Famicom Dojo Podcast: Nintendo Power Down

I actually got the first issue of Nintendo Power in the mail totally out of the blue. I can only assume my parents registered my NES when I first got it. It was just one issue, but man oh man was it magical. I devoured it, and brought it to school to show off to my friends. I was on the bleeding edge here folks. My Sega Master System owning friend was green with envy.
I begged. Literally begged my parents for a subscription. They eventually relented and I got my wish. Back then however, they were bi-monthly, and the wait was torture. I eventually went back and ordered the back issues I missed (which was only 3 issues I think). My only option was to order the entire fist year run of six issues. I still have the issues in the very box they came in.

Eventually, Nintendo starting including strategy guides in-between months tide us over. Those were the original guides. There was Super Mario 3, Ninja Gaiden, the 4-Player Special, and holy of holies – Final Fantasy.

This magazine was my companion through the years. I remember getting little trickles of info about the SNES, the Gameboy, and the N64.

I think what really did it for me, was that I jumped ship for the PSX, and lost touch with the old Nintendo Power. After that, I came back during the Gamecube, and even re-subscribed. But it just wasn’t the same. Nintendo no longer had control of the magazine, and the magic was pretty much gone. Every issue I bought, was pretty much out of habit, and some weird form of loyalty. I’m sad to see it go away since it’s just one more thing from my childhood slipping away. I understand the reason behind it. Print magazine have no true purpose in this day and age.

As long as I still have my back issues, those memories aren’t going away anytime soon.

I’m really dating myself with this comment, but I got the first issue of Nintendo Power because I hadn’t finished my Nintendo Fun Club newsletter subscription yet. I was two issues into that newsletter when suddenly I got a letter saying that it was ending; and then one day, the original iconic first issue of NP with the palette-swapped Mario 2 on the cover arrived in my mailbox. Believe it or not, at first I was angry that I was getting something different than what I had signed up for. (kids!) However, upon reading the magazine, I was hooked. Yes, it was basically a blatant commercial for Nintendo, but what a compelling commercial. It was so influential on my early days of gaming that it convinced me that Castlevania II and the Adventure of Link were actually games of absolute perfection. They were brilliant with that Zelda II coverage, breathlessly sharing with the readers every time there was a chip shortage and just building the suspense more and more. When that Zelda II cover finally appeared, I almost squealed with delight.

I kept up with Nintendo Power until around that SMB3 issue which doubled as a strategy guide. After that, I let the subscription lapse because I was much more interested in the coverage coming out of EGM, which covered multiple systems, and had ads for all the new games coming out, which I loved to look at. Though Nintendo Power lost its relevance for me as I started searching for something a little more even-handed, I will always have a soft spot for Nintendo Power, especially those early years. I don’t even have the back issues anymore, but I can still recall the layouts and some of the Counselor’s Corners like they were only published yesterday.

R.I.P. Nintendo Power. Dead but not forgotten. My childhood would not have been the same without your dog-eared pages and torn covers resting in my backpack.

-Mike