licensedgames
Virtue Wing
"I'm Bartholomew Mashingspoon.'
Posts: 180 
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Post by licensedgames on Apr 30, 2016 13:27:25 GMT
Though it's a staple of video game history, not many people talk about Nintendo Power outside of the NES era, and I think that that's a bit of a shame. Poeple look back fondly on things like the top games, contests, and Howard and Nester comics.
I was a subscriber from late 2009 until the magazine's demise three years later. Most people who grew up with Nintendo Power dismissed it's end as the end of a commercial product, but that really wasn't the case. At least in it's final years, Nintendo Power was dedicated to articles and retrospectives, more than just high scores and previews. I don't think people appreciate what it evolved into.
Were any of you guys subscribers? When were you subscribed?
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spooie
Authority Wing
Posts: 132
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Post by spooie on Apr 30, 2016 16:47:35 GMT
I had a subscription to it for a few years when it first launched and had sporadic issues through the SNES. My brother continued his subscription well into the N64 days and later had a year or two during the Gamecube era. One of the things that I did not care for with Nintendo Power over time was that all the cool hand-drawn artwork suddenly was replaced with CGI stock models of characters, the nice bright colors that got your attention and screamed "FUN!" were replaced with dark colors. I also have one of these...  |
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Balder
Supreme Overlord
Trying to cut down the amount of movies I watch
Posts: 6,822
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Post by Balder on Apr 30, 2016 22:22:11 GMT
That was way past my time, but sure looks fun as shit.
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,819
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Post by Cervantes on May 1, 2016 0:06:07 GMT
spooie - If you use that pin on the streets, people bow to your awesomeness? I know I would.
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Armored Core Raven
Vanguard Ranger
Radio: The test is over. From this moment on, you are a Raven!
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Post by Armored Core Raven on May 1, 2016 1:44:50 GMT
I don't know if we ever had "Nintendo Power" exactly but we had an official Nintendo Magazine that to my knowledge was essentially the same thing with comics about Mario, Captain N, Samus and Kid Icarus etc., cheats and hints, reader mail, reader fanart, game reviews, walkthroughs and so on. That's pretty much what Nintendo Power was too, right?
I still have a couple of old Nintendo Magazines somewhere, but I never subscribed to it back in the day.
I was subscribed to other comics like Donald Duck, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and some various science magazines about space and dinosaurs etc. in the early to mid 90s.
A bit later in the late 90s and early 2000s I was subscribed to an official PlayStation Magazine and another multiplatform gaming magazine, also had a subscription for the Nemi comic for a few years at the end of the 00s until they shifted publishers, haven't subscribed to anything after that because at that point the internet had grown enough to have more content than even the best magazines had only for free and constantly up to date.
Speaking of pins, I have one with Donkey Kong and the Nintendo logo, I'm not entirely sure but it might have come with one of the Nintendo Magazines I have.
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spooie
Authority Wing
Posts: 132
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Post by spooie on May 1, 2016 2:03:09 GMT
spooie - If you use that pin on the streets, people bow to your awesomeness? I know I would. Naw... As you can see, my pin only has two stripes. The really cool kids got a red and gold pin with three stripes. Then the lesser-fortunate ones with a single stripe. As I recall, if you subscribed extra years in advance, you got more stripes, which is what my brother (who got 3 stripes) did. Of course, it helped if you had a copy of the Official Nintendo Fan Club News magazine, which was the pre-cursor to Nintendo Power.    I don't know if we ever had "Nintendo Power" exactly but we had an official Nintendo Magazine that to my knowledge was essentially the same thing with comics about Mario, Captain N, Samus and Kid Icarus etc., cheats and hints, reader mail, reader fanart, game reviews, walkthroughs and so on. That's pretty much what Nintendo Power was too, right? I still have a couple of old Nintendo Magazines somewhere, but I never subscribed to it back in the day. I was subscribed to other comics like Donald Duck, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and some various science magazines about space and dinosaurs etc. in the early to mid 90s. A bit later in the late 90s and early 2000s I was subscribed to an official PlayStation Magazine and another multiplatform gaming magazine, also had a subscription for the Nemi comic for a few years at the end of the 00s until they shifted publishers, haven't subscribed to anything after that because at that point the internet had grown enough to have more content than even the best magazines had only for free and constantly up to date. Speaking of pins, I have one with Donkey Kong and the Nintendo logo, I'm not entirely sure but it might have come with one of the Nintendo Magazines I have. Nintendo Power DID have comics. Originally it was Howard & Nester, but later they incorporated other games. Not sure if Captain N ever showed up in them, though. Of course, they had their own comics too...  |
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Armored Core Raven
Vanguard Ranger
Radio: The test is over. From this moment on, you are a Raven!
