Nintendo Power Shuts Down Afther 24 Years

[TR0N]

http://www.news.yahoo.com/rip-nintendo-power-magazine-shutting-down-24-years-182014659.html

It's not a surprise to me since i've heard the rumor for awhile now.I'd say during the nes era is when i really use to read the magazine.Back then there was no gamefaqs etc,so nintendo power was great for walkthrough and codes.

[bartre]

Sad face, I loved N64 era NP, even if the letters to the editor section was always kinda snippy.

[Bernie]

Good riddance.   The magazine had went to shit anyway.  I stopped renewing a few years ago.

[TheClash603]

When I was a kid I loved reading EGM, the magazine was great.  Choice number two would maybe be Gamepro, though there was a noticeable drop in quality between the two.  Choice three would be a flavor of the moment magazine, maybe a Game Fan.

...then at the bottom of the list was Nintendo power.  What a horrible magazine.  Codes and strategies aside, it was written even too poorly for me when I was 7.  I recently picked up an issue to check it out and it was still pretty weak.

It is more sad to see this magazine disappear, not because of Nintendo Power, but rather do to the trend of magazines going away in general.

[Nando]

The one thing I recall from those mags were all the art they used to include, FROM JAPAN no less. But that was way back, no idea what the magazine was up to now. Seems Bernie nailed one of the reasons they are shutting down.

You would think they would shift to digital distribution to the Wii/Dsi and I imagine the 3DS. Built in advertising for all their stuff, with instant delivery.

[wilykat]

I was one of the original NP subscriber when they replaced Fun Club with NP back in '88 and I still have the first 100 or so issues.

They went downhill probably around the time WWW was "invented" by Al Gore and I haven't had any subscription with them since then.  Sad to see them go though but they didn't age well.

[futureman2000]

I recall hearing that they had outsourced production of the magazine a few years ago? Probably not, or more people would be talking about that. And, Nintendo Power was pretty much required reading back in the NES days. Not that it was written well, but the screenshot maps were the shit. I haven't seen an issue since 1990 or so probably.

[Mishran]

I haven't looked in a Nintendo Power mag in 20+ years so I'm not hurt by decision. Had some cool shit in it though, back in the day. Stickers, cool perf'd rip out collector card sheets, and the occasional poster for instance. Otherwise, good riddance is right.

[Arkhan Asylum]

who cares, really.

Nintendo Power went downhill around N64, and never really recovered.

Most magazines blow dogs for quarters now.  PC Engine Fan is the best magazine around today.  Fuck all this mainstream jive.

[NightWolve]

Meh, I used to have the first issue till I left it over at a friend's place as a kid... Then the guy moved to California and his dad thought that the issue was his, so he mailed it off to him... I had forgotten all about it till he visited and mentioned that it had been mailed to him. Did an ebay search, looks like they go for $25-$75, but in light of this, they could go for a lot more down the road.

Anyway, having really started videogames off with NES as a kid (Atari 2600 doesn't count!), I gave NP a shot when it got started. I just checked and I've got about 2 years worth of issues ranging from '89 to '91, but then I just stopped renewing, instead favoring the other mags like EGM/EGM2, GamePro, GameFan, NextGen, Computer Gaming World, VideoGame & Computer Entertainment etc. till I quit altogether before starting college in the late 90's.

Well, 24 years, not a bad run though. RIP NP... It wasn't anything special, but back then, without Internet and expensive phone numbers having to talk to another gamer when you got stuck in a game, it had its use. But since the other mags covered everything and were better put together, I stopped bothering with it. I guess I agree with Mishran, it's been 20+ years since I looked at one, so the objective thing to say here is I don't care, but I stopped caring about gaming mags in general, so it's not anything against this particular one...

[Arkhan Asylum]

I had the first year of them.

When I was like 10 I cut all the pictures out and made a collage.

Then, I spilled super-glue accelerator on them. Whoops.


I still have the collage.

[esteban]

I never subscribed (I wish I did! My parents said "No!"), but I did receive the first issue for free (they sent it out to everyone on their mailing list, IIRC).

Anyway, I loved that first issue! Looking at the screenshots was 99% of the fun. Plus, any game covered "in depth" was more captivating than the usual "blurb + random screenshot + no context" that a lot of magazines filled their pages with.

The writing of all video game magazines has /is total pap and seems like it will never change (if you take $$$ from advertisers, you will never be truly objective). The entire magazine is, essentially, an advertisement. When you have no other sources of information (internet), then your desperation allows you to "accept" this sad aspect of your video game addiction .

So, basically what I'm saying is that I wish I read Nintendo Power during the NES/SNES era. EGM and Gamepro and _______ were just as crappy, but without a singular focus, they often seemed heartless. The singular focus of NP is, in a way, it's charm.

