Nintendo Power was a formative experience in my childhood. Before the internet there was no real way to learn about video games - what was good, what was coming out, how to get past certain parts, cheat codes, etc. Nintendo Power did all that and then some. If you played video games in the late 80s and early 90s, you read this magazine. No, you studied this magazine. NP coming in the mail was one of the best days of the month.
Issue 1 - July-August 1988 - Super Mario Bros. 2
Nintendo was a few years old by this point. Super Mario Bros. was 3 years old, Zelda 1 had been out a while and Punch-Out!! was fresh. Mario 2 was set to come out that fall and Nintendo Power had the scoop.
Table of Contents -
If anyone wants me to talk about anything in specific in here, let me know and I'll do my best.
The Mario 2 section goes into very specific detail about how to beat the first two worlds. I always thought this game got a bad rap - it had some really unique and novel ideas for its time. Different characters, lots of secrets, shadow world, unique and classic enemies -- I liked this game a lot. There's nothing really noteworthy about this section though.
The real star of issue 1? dat map
This map. This map. This was like my bible back in the day.
Top 30 -
Even at 8 years old, I was obsessed with video game popularity. One time I took all my Nintendo Powers and cut out the Top 30s and made a book. Yeah. Notable stuff - Castlevania and Mega Man so low, Ice Hockey and Rad Racer so high. Zelda will be #1 or #2 for like 400 issues in a row. When Character Battles came around and Link beat Mario, it never surprised me because of this magazine. Zelda was always more popular than Mario.
Counselor's Corner -
These hints are so useless. I love it.
Classified Information -
The Konami Code was unleashed to the world on this day. Talk about a seminal moment. Also in this issue - Punch-Out!!'s Another World Circuit, Arkanoid's Continue and Stage Select,
This was a seminal first issue. Nostalgia? Definitely.
What is going on with this cover. What's with the random decapitated head he's holding in his hand!!! Simon Belmont more like messed the hell up. Also, kid on a video game surfboard riding a wave.
TOC -
Decent lineup this time around. Bionic Commando was pretty tough and Life Force -- the other Konami Code game -- was brutal. RC Pro Am was great and Blaster Master was pretty huge for a 1988 NES game.
I always loved that picture of Spencer on the top left with the radio and the.. well, whatever that is in his left hand. Classic. The rest of the issue has Spencer as this weird blonde guy that looks like a crappy superhero. Whoops.
Life Force was my shmup of choice on the NES. I loved it as a kid and got really good at it through sheer repetition. I tried to play it a few years back, though, and it just murders me. This game is hard and really unforgiving. I can't get into it anymore.
Um. I always disliked Simon's Quest, so the best thing about this stuff for me is the ridiculous art.
Haha, check out these kids bragging about themselves.
Top 30 -
Pretty much the same as last month. Mario 2 and Zelda 2 start showing up in the top 30. They weren't even out yet!
Oh, I LOVED the old Nintendo Power top 20/30 charts. I was depressed as hell when they stopped giving the point tallies in 1995. I even went and Photoshopped up a retro top 20 for March 2009's games:
Yeah, I tried to tabulate it how they would've done, with equal weight given to sales, NP staff voting, and fan voting. Obviously fan voting and staff voting were total estimates. This was back when Wii Fit was selling insanely well so it got a MASSIVE boost in points from sales tallies.
Remember back in the day when a game would come out and would JUMP in the points standings that month? LttP had like 31,000 points, Star Fox had 29,000, Mortal Kombat had 34,000, Super Metroid had like 28,000? That's what was happening with Wii Fit... every single month for a year and a half.
Issue 3 - November-December 1988 - Track & Field II
Nice shoes.
TOC -
Kind of a crappy issue game-wise. Mickey Mousecapade was way better than you'd expect, but Ultima NES, Legacy of the Wizard, Cobra Command, Racket Attack -- yeah. This'll probably be a short post.
I loved Track & Field and II was an awesome little game. It made the NES Max an absolute must-have thanks to its turbo button and, maybe more importantly, its circle d-pad (what's up 3DS). T&F2 got flat out impossible at later levels without turbo unless you had insane button mashing skills, but the games themselves had fun mechanics. Anyway, I love the art here.
Actually, here's an ad for the Max and Advantage. As if Ghostbusters II wasn't enough. That list of games to play with a Max is hilarious and stupid. For me it goes 1.) T&F2, 2.) Crystalis, 3.) T&F1.