Posts: 1,737
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Post by Armored Core Raven on May 1, 2016 4:05:10 GMT
The Super Mario Bros. comic has the same cover as one of the Nintendo Magazines I have. I would never forget that Princess Toadstool in a one piece playing footsie with a shark work of art.   |
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centipede
CGR Undertow Groupie
It was just one soy latte, I swear!
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Post by centipede on May 1, 2016 10:21:45 GMT
Never had Nintendo Power. There was a sticker album full of tips and tricks for NES games (Derek reviewed some of the stickers). Then there was NMS (Nintendo Magazine System) which was targeted to kids older than me and Sega Megazone which was a tad cleaner. They showed me all the games I would never get to play until they were years out of fashion.
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centipede
CGR Undertow Groupie
It was just one soy latte, I swear!
Posts: 2,692
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Post by centipede on May 1, 2016 10:24:56 GMT
The Super Mario Bros. comic has the same cover as one of the Nintendo Magazines I have. I would never forget that Princess Toadstool in a one piece playing footsie with a shark work of art. Did you ever used to get the Archie Sonic comics? |
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Armored Core Raven
Vanguard Ranger
Radio: The test is over. From this moment on, you are a Raven!
Posts: 1,737
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Post by Armored Core Raven on May 1, 2016 14:54:47 GMT
Did you ever used to get the Archie Sonic comics? Yes, we had those here, I sadly didn't find any myself but a friend had lots so I got to read most them. |
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Post by spidershinobi on May 1, 2016 15:31:42 GMT
Here's an interesting thing for you: in my country there was never a magazine called Nintendo Power. We had an initially unofficial publication called Nintendo World. It was what anyone would expect out of them, reviews, previews, walk-throughs, a few articles, fan letters and ocasionally interviews. The magazine was great up to the N64 era, however as things began going unfavorable for Nintendo during the GameCube days Nintendo World also declined in popularity, and with it also went the quality of the magazine. To make it worse they then signed a contract with Nintendo Power in order to have their content in there, which meant we read some translated, boring-ass reviews and articles instead of the usual well-humored stuff we were used to.
From that point onwards I don't know what happened to Nintendo World.
But during the next years a new magazine surfaced, I bought at least one copy of it, called NGamer. It was infinitely better than what Nintendo World is/was, probably better than Nintendo Power, but it wasn't very popular.
I'm glad my good emotions from those days didn't come back to me.
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licensedgames
Virtue Wing
"I'm Bartholomew Mashingspoon.'
Posts: 180
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Post by licensedgames on May 1, 2016 15:55:14 GMT
You know, I never even considered a lot of the international stuff. Isn't it true that magazines in the UK are larger than those in the US?
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scipioafricanus
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
Sega Does What Nintendon't... except the 32X
Posts: 3,568
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Post by scipioafricanus on May 1, 2016 22:25:30 GMT
Sega Visions
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MeleeMonk
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
Part-time gamer, full-time environmentalist, and member of PAPO (People Against Palm Oil)
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Post by MeleeMonk on May 6, 2016 9:28:45 GMT
I was subscribed to Nintendo Power from 08-09 and I liked it back then, even though I preferred other gaming magazines. My favorite parts of NP were the interviews with game designers (like Masahiro Sakurai for example) and the playback column, where certain NP staff would pick a game from the past and talk about what made it good, bad, or unique. Overall I liked Nintendo Power for introducing me to the virtual console and helping me discover all the Nintendo games of old. Despite this, I think the magazine was overrated and biased, and I can only imagine how horrible it must have felt for some of the writers to be forced to say only good things about the worst first party games Nintendo has ever put out (Brawl, Super Paper Mario, Skyward Sword, Other M, Wii Music) on such a gimmicky system (the Wii).
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Guilion
Lord Wing
Former Incompetent Evil Commander
Posts: 284
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Post by Guilion on May 6, 2016 23:19:11 GMT
...Sort of? It's complicated, basically we had our own version of Nintendo Power because nintendo had headquarters in Mexico in the 90's and starting a magazine was easier than translating it, somehow. The magazine is still in production although it should be noted it did include translated Nintendo Power content with every number before Nintendo Power went down the drain (Mostly walkthroughs). Here's the magazine of this month if someone is interested in tracking down a copy.  I find it quite funny that it may end up outliving the original magazine in a couple of years. |
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