Of course, I am basing this on the debut issue of Nintendo Power! Ha!!!!!

[Nando]

On a somewhat related note:
http://kotaku.com/5936970/it-sounds-like-nintendo-wants-to-make-a-gamers-version-of-facebook

"Of course we're going to have that service of head-to-head [multiplayer].. . but what we really want to do is create a place where folks who are playing by themselves will not feel like they are playing by themselves."


sounds dirty...

[RegalSin]

Nintendo did it, on purpose. The Website, the forum, then the Wii network. Nintendo sucks, that is all I can say. They made promises they never kept and did the same exact same thing over and over again.

The magazine got stale after, knowing what to expect from Nintendo.
I remember the colorful pages, previews and stories it once had. Back when video games was something different and exciting.

Their was so many opportunities. I can remember when we had big pockets and the game boy was portable. You know like the ones from the 70's but was meh in the 1990's. A fan wrote a story and was going to be turned into a video game, as well.

I feel sorry for the newer, players of Nintendo products. They soon will discover and feel the same disdain towards, Nintendo as we all felt.

............................................................

I am going to be the only one on the internet to type this first. If Nintendo just made a cart slot for it's original systems on it's systems,
then people from the NES to the N64 days would actually buy a crappy Wii. They just kept the design, of the original NES, SNES, or even N64
models. That is the future...............

Instead like Pokemon gold and sliver, they will just keep making Mac Apple cheapness and all the young people who have been bottle fed Nintendo will keep buying their products, until they wake up.

Because all of us fiction folks, are too dumb, nobody is going to anything to stop this. We will all become serial, as our retarded grandchildren enjoy their PPC built into their hands.

Fear is a real useful tool, especially when a person is raised in stupid.

[guyjin]

who cares, really.

I shouldn't, but I do. It's like hearing a former friend you got into a fight with died. Any chance of reconciliation is gone now.

Nintendo Power went downhill around N64, and never really recovered.

IMHO, it went downhill well before that, during the SNES era. At least, that's when I stopped subscribing.

[TR0N]

I never subscribed (I wish I did! My parents said "No!"), but I did receive the first issue for free (they sent it out to everyone on their mailing list, IIRC).
Of course, I am basing this on the debut issue of Nintendo Power! Ha!!!!!

Was this the reason why you're parents said no !?

If they saw this add that's probably why,it's to much power for any kid to handle 

[NightWolve]

who cares, really.

I shouldn't, but I do. It's like hearing a former friend you got into a fight with died. Any chance of reconciliation is gone now.

Hm, interesting analogy.

I never subscribed (I wish I did! My parents said "No!"), but I did receive the first issue for free (they sent it out to everyone on their mailing list, IIRC).

Yeah, that's how most got it, myself included. I also won a Dragon Warrior game from Nintendo with full maps and a guidebook.

The singular focus of NP is, in a way, it's charm.

Of course, I am basing this on the debut issue of Nintendo Power! Ha!!!!!

No worries, your opinion is still just about as good as anyone else's... ;)

[esteban]

I never subscribed (I wish I did! My parents said "No!"), but I did receive the first issue for free (they sent it out to everyone on their mailing list, IIRC).
Of course, I am basing this on the debut issue of Nintendo Power! Ha!!!!!

Was this the reason why you're parents said no !?

If they saw this add that's probably why,it's to much power for any kid to handle 

Ha! What an awesome commercial. My parents thought that a magazine would simply make me lust for games that I couldn't afford. It was, in the truest sense of the word, a "tease".

Bottom line: PUT YOUR $$$ INTO SOFTWARE PURCHASES, CHILD!

Which makes sense, I suppose, but they were discounting the fact that I would read and re-read magazines. The magazines certainly provided numerous hours of enjoyment and were well worth the cost of a subscription.

OH WELL.

[RegalSin]

The issue introducing, Pokemon was probably my last, issue that influenced me. Everything into the N64 years was just complete,
Miyamoto created the N64 marching band, and the Nintendo awards.
How could a magazine give itself it's own awards????

They had maps, imagery, and shots that would not appear in the game itself. It was beautiful, along with some of the artwork.

Electronic gaming monthly ( I think that it was called ), had some artwork, but the original Nintendo magazine had content that was made in house. However I am comparing the later magazine, to the earlier releases.

The one thing I love about the magazine is the shots. It looks biblical compared to anything released nowadays.

[Arjak]

*Reads Article*

Wow, who would've thought? This is truly the end of an era for Gaming Magazines...