Top 30 -
NP started highlighting new titles this issue. Gauntlet debuts really well and Mario 2/Zelda 2 dash to the top 10, presumably for a long time. Metal Gear is the big winner of the month. Zelda 2 still isn't out. damn Zelda drones.
Issue 4 - Jan/Feb 1989 - Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Holy Link. Why does he have a mullet. Why is he wearing a net. Why does sleeping Zelda have an 80s perm. Why does everything
TOC -
Seventeen pages of the most anticipated video game of all time. You know, this might actually be true at this point. Mario 3 obliterated this expectation though a year later though.
Hogan/Andre fanart. I can't tell which is worse (better)
Top 30 -
I'm trying to figure out these little illustrations and why they exist. Why does Link have a sword and a skull up his butt
Half Time ! Half Time ! Half Time ! Half Time ! Half Time !
Jesus, Mario 2 more than tripled second place. There's a lot of new games this month. Mario 1 slips all the way to 16th thanks to Mario 2 domination. Milon's Secret Castle, a favourite of mine, is the only new game to break the top ten.
Not much to say here. It's a ninja. No idea why there are buildings there.
TOC -
Whoa, there's a report from CES. This was the big event of the year since e3 didn't exist yet.
I had no idea Bagu was so critical to Zelda 2. He's an item!
Here's the CES report. It looks like ninja games were to 1989 as FPS games are to 2011. There's a MM2 screenshot there. The LJN breaking news is pretty funny as well.
Ha, Milon's Secret Castle is so hard that they put a section in called 'getting started'.
Top 30 -
Lots of movement. Contra hits the top 5, Blades of Steel shows up, Milon's Secret Castle promptly crushes everybody and slides a dozen spots. Everyone realizes Metal Gear is terrible and drops it 20 spots. Mega Man 2 sighting in the top 30 despite no coverage whatsoever and not being out for another few months. Mario 2 is still owning faces.
Especially fun going through the top 30 in sequence.
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Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision
1989 is probably the NES's best year in America. Mega Man 2 came over here, Dragon Warrior is finally coming, Ninja Gaiden, Mario 3 on the horizon -- lots of good stuff happening. Looks like we've got some awards for it being the one year anniversary of NP, too.
Nester Awards -
Wow, Mario 2 cleaned up but didn't take Best Game. Haha, Mario 2 won best ending. I have no idea how it beat out Bionic Commando which was one of the nominees. Mario and Zelda dominated these things, man.
Nothing too notable in the MM2 section. The game is obviously done and just being localized.
Dragon Warrior preview has crazy art. They acknowledge it being the first DW game despite the audience having no idea.
Top 30 -
What the hell is up with Metal Gear? 3 -> 23 -> 7. Track and Field 2 finally gets on the board at #5. I guess it takes a while from this ridiculous preview coverage to people owning the game to being able to vote for the game. Zelda 2 finally brings the Mario 2 dominance to a close. Zelda 1 refuses to go away while Mario 1 returns to the top 30 this month. Mega Man 2 drops to 30. Why am I analyzing this
This is some great MM2 coverage. Kinda crazy that they'd have everything for you before the game came out, but eh, they have strategy guides these days that do the same thing.
Top 30 -
They moved the top 30 up to the front of the magazine this time around. I have no idea why Mario 2 is #1 when Zelda 2 has more points. Ninja Gaiden debuts high, Tecmo Bowl soars, MM2 reaches #9 despite barely being out (or maybe not out at all?), Contra slides.
Dragon Warrior CYOA/fanfiction. I approve.
Reviews! Bad Dudes somehow does really well. Whatever.
Game Boy hype. Tetris hype. Double Dragon II hype. WE ARE TALKING 2-PLAYER SIMULTANEOUS PLAY! A feature never before seen in the Double Dragon series.
Lame games this month - Hoops, Fester's Quest for the second time, Roger Rabbit. Previews look more interesting than the main content.
Okay, there is no way Horii would ever approve slime fanart like this. Enemies are the opposite of charming here!
Somebody got a little crazy with Fester's face.
More Game Boy details. They spend a lot of time bragging about link cables.
hehe, a Tetris tutorial. 20 years ago there was an actual need to teach people how to play it effectively!
Top 30 -
Super Mario Bros. 3 what. That's not out for like a year. Legacy of the Wizard, ouch. Cool to see Guardian Legend make the top 10 - that game is really good. Mega Man 2 falls and will probably shoot right up next month when people have had a chance to play it.
the comics were always so stupid. there was one howard and nester comic where nester's like 'yo, i can beat that game!' and howard's like 'oh yeah then how do you get to level 7' 'uhhhh'. somebody thought this was funny.
