terrisus
Member
Very nice choice for a cover. And sitting here typing as my wife is currently playing the game on it.
I poured out most of my thoughts in the thread where its cancellation was announced, but, as I said there, I've had a constant subscription since Issue 32 (January 1992), and have since went back and gotten all the other issues of Nintendo Power, as well as 6 of the 7 issues of Fun Club News (only missing Issue 1 of FCN, which, the two times I saw it appear on eBay, it went for like $200... Ah well, one of these days).
With all due respect to the people who have been handing the magazine for the past 5 years (since I know some of them are around here), after Nintendo handed over responsibility for the magazine in 2007 (coinciding with the closing of their internet forums), this kind of just felt like a matter of time. And, while the magazine had still been very good, it just never had quite the same feel to it since then.
Many of the knocks against Nintendo Power was often in it being "nothing more than an advertising tool for Nintendo, that the reviews weren't properly scored and isolated from the world outside Nintendo, and whatever else, I never really saw it as an issue. For what it was - a one-of-a-kind look into Nintendo that really couldn't be gotten anywhere else - it was amazing. And, that was why, when it was no longer published by Nintendo, and was just in the style of a "standard video game magazine, which happened to only look at Nintendo games," it just seemed like a matter of time until it was no longer deemed relevant/necessary, and this day would come.
Nintendo Power, especially from the beginning through around 2002 or so, was much more than what we think of a magazine now. It wasn't just a place to read "news" (which, of course, more often than not, was out on the internet already), but, especially in the pre-internet days (which, I got the internet in 1996 anyway, so there was still a number of years where this was the case), the main place to find out about games. Not just as a news blurb, but in views through the levels, descriptions of the game and its development, and all kinds of inside looks.
One of my favorite things that they did, was putting out an index (they did three of them actually, the first covering issues 1-50, the second 1-60, and the third 1-70) of all the games featured, in which issue and pages, and what types of coverage. Again, in the pre-internet days, if I wanted to find out about a game, this was the best way to go and do it. And sometimes I would just sit around and look through them, just to get ideas about different games to try.
And another great thing they did was their Nintendo Power Catalogues. At the time, of course, I had to wait and resort to asking for stuff from it for birthday and Christmas. Now, though, frankly, I wish I could go back and buy 90% of the stuff from them, since there were so many great collectables in them. Again, it just feels like you can't find this range of stuff anymore.
I'm kind of rambling, which was bound to happen, but, I guess what I'm getting at is, Nintendo Power really offered something different. Much of it was bigger in the pre-internet days, but even after the explosion of the internet, much of it was also due to those close ties to Nintendo, and the specific focus on Nintendo. I understand websites are trying to be "neutral" and "unbiased" and "cover a wide range of information" and such, but, I don't think it's necessarily bad to, sometimes, just have something focused on a specific topic, and having fun with it. And Nintendo Power did that in a way that nothing else was really able to, or really has since.
And, while, as I said, after what happened in 2007, this day seemed like just a matter of time - and honestly I haven't even read as many of the issues as much lately, and have just kept my subscription going, one out of the need to just have it continuing, and two knowing I would feel bad if it ended and I wasn't subscribing, it's still very sad to see it go.
I'm very thankful for the internet and everything that it has brought, and certainly a decent amount of this is childhood nostalgia as well (although I still have all my issues, and still go back and read through them and play through the games in them as well), I just feel sad at something like this ending and going away, since, it was such a wonderful thing to have had.
To everyone involved, from the start until now, though: Thank you.
I poured out most of my thoughts in the thread where its cancellation was announced, but, as I said there, I've had a constant subscription since Issue 32 (January 1992), and have since went back and gotten all the other issues of Nintendo Power, as well as 6 of the 7 issues of Fun Club News (only missing Issue 1 of FCN, which, the two times I saw it appear on eBay, it went for like $200... Ah well, one of these days).
With all due respect to the people who have been handing the magazine for the past 5 years (since I know some of them are around here), after Nintendo handed over responsibility for the magazine in 2007 (coinciding with the closing of their internet forums), this kind of just felt like a matter of time. And, while the magazine had still been very good, it just never had quite the same feel to it since then.
Many of the knocks against Nintendo Power was often in it being "nothing more than an advertising tool for Nintendo, that the reviews weren't properly scored and isolated from the world outside Nintendo, and whatever else, I never really saw it as an issue. For what it was - a one-of-a-kind look into Nintendo that really couldn't be gotten anywhere else - it was amazing. And, that was why, when it was no longer published by Nintendo, and was just in the style of a "standard video game magazine, which happened to only look at Nintendo games," it just seemed like a matter of time until it was no longer deemed relevant/necessary, and this day would come.
Nintendo Power, especially from the beginning through around 2002 or so, was much more than what we think of a magazine now. It wasn't just a place to read "news" (which, of course, more often than not, was out on the internet already), but, especially in the pre-internet days (which, I got the internet in 1996 anyway, so there was still a number of years where this was the case), the main place to find out about games. Not just as a news blurb, but in views through the levels, descriptions of the game and its development, and all kinds of inside looks.
One of my favorite things that they did, was putting out an index (they did three of them actually, the first covering issues 1-50, the second 1-60, and the third 1-70) of all the games featured, in which issue and pages, and what types of coverage. Again, in the pre-internet days, if I wanted to find out about a game, this was the best way to go and do it. And sometimes I would just sit around and look through them, just to get ideas about different games to try.
And another great thing they did was their Nintendo Power Catalogues. At the time, of course, I had to wait and resort to asking for stuff from it for birthday and Christmas. Now, though, frankly, I wish I could go back and buy 90% of the stuff from them, since there were so many great collectables in them. Again, it just feels like you can't find this range of stuff anymore.
I'm kind of rambling, which was bound to happen, but, I guess what I'm getting at is, Nintendo Power really offered something different. Much of it was bigger in the pre-internet days, but even after the explosion of the internet, much of it was also due to those close ties to Nintendo, and the specific focus on Nintendo. I understand websites are trying to be "neutral" and "unbiased" and "cover a wide range of information" and such, but, I don't think it's necessarily bad to, sometimes, just have something focused on a specific topic, and having fun with it. And Nintendo Power did that in a way that nothing else was really able to, or really has since.
And, while, as I said, after what happened in 2007, this day seemed like just a matter of time - and honestly I haven't even read as many of the issues as much lately, and have just kept my subscription going, one out of the need to just have it continuing, and two knowing I would feel bad if it ended and I wasn't subscribing, it's still very sad to see it go.
I'm very thankful for the internet and everything that it has brought, and certainly a decent amount of this is childhood nostalgia as well (although I still have all my issues, and still go back and read through them and play through the games in them as well), I just feel sad at something like this ending and going away, since, it was such a wonderful thing to have had.
To everyone involved, from the start until now, though: Thank you.