[Colossus1574]

Wow, looks like NP not getting much love here...but i do admit i haven't read it much after they started concentrating on the SNES because i ended up buyin a Genny for my 16bit era.

Aside from that, when the NES was my main system...I felt like it was Christmas everytime the issue showed up at my doorstep  the early issues i read so damn much the staples couldn't even hold the magazine together! So in other words, i got nothing but good things to say for something that was responsible for so much enjoyment in my childhood days cause i read those suckers from cover to cover. My favourite article/section was probably the Top 30, it was fun seeing games move up and down the chart and seeing how your favourite game fared on the chart. I was so happy when my friends were dissing me for buying an unrecognized game in The Guardian Legend, few weeks later I showed them TGL making it into the Top 5! SUCK IT!  So ya it also helped me study up on what was a safe bet for my next game purchase. I considered myself quite a gamer back then, so I'd always end up buying stuff from the Pro's Pick chart  If u guys remember there was the Player's Picks, Pro's Picks, and Seller's Picks (dunno who was giving input for that chart tho...).

[TR0N]

I never subscribed (I wish I did! My parents said "No!"), but I did receive the first issue for free (they sent it out to everyone on their mailing list, IIRC).
Of course, I am basing this on the debut issue of Nintendo Power! Ha!!!!!

Was this the reason why you're parents said no !?

If they saw this add that's probably why,it's to much power for any kid to handle 

Ha! What an awesome commercial. My parents thought that a magazine would simply make me lust for games that I couldn't afford. It was, in the truest sense of the word, a "tease".

Bottom line: PUT YOUR $$$ INTO SOFTWARE PURCHASES, CHILD!

Which makes sense, I suppose, but they were discounting the fact that I would read and re-read magazines. The magazines certainly provided numerous hours of enjoyment and were well worth the cost of a subscription.

OH WELL.

Yeah during the nes era nintendo power gave me to many wants far as games go.Still looking at it now,it use to make me frustrated when it had a add or a review for a up and coming game.Mostly because back then games had more of (tba) then a release date so you never knew when the new game was coming out.I remember when nintendo power had a walkthrough of strider yet the game hadn't hit retail until many months later.

[RegalSin]

Wow, looks like NP not getting much love here...but i do admit i haven't read it much after they started concentrating on the SNES because i ended up buyin a Genny for my 16bit era.

Their is no more love for Nintendo, anywhere. They had something beautiful, and turned it into something terrible. The entire gameverse, is stationed, in Japan, humping the comicverse. While we are stuck with, oh videogame is a computer thing, comic books is an writers thing. It is like their is no justice when it comes to fiction in the west at all.

Let me tell you something about magazine layout, back then. If you can spot mistakes in the layout, it was most likely done by hand, assisted by a computer like the AMIGA, or Apple. Eventually the desktop publishing portion of the magazine was done by computer entirely. I am talking about photoshop, Quark, and so fort. You can even compare and contrast your magazines to find computer editing. In order for them to do a faded image on a page they had to get an airbrush person, and
then take that cel and overlap it. Everything in color costed money.

We had RYB printers, but that was too expensive, and we even have RGB
printers, but that was again too expensive. Nowadays we have CMYBlk printers.

[KnightWarrior]

I liked NP in the SNES days

[Nando]

Related: http://platinumfungi.com/2012/08/a-mega-man-project-is-coming/

As anyone who grew up with Nintendo Power magazine will tell you, the hand drawn art along the edges of the pages really enriched not only the magazines, but the games they were portraying too. Having a more detailed visual of all the weapons, monsters, power ups, maps, and bosses helped make it something more than "just a game". Your childhood imagination went wild, and it became almost real.

So, years ago, when I came across a sizable collection of (mostly) Nintendo Power magazines that were in poor condition, I snatched them up knowing that eventually I'd use them for a art project. Little did I know that I'd still be using them all these years later!

[RegalSin]

They also had short comics, in realations and full scenes, and art with story, from fans.

[kazekirifx]

[Bloody Wolf]

Haven't read it in years but sucks to see it going

[PukeSter]

Well last issue came out.

They did a Top 285 Nintendo games list, but no Virtual Boy games!!

Oh well.

[finerion]

Just picked up the last issue at the bookstore today. Haven't opened it up yet and I'm not really sure I'm going to.

I too managed to snag a copy of NP from time to time when I was a kid and I read the mess out of them. I snagged a subscription a couple of years ago and honestly the magic was gone. And it really wasn't Nintendo Power's fault either. The magic is gone from Nintendo. So when I say that I am sad to see the end of NP's run it is not for their sake but because of what it means to the industry as a whole. The internet is quickly killing the print magazines and it saddens me to see it all go away.