Cool cover. It adequately sums up where people were at in 1989-1990.
TOC -
Take a look at the exciting endings of 10 of our favorite classic games! It's awesome! You could never get away with this today, or even 10 years ago.
It's Tetris.. in color! What a great hook.
Here's your ten epic endings. Metroid the only notable one of the bunch, unless you're talking for nostalgic reasons like Mario 1.
It's funny to read these now and say "who thought it was going to work?". I had a power glove and it was a total disaster.
Whoa, they loved Shadowgate. Good job NP.
Top 30 -
Mega Man 2 zips to #1 and Mario/Zelda come back down to earth. RPGs start to pick up some steam with Faxanadu and DW1 showing up. TMNT shows up proving that hype > game quality in NP. Mario 3 vanishes.
Ohhhh yes. The hype begins. Also, Fred Savage sucks at Mario confirmed.
Yesss, R.C. Pro Am. I loved that game. It just fell off the face of the earth, didn't it?
- Hey look! It's QWOP!
- Wow! Super Mario Bros. is completely out of the Top 30! It was at 16, then completely disappeared! And Metal Gear dropped a TON!
And it's back next year. Guess they just forgot all about it, =P. Right on the money with Metal Gear. What is up with that? And sadly, Mike Tyson finally fell out of the top ten =(
Okay, there is no way Horii would ever approve slime fanart like this - lol yes.
RC Pro Am is a sweet game. it actually is one of the best selling games on the system. no one really champions it though. it's just a dumb fun game until you get fourth and lose all your stuff.
Jack Nicholson Batman! He always showed up Michael Keaton. Then again you could say the same about Heath Ledger.
TOC -
Without reading anything, the Mario 3 reveal is probably the biggest thing here.
Batman was always a cool game. It was like a manageable version of Ninja Gaiden. Well, until you got to Joker. I spent literally hours trying to beat that jerk as a 10 year old.
Some cool Shadowgate art here. Fans of the game will probably like the skeleton pic on the top right.
This.. is really really awesome. Some insight into the Mario 3 development process. I especially like this line: The team that produced Mario 3 consisted of over ten people, and they worked on the game over a two year span. Those were the days.
I should probably mention Willow since it's had like three previews, which seems pretty excessive. Willow was an awesome little Zelda-lite game. It was based on a movie and never had a followup so it's pretty forgotten today. It's weird to see so much coverage of it when looking back.
dat knee. DD2 is such an awesome game. just showing me a picture of Billy doing the knee is enough to get me to post a picture. You can see the enemy flying backwards like he'd been shot by a bazooka. That was the power of the knee.
Top 30 -
augh tmnt. It killed everything this month. MM2 falls to sixth; Ninja Gaiden, Bionic Commando, Blaster Master and Faxanadu do a better-than-expected job of hanging on; Dragon Warrior soars to fifth. Mario 1 is nowhere to be seen. I'm always kind of surprised that it has such staying power when people didn't really play it all that much back in the day. damn you being first
More Mario 3. When you look at this picture, it really nails down why Mario 3 was such a huge jump over previous games. There is just so much stuff in there that's brand new, even if the core formula is pretty much similar to Mario 1. (Sidenote: I always thought it was interesting how many games of this era followed the same pattern. First game establishes a franchise, second game is a wild sidestep that's a huge departure from the others, third game is a knockout game that reiterates on the first game in the series with fresh ideas. See: Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania)
They should have called this the Mario 3 issue. Of course, there'll be a couple of those coming up, including the most famous strategy guide ever.
Yeah, it is quite strange how that goes. SNES FFs were like that too. First game sets up an epic story, second game is just a lot of fun class changing instead of really developing an epic storyline, third game is one of the best RPGs ever. Different, but good.
I can't think of anything within the last decade or so that does it though, sadly. We always seemed better off for it.
dat cover. Reading these makes me want to play Mario 3. I'm not its biggest fan but damn if it wasn't the hugest event of my ten year old life when it was released.
TOC -
Final Fantasy sighting. CES 1990 is in here too - maybe some Mega Man 3? Nintendo Power award voting too, yay. Many of the main games in this issue look pretty bland.
Mario 3 stuff is more of the same so I'm gonna skip it.
