point I just stopped reading it becauase it was a shell of its former self. I re-subbed thanks to the Zelda disc (like many here), and I don't even read them. They just go on the shelf for the most part. I also somewhat recently snagged a complete 1-110 volume collection in great condition. What fun it was to go back through them, since many of mine were tattered and/or missing.

I always liked how the old magazines had the look that they were put together by hand. Be it the art, maps, or what-have-you, it always looked like people spent a lot of time setting it all up. Once the N64 hit, most of that charm was gone and the magazine became more 'standardized' like EGM and others.

Best things I remember about it? The issue 2 Castlevania II cover, the NP50 extravaganza, and the issue 44 blowout, which was the first of the 'subscriber only' bonus filled issues. It had a load of stuff about Mario Paint, and was shockingly thick in comparison to the others. Classified Information was always cool, and the Top 40 chart was great until it changed over and lumped all systems into one small list. I liked the trading cards, comics, and the little Power Supplies catalogues. Lastly, but probably most prominent, is the Mega Man robot designing contest. I still love looking over it.

[zmweasel]

Why on earth did they ever decide to start carrying ads? Some of them were pretty sad ads, too. I can't believe they actually found some letters in support of the move at the time.

David Sheff's wonderful, invaluable "Game Over" doesn't specifically state why Nintendo Power started running ads, but implies it was because the magazine was hurtin' a little (this was during the height of Sega's success).

-- Z.

[Lady Jaye]

Although I did read NP back in 1988 (my best friend had gotten a NES; as Nintendo was shifting from the Fun Club newsletter to NP, the NES included a one-year subscription to NP; alas, Seb's mom refused to pay for the subscription when the initial free issues ran out), I didn't really read NP until the GCN days (I got the SNES just months before the release of the N64 and I never had a N64, so NP wasn't useful at all for me between 1997 and 2002). I did get the one-year subscription last year for the free Zelda Collector's Disk, but I'm not renewing it (I might one day if there's another good incentive like this, but for now, I'll sit out NP).

I have to say that I was very disappointed with NP over the Famicom's 20th anniversary and even more so with NP's own 15th anniversary. You'd think they'd have a grand 15-year anniversary issue or something, but no. There was barely anything (the heyday of that issue was the retro contest, which I couldn't even participate in because I live in Quebec). Personally, I think that NP would do itself a great service by running a retro section (you'd think that, with a console history spanning 20 years, plus some more years with the arcade games, the Game and Watch units and the Pong unit, there'd be enough material to cover a retro column for years... and hopefully, the notion of "retro" would go beyond the N64, unlike other mags' retro columns *cough GMR cough*...

Am I the only one to think that the Zelda disk giveaway was probably the second-most popular NP giveaway in its history, after Dragon Warrior, of course?

[Jorpho]

Why on earth did they ever decide to start carrying ads? Some of them were pretty sad ads, too. I can't believe they actually found some letters in support of the move at the time.

David Sheff's wonderful, invaluable "Game Over" doesn't specifically state why Nintendo Power started running ads, but implies it was because the magazine was hurtin' a little (this was during the height of Sega's success).

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Sega's success", because the ads I'm thinking of started when Sega was on its way out, I think.

[Famidrive-16]

Did anyone try to enter the contests? I entered a bunch but never won anything x_x

[delafro]

It was all about the maps for me... my parents never bought me an NES, so I'd look at the maps and imagine playing them. It was still pretty fun though, at least when I was still just a little kid.

[lendelin]

It was all about the maps for me...

For me, too. :) There was one outstanding feature in NP, and none of the other game mags could compete with it: MAPS, MAPS, and more MAPS!

NP mapped the best games out like there was no tomorrow. For the best games, NP delivered strategy guides in their issues. 50% or 75% of a game were covered, and sometimes in two or more issues games were covered completely (like Castlevania 3, Startropics, Battletoads, the second adventure of Zelda)

...and the 'guide' presentation of the games made the games come alive, you actually got a feeling and good impression about the kind of gameplay. Together with the Classified Information section and the Counselors' corner, this was the main reason why I loved NP.

I relied on my buying decisions more on NP than on GamePro or EGM.

What do you guys think about the review grades (introduced in 1989)? Was NP biased, did you rely on them?

I'm not a manga fan at all, but some manga fans think that the Zelda manga in NP by the famous Ishinomori really put Japanese manga on the map in the US.