Nintendo Power

The very first issue.

Back in the Summer of 1988, Nintendo released it's first issue of Nintendo Power. Now, almost exactly 24 years later, they announced that the magazine will be no more. Most would see this an an inevitability with the rise in internet news, others might even be shocked to hear that the magazine was still in publication. Either way, it was a cornerstone of many of our childhoods and I feel like a brief retrospective is in order.

Let's look back at the very first issue of Nintendo Power.

If you were anything like me in the Summer of 1988, you were obsessed with Nintendo. Then something like Nintendo Power comes out and your brain explodes. Going back and looking at this first issue was absolutely shocking. Not only did it announce Super Mario Bros 2, it blew the lid off the game entirely! You got TWENTY pages of strategy, walkthroughs and warps. And that was just the beginning!

From there it went on to provide a full strategy guide for Zelda's 2nd Quest, a full map of Metroid showing the location of every powerup, the Contra Code(!), how to beat Tyson in Punch Out, a full walkthrough of Double Dragon, a list of upcoming games, a Top 30 and more. It's stunning to see how much stuff was crammed into this first issue. You're lucky to get a well written game review in magazines these days.

Sure this was all a thinly veiled 100+ pages of advertisement. I mean even looking at it now makes me want to go out and buy these games, but this was all incredibly helpful information - especially when your only other source of information was that jerk Ken from school who made up lies about his uncle who worked for Nintendo.

Another thing I want to point out is the perception that of a lot of these old games are pretty bad. And yes, looking at them now, objectively, a lot of Nintendo games were rubbish. But there was a certain magic about those gray Nintendo cartridges and the boxes they came in. Each game held a completely new world to explore, a completely different way to play from the last one, and completely new music. It was almost like going to a different country every time you popped in a new gamepak. I mean look at this:

I can identify at least ten sub-par games in that picture. But it didn't really matter if the game was good or not. It was the experience of adding that new world to your collection of worlds. Pulling the wrapping paper off of a game like Karate Kid, which by all accounts sucks, would still make me pee my pants in excitement. It was a new challenge. It was something for me and my friends to ponder and work through together.

And while you didn't always get the games that graced the pages of this beautiful magazine, reading the articles and guides was like taking a virtual tour of those lands. And that's what I will remember Nintendo Power for. Reading it was the next best thing to actually playing Nintendo.

The last issue will be printed in December, and they have promised something really special for it. I think we should all pick that one up as a memorial to our 8-bit childhood.

So long, Nintendo Power. You were radical.

Nintendo Power Issue 1.pdf
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