CES 1990. Nintendo with a 30,000 foot booth? What? Nintendo had such a death grip on the industry that all games were shown at their booth. Lots of games were announced here, many didn't actually come to the US. Crystalis, Ninja Gaiden 2, Super C and Chip n Dale's Rescue Rangers were all revealed.
A Boy and His Blob was so damned weird. It isn't just the premise, it's how all the jellybeans came together in one weird blend of action and puzzle. I could never get into this game despite wanting to.
Top 30 -
Mega Man 2 makes a comeback but not enough to top TMNT. Mario 3 makes the top 10 despite not being available on home consoles. It was only available on Playchoice - a weird timed arcade machine that was basically like playing NES roms. Next month Mario 3 is going to like quintuple second place. Duck Tales soars into the top 10 while Mega Man somehow stays in the 11-15 range for a full year. That game never goes up or down.
First FF1 sighting. FF1 came out of nowhere and just got an absolute blitz of coverage from NP. I was actually kind of upset that they were wasting entire issues covering it at the time because it felt like they were paid to do so (and they probably were). It's funny to see them advertise the fact that you see the characters swing at air as a positive. I guess that's better than Dragon Warrior.
Not to be outdone, here's a really cool full DW1 map. There's also a crazy CYOA on the right side that lasts like six pages. Dragon Warrior and NP were always ridiculously close and the game was way overcovered. It was even given away with subscriptions to NP for a while.
GOTY nominees. Not sure why they do these in the middle of the year. I like BEST CALLENGE myself. My picks - best graphics/sound - MM2; BEST CALLENGE - Ninja Gaiden; Best fun - MM2; Best control - uhh Tetris, Best character (holy TMNT!) - Mega Man, Best ending - Ninja Gaiden, Best PVP - Tecmo Bowl (though Super Dodge Ball is awesome), GOTY - MM2. Yeah, I like Mega Man 2.
First game establishes a franchise, second game is a wild sidestep that's a huge departure from the others, third game is a knockout game that reiterates on the first game in the series with fresh ideas. See: Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania)
I wouldn't really count Metroid in that list. In terms of core controls, Metroid 1 is the sidestep. In terms of exploration, Metroid 2 is the sidestep (although Metroid 2's exploration got reused in Fusion).
And of course, there's plenty of series that ignore this pattern. Mega Man. Street Fighter.
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Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision
This is feeding my ever-expanding addiction to a wide array of rotating desktop themes, tranny. I've now added another twenty-two pictures to the endless spiral.
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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~ http://img.imgcake.com/Jeffzeropngus.png
That cover has nothing to do with Super C at all. This is the issue that they announce NP will start coming monthly instead of bimonthly, with strategy guides every other month. A full issue dedicated to Mario 3? It deserved it.
TOC -
Lots of good games this month. FF1, Super C, Ninja Gaiden 2, Startropics, Crystalis. Should be a good issue.
Hoooooly FF1 fanart what. This is less of a guide book and more of a plot synopsis. Knowing what I know now, they must have done this to preserve their MAD SKILLS before the FF1 strategy guide that will come in like three issues.
This is awesome Super C coverage but absolutely nobody ever used a map for Contra.
Nintendo Power Awards results. Haha, TMNT won for best fun. Everything else was what I wanted besides GOTY. TMNT over Mega Man 2 is criminal.
Top 30 -
Mario 3 crushes everything else to no one's surprise. Tetris flying to #2 is a little unexpected though. I wonder when they start doing a GB top 30. I've shied away from GB coverage thus far because there hasn't been any games worth mentioning besides Mario Land. It's not like you can cover Tetris. Zelda 1 finally passes Zelda 2 and Batman/Shadowgate shoot up the charts. After commenting on Mega Man 1 never going anywhere it promptly vanishes from the charts. And why is Mario Bros. on here and not Mario 1? Damn you Dealers' Picks
Ninja Gaiden gets a killer score and rightly so.
Startropics does well too. I never realized until now that Earthbound kinda borrows from Startropics.
Crystalis preview tells you there's magic and swords. Thanks NP. I hope it gets more focus later on because it's one of the best games on the system. I bet it does.
Whoa, Mega Man 2 password generator. I didn't think that stuff was widespread until the internet came around.
Crystalis preview tells you there's magic and swords. Thanks NP. I hope it gets more focus later on because it's one of the best games on the system. I bet it does.
;_;
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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~ http://img.imgcake.com/Jeffzeropngus.png
dat knee. DD2 is such an awesome game. just showing me a picture of Billy doing the knee is enough to get me to post a picture. You can see the enemy flying backwards like he'd been shot by a bazooka. That was the power of the knee.