[SignOfZeta]

I still buy a lot of magazines, but I haven't bought a game magazine (other than this issue of NP) in years and years. While its true "all that stuff is online anyway" I pretty much hate new games, so that's really the reason why for me.

There is still plenty of room for magazines. I still buy Grassroots Motorsports, Retro Car, Racecar Engineering, Racetech, Classic Motorsports, Dengeki Hobby, Hobby Japan, and UK photography magazines (for some reason US photo mags suck major dick, no idea why this is). All of these do what the internet rarely does. They have great photos, layouts, and the stories are longer than two paragraphs.

Part of whats killing off magazines (one of many things) is that people don't want to pay for intellectual property anymore...AT ALL. Too fucking cheap to buy music, too cheap to pay more than $0.99 for a game...they sure as fuck aren't going to drop $6 on a magazine.

[NightWolve]

Part of whats killing off magazines (one of many things) is that people don't want to pay for intellectual property anymore...AT ALL. Too fucking cheap to buy music, too cheap to pay more than $0.99 for a game...they sure as fuck aren't going to drop $6 on a magazine.

Heh. I can see that being apart of it. Everybody loves free, if possible. All of us have succumb to that in one way or another.

[blueraven]

SHIT.

I guess I can't call the 3.99 per minute 900 number hotline anymore to find out where Little Face is in the Dick Tracy game.

/SHIT.

[Tatsujin]

Took them some time to stfu. Lol.

[Duo_R]

Is the last issue hard to find?

[esteban]

SHIT.

I guess I can't call the 3.99 per minute 900 number hotline anymore to find out where Little Face is in the Dick Tracy game.

/SHIT.

Hahahhahahhahahaha.

[TR0N]

SHIT.

I guess I can't call the 3.99 per minute 900 number hotline anymore to find out where Little Face is in the Dick Tracy game.

/SHIT.

Well there is this  I remember when the avgn made a joke about this.

[blueraven]

 

[Duo_R]

quick favor - if anyone sees an extra copy mind grabbing for me and I can send over some $$ via paypal? Want to make sure I get the last issue. Thanks!

[TheClash603]

quick favor - if anyone sees an extra copy mind grabbing for me and I can send over some $$ via paypal? Want to make sure I get the last issue. Thanks!

Let me be second on this list!

I went to every Barnes and Nobel and supermarket and Walgreens in town and didn't find a copy.  I hate the thought of paying $30 to get it on ebay.

[Duo_R]

Yeah not finding it. Please buy and hook up some Turbo peeps!

[TR0N]

Yeah not finding it. Please buy and hook up some Turbo peeps!

Ditto i like to have the last issue of np as well.

[Bardoly]

Ditto.  They accepted my order, then sent me an order cancellation letter a week later.   

[SignOfZeta]

Ditto.  They accepted my order, then sent me an order cancellation letter a week later.   

I didn't get the magazine or the cancellation email. Not yet anyway.

[magnuslee]

I also tried looking in my local Barnes & Noble stores and couldn't find a single copy. I then looked on Ebay and found a guy selling 8 different copies!

It's guys like these that made the magazine sell out in bookstores so quickly I figure!

[blueraven]

Gone here at magazine shops as well.

[Duo_R]

yeah striking out, most grocery stores don't even have video game mags anymore. I think it's on ebay gents. If I find one I will buy the lot and hook you guys hope. Hopefully there is a copy out there somewhere.

[soop]

I'm not sure we even got it over here.  I have my favorites from back in the day, and each magazine would have different plus points.

I have to say though, the one copy of EGM I have is shit.  About a paragraph "review" of a game which was not much more than you'd get from the back of the box and a load of adverts.  It was more like a catalogue.

A couple of other UK magazines are similar, with 90% screenshots and little content (C+VG) and entertaining but lowbrow (Total Nintendo).

One of my favorites was Zone though.  I can still chuckle at some of that shit today.  Oh, and Super Play.  Bringing me news from Japan, and those sweet Will Overton covers.

[jlued686]

I emailed Future to see what was up with my order. They returned my email a day later saying it had been cancelled. My local Barnes & Noble is out as well. eBay is my last resort, as it appears most issues are selling upwards of $25.

[Duo_R]

I am wondering what the print run was like, not finding it anywhere, Barnes and Noble, grocery stores. I think at this point Ebay is our best bet. Not sure it is worth that much when it will eventually get scanned. Sucks tho. I did find this really cool retro UK magazine and Barnes & Noble today. It reviewed a bunch of old school games, both of the "Crush" games made it to a top list of retro pinball game list (but didn't see any other turbo mentions). It was pretty sweet but wasn't worth $20 they were asking (ouch).