Nintendo Power to Cease Publication After 24 Years

Saw it mentioned on Twitter this morning. More info and some classic covers here.

Last November saw the shuttering of GamePro magazine, and now another long-running staple of gaming in print is coming to an end, with Nintendo Power ceasing publication after a 24-year run.

Nintendo Power kicked off in 1988 with the legendary claymation Super Mario Bros. 2 cover, pictured below, and was majorly coveted by kids of the time with its free posters and hyperbolic Nintendo game promotions. How many kids would have bothered to pick up Dragon Warrior if not for the offer of a free copy with a year's subscription to Nintendo Power?

I used to get the Australian equivalent, Nintendo Magazine System, back in the 90s. That ultimately ceased publication in 2000, though.

A shame it couldn't make it to its silver anniversary, as the Mario and Zelda franchises recently did. Still, I have to imagine the Internet has rendered it largely redundant. Newspapers and magazines still exist of course, but all the things Nintendo Power provided back in the day - news, reviews, previews, tips, cheats, walkthroughs - are obviously quicker and easier to get online, with up-to-the-minute content and streaming multimedia...and free to boot. Tough to compete with that.

In any event, in honour of the occasion, here is the Angry Video Game Nerd's Nintendo Power retrospective from a few years back:

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Dragon Warrior/Quest FTW.

Australian equivalent, Nintendo Magazine System

it awarded Superman (64) a score of 80%

One of Nintendo Magazine System's most notable sections was its letters page, as it continuously posted multiple fan submitted drawings of Sonic the Hedgehog getting either killed, beaten to death, or humiliated by one of Nintendo's mascots (usually Mario), or by one of the NMS staff members. This was split into two sections: the first went through different changes, starting under the name "Fat Boy", then as the magazine changed hands, under the same title as the magazine itself, "Les" and then finally "Nursie". The second section was entitled "Skull's Mailbag", which started out as a rough-and-tumble, sexist, masochistic aggressive type of mailbag. Amongst other things, writers pledged allegiance to the legions of DSV (Death, Suffering and Violence)

I'm starting to think you guys in Australia deserve the videogame censorship you have right now just because of the reasons above.

It's been a fun ride, too bad this had to happen.

The original magazine "died" a while ago, five years or so maybe. Nintendo stopped doing it and outsourced to Future.

I got it for a few years back in the early 90's* before switching over to the cheaper and multiplatform Game Informer (which 18 years later is now the largest magazine by circulation in the U.S.), still got them all but one issue. The editorial content was so hilariously sanitized and biased, but you couldn't do better than all the maps and crap for each game. Some of the previews were pretty good.

Got a good number of the strategy guides too. SNES, Mario World, Donkey Kong, Link to the Past, Yoshi's Island, etc.

A few years ago...uh...came across, a complete collection of all the guides. Got to see the ones I never got before like Link's Awakening and Street Fighter II Turbo.

*First issue from subscription, I had a few off the newsstand from earlier like the Mario Bros. 3 guide, etc.

I'm starting to think you guys in Australia deserve the videogame censorship you have right now just because of the reasons above.

In hindsight, Nintendo Magazine System was a bit of a stretch to fit with the Nintendo console branding of the era and there's no defending the 80% score for Superman, but there's nothing wrong with the anti-Sonic art. Those console wars were serious business, damn it.

Now I remember lol.

Cover of the final issue.

Seems an appropriate way to end it.

I haven't gotten mine yet, but it was a fun ride.