The thing I hated about Double Dragon 2 was the platforming sections, given the horrible jumping controls (A+B together to jump, with significant delay). That stupid bulldozer/train thing, and the disappearing platforms over spikes.... UGH.
Such a fantastic beat-em-up, why did they have to shoehorn in all those terrible jumping puzzles?
Issue 13 - July 1990 - Super Mario Bros. 3 Strategy Guide
Man, they really padded this issue. Check out some of these helpful hints. It's not like they had a choice, but still, some of this stuff is obvious.
Now this -- this -- is what I studied when I was a kid. Within one or two moves I could tell every N house thanks to these. I would always start in the top right and then move on. I still know a bunch of the patterns somehow. There's always a star in the bottom right corner and the mushroom pattern of top right / down-left / down-left again / two left and one up works pretty regularly. I don't remember the rest though. This was my main reason for looking at this guide.
I've talked about this jerk before on this board and I'll do it again. Boss Bass is the biggest jerk in the Marioverse. This guy scares me more than any survival horror guy. If I see this stupid fish stalking me in the water, I'm going to freak out a little. I make so many mistakes just being scared of this fish. I will never get over this. I have a Boss Bass-phobia.
dat shoe. I once lost a friend fighting over who could play the shoe level. oops.
I called this place 'Tube City' for a really long time because of this magazine. I thought that was its name and not something boring like 'Pipe Land'. Anyway, I always really liked this world. I know most people prefer 5 and 6 but I liked the little switches you jump on and all the pipe mazes. Plus 7-4 and 7-5 are great.
Here they are. Fun stuff, especially 7-4.
Swimming under the ships was mindblowing to me. I would do it just because I could, even if it was boring as hell.
There's really not much to grab from these strategy guides. Mario 3 will at least be more interesting than the next one.
You know what this guide is missing? Treasure ships! P-Wing/Anchor rewards for getting a set number of coins on a level! The even levels sucked for those anchors, man. Then again, if you ever sucked at had to chase that airship around, you were glad to have them.
More FF1, Crystalis (good), NG2. Castlevania 3 was in the last issue but it was so small that I didn't include it.
As the premiere FF1 fan on this board, I can tell you that their FF1 strategies are absurd. Anybody that grinds to level 10 before going into the marsh cave is wasting like 10 hours of their life.
But this? A thing of beauty. tceles b hsup indeed.
Summer CES! TMNT2, Dr. Mario, Mega Man 3, Simpsons NES. "The dynamic duo of Acclaim and LJN (recently merged) have some hot titles in the works, including a NES game based on The Simpsons!" Niiiice.
Chip n Dale's Rescue Rangers was so much stupid fun. it felt so good to pick up items and hit things with them. The game played so fast and the sound effects felt really good. I played this game a ton as a kid.
Ahh, Crystalis. This is more like it. This game really pushed the action RPG genre forward and paved the way for its SNES brethren. Honestly, this game would have been a lot better if it were on the system. There was just too much crammed into a little NES cart and not enough buttons to handle it.
This is a great guide, including a really nice list of where to go in the world. I do have to love that they refer to Asina as Assina at one point. That's like two disastrous translation errors turned into something amazing.
There's CV3. Great score as expected. As a kid, I felt like CV3 was a step above the other NES games on a production level. It just looked and sounded better, and played better too. With this and Crystalis, the NES was really starting to get maxed out.
Top 30 -
Mario 3 still tripling the competition. Batman breaks up the string of classic NES action games while Mario 2 makes a comeback. I'm guessing people saw it sucked last issue and voted for it this time. Double Dragon 1 has a weird resurgence here up to #12, especially notable since the NES version kinda sucked. SMS was where it was at. Mega Man shows back up at #22. I love these lists.
I haven't posted the old high score charts yet. I sat there for like three hours in Mario 3 clearing out the fortress over and over to crush these high scores, but I never got into NP. I think it was something to do with getting a good picture of the screen. That wasn't as easy 20 years ago as it is today.
Man, just read this. It's a damn good thing we didn't have ustream or justin.tv back in 1990 because wow.
Startropics was pretty big back in the day, almost everyone I knew had that game and played the heck out of it and bought issues of Nintendo power just to get through chapter 3. Considering how cryptic the graveyard stuff was, it was a Nintendo Power game as the Angry Video Game Nerd would say.
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http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/33/shadowkenj.gif LOL!!!! I hope that's a joke....names don't get more n00bish than that
