About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Nintendo Power

Encyclopedia : N : NI : NIN : Nintendo Power

''This article is about the Nintendo of America produced publication. For the Japanese-only flash ROM cartridge for the Super Famicom and Game Boy, please see Nintendo Power (cartridge).
The first cover of Nintendo Power featured a clay sculpture of Mario from Super Mario Bros. 2. As Nintendo admitted later, the colors of Mario's hat and clothes were accidentally reversed.
Enlarge
The first cover of Nintendo Power featured a clay sculpture of Mario from Super Mario Bros. 2. As Nintendo admitted later, the colors of Mario's hat and clothes were accidentally reversed.

Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine from Nintendo. The first issue published was July/August of 1988 spotlighting the NES game Super Mario Bros. 2.

Contents

Design

The magazine was from the start heavily focused on providing video game strategy, in contrast to other video game magazines that often focus on game reviews, previews, and gossip. As the magazine is published by Nintendo itself, Nintendo Power has often featured detailed in-game maps provided directly by programmers and companies. As a result, the magazine has earned a reputation as an "insider" source of game information with "official" content that differentiates itself from the more speculative, "amateurish" approach of its contemporaries.

The magazine has remained financially successful and is one of the longest-running video game oriented magazines still in circulation. Today, though still "officially" affiliated with Nintendo, the magazine has become more similar to its contemporaries (i.e. Electronic Gaming Monthly), with a greater focus on staff reviews, gossip, and fan letters than in previous years. However, it still includes game strategies.

In July 2005, Nintendo Power created a new design to appeal to a more general audience, including a new logo and article format. In an effort to gain more customers, Nintendo also created a promotional offer that involves registering three products in Nintendo's site, and receiving three Nintendo Power issues for free (as well as receiving the option to order an extra year - twelve issues - for US$12.00).

History

Nintendo Power began as the several page long Nintendo Fun Club Newsletter, but quickly changed to its current magazine format. The first issue published 3.6 million copies, with every member of the Nintendo Fun Club receiving a free one. Almost one third of the members subscribed.

The magazine was edited at first by Fun Club "President" Howard Philips, himself an avid game player. Nintendo Power's mascot in the late 1980s and early 1990s was Nester, a comic character created by Philips. After Philips left the company, a more "teenage" Nester became the magazine's sole mascot. Early issues of the magazine featured a two-page Howard and Nester comic, which was later replaced with a two-page Nester's Adventures, which was then reduced to one page, and then dropped altogether. Subsequently, Mario replaced Nester as the mascot of the magazine. Later, during the early 2000s, the magazine made another mascot out of their Senior Writer, Alan Averill. Apparently very camera-shy, Alan himself never appeared in any photos; rather, he was represented by a plush toy of a Blue Slime from Dragon Warrior. Fans often clamored to see what Alan actually looked like, but the magazine instead ran still more photos of the toy, and even claiming that Alan was, in fact, a Blue Slime. Eventually, Alan retired from Nintendo Power to join Nintendo of America's localization department. His true image was never revealed. A more recent running gag for the magazine is the inclusion of a photo of Mr. T in the Player's Pulse section. Chuck Norris may also be identified as a running gag.

During the early 1990s the magazine used what was a unique and very expensive promotion; they gave a free copy of the new NES game Dragon Warrior to every new subscriber.

Following the release of the Super Nintendo, the magazine featured lengthy, continuous comic stories based on Super Mario World and '. After these stories ended they were replaced by similar multi-issue stories based on Star Fox and Super Metroid, as well as comics based on the animated series of Pokémon and ', respectively. More recently, short excerpts of comic books based on Custom Robo, as well as Metal Gear Solid, have been featured (as well as a short Metroid Prime comic). Currently, there is no comic featured in Nintendo Power.

During 2001, Nintendo Power released a spin-off semi-magazine named Nintendo Power Advance, featuring the Game Boy Advance and its games. Four issues of Nintendo Power Advance were printed, the last of which served as a strategy guide for Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2.

There are currently over 200 issues.

Sections in Nintendo Power

Currently running

It is somewhat difficult to firmly establish what is a consistant monthly column in the magazine, as compilation has been fairly unpredictable following its "new look", with sections such as Classified Information, Game Over and Power Quiz printed on and off throughout recent publication (strangely, the "Inside Zelda" series of articles ran more steadily than aforementioned features without being considered a monthly column).

Discontinued

Player's Guides

NES Game Atlas Player's Guide cover
Enlarge
NES Game Atlas Player's Guide cover

Nintendo Power has also produced another series of strategy magazines called Player's Guides. The first Player's Guide was simply called The Official Nintendo Player's Guide. When Nintendo Power switched from a bi-monthly magazine to a monthly magazine in May 1990, every other issue was a Strategy Guide focused on a single game. This didn't last long however, and only four such Strategy Guides were released. Starting in January of 1991, Nintendo Power became a full fledged monthly magazine with issue #20. Issues prior to that have become highly collectible.

The first four Player's Guides in book format were the NES Game Atlas (featuring maps of popular NES franchises), Game Boy (featuring select Game Boy games), Mario Mania (featuring information about Nintendo's mascot, Mario, but was mostly a full strategy guide of the then-new Super Mario World), and Super NES (featuring select Super NES games). All four were mailed free to subscribers of Nintendo Power in 1992. Later, a fifth free Player's Guide, Top Secret Passwords, featured passswords (and a few cheats) for selected NES, Super NES and Game Boy games.

Beginning with The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Player's Guides now feature one specific game, much like the earlier Nintendo Power Strategy Guides. They are separate entities from the magazine itself. The concept is now emulated by other publishing companies such as Brady Games or Prima for Nintendo and other video game consoles. Almost all major Nintendo video games released today will have an official Player's Guide associated with it.

Player's Guides are often sold at gaming stores or can be ordered direct from Nintendo Power. Most Nintendo Power subscription packages include a free Player's Guide as an incentive.

Controversy

A mild controversy ensued upon publication of the second issue of the magazine. Parents called in to complain to the magazine's office that the cover, featuring with an image of Simon holding the severed head of Dracula, frightened their children and had resulted in many of them having nightmares. Nintendo Power has since steered clear of cover artwork that features such graphic imagery.

Whilst not quite as controversial, a lot of fans accuse Nintendo power of over-rating Nintendo games. The writers disclose these rumors, but it is noted that Nintendo tends to recive higher ratings from other websites, such as IGN.

Milestones

Here is a list of milestones Nintendo Power has had over the years:

Comic series in Nintendo Power

See also

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: