Playing With Power

Playing With Power – Nintendo Power #1

Merry Christmas! We’ve reached the premier of the magazine that defined a generation, Nintendo Power!

Beyond the the obvious increase in the total size of the magazine compered to the Nintendo Fun Club News, the amount of pages dedicated to each featured game was almost as many pages as the entire previous newsletter. There were more pages of tips and tricks for beating Nintendo games and many more previews of upcoming games. The ‘Top 5’ has now increased to the ‘Top 30’ which was now possible with the number of Nintendo games that were in the market and would be coming out in the following years.

Lets take a look at the magazine!

: Even after the entire run of the magazine, this is probably still the most iconic cover of the entire run, it was even reimagined for the final issue

: That’s how to sell a magazine, who wouldn’t want it!

: You may notice Mario looks a little off…the color of his clothes are backwards from what would become is standard look in later years

: Who was your favorite character to use? As a kid, mine was Princess Toadstool

: Nintendo would never allow Mario to have multiple looks like this today

: Tips were sometimes a bit more subtle back then

: Here we get in to detailed hints about the first few levels of the game. This was not possible in the old newsletter format

: The first new game plus

: What was your baseball game of choice?

: Counselors Corner was an absolutely great place for gaming tips…the original Google

: Always an entertaining comic, you could often find tips and tricks for games….the tips are everywhere in this magazine!

: Remember when you had to put codes in to games for the bonus content

: The most famous code in gaming history

: I always enjoyed video game versions of Jeopardy

: I always wanted to win something from these contests

: This highlights the release of Dragon Quest 3 but the first Dragon Warrior wouldn’t even release for over a year in America

: To try and legitimize the magazine, there was info about movies and movie stars in these early issues

: Letters from readers are always entertaining in Nintendo Power magazines

: Cliffy B. is still tops at SMB

: Who is rating Top Gun over Contra, Mega Man and Castlevania?!?

: I always thought it was interesting how the ‘Dealers’ list was different than the players and pros

So that is the premier of Nintendo Power! Do you have any memories of the magazine or is this your first time expereincing it? Let us know in the comments! Next time, we have the most controversial cover of the magazine and it’s only issue 2!

Play with power!

Playing With Power

Playing With Power – Nintendo Power #1

Chris Owens

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