Nintendo Power

Not to be confused with Nintendo Power (cartridge service)

Nintendo Power was Nintendo's official magazine for the North American region, providing previews, hints and tips, and reviews of new and upcoming games for Nintendo platforms and published monthly. It is the successor of Nintendo Fun Club News.

At the beginning of the magazine's run, the mascot was a character named Nester, who would appear in a comic segment alongside a caricature of Howard Philips to give tips, and later appeared on his own after Philips left the company. Even later, Mario replaced Nester entirely as the magazine's mascot. Finally, Senior Writer Alan Averill was made the mascot, commonly represented by a plush depicting the Slime enemy from the Dragon Quest series.

Originally published in-house by Nintendo of America, publishing duties were later contracted to Future US in 2007. The magazine debuted with its first issue in July 1988, and ended publication in December 2012.

in December 2017, the Nintendo Power brand would be brought back in the form of Nintendo Power Podcast, hosted by the magazine's former editor-in-chief Chris Slate.

History

Between 1987 and 1988, Nintendo published a magazine for the Nintendo Fun Club, titled Nintendo Fun Club News. That magazine was cancelled after its seventh issue so that the company could focus on Nintendo Power, the first issue of which was released in July.

In 1998, Nintendo began to allow outside advertising in Nintendo Power, formerly only allocated to games and products for Nintendo hardware.

In 2005, to appeal to a new audience, Nintendo Power was revamped. This included a new logo, more fan interaction, and staff reviews. This also led to a greater focus on news and previews rather than strategies.

In September 2007, it was announced that Future US would be publishing Nintendo Power.

In August 2012, Nintendo announced that it had chosen not to renew its license with Future US, and that Nintendo Power would be discontinued after its December 2012 issue.

Volumes

Main article: List of Nintendo Power volumes

285 issues of Nintendo Power were published in its 24 year run. The first issue was dated July/August 1988, while the final issue was released in December 2012. Volumes were originally released on a bi-monthly basis, until the magazine was converted to a monthly format.

Between August 1998 and January 1999, volumes 111-116 of Nintendo Power included a mini-magazine titled Pokémon Power, which featured strategy guides for Pokémon Red and Blue Versions as well as "ani-manga" adaptations of episodes of the television series.

In 2001, a four-issue miniseries titled Nintendo Power Advance was published, similar to a normal Nintendo Power issue but exclusively covering Game Boy Advance titles.

Strategy guides

In addition to magazines, Nintendo would also publish official strategy guides under the Nintendo Power brand.

The first guidebook released was The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, which gave full walkthroughs for a number of Nintendo Entertainment System games.

During the 1990's Nintendo Power would send a Nintendo Power Strategy Guide to subscribers every other month, or alongside the new issue. These were discontinued due to a lack of important releases.

Later, Nintendo would begin releasing the Official Nintendo Player's Guide. Unlike the previous guides, these were not included with subscriptions, and instead had to be purchased separately. Initially these guides were similar to The Official Nintendo Player's Guide and covered multiple games for one console, though the format was later converted so that each guidebook would cover one specific game, and are only made for Nintendo-published games.

After Nintendo Power was given to Future, the guidebooks were discontinued.

Exclusive games

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Game Boy Camera (also known as Game Boy Camera Gold) was only available through mail and the Nintendo Power magazine. It is now quite valuable.
• A stand-alone version of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels for Nintendo Entertainment System for players overseas was proposed by Gail Tilden (former marketing manager of Nintendo of America and Nintendo Power magazine's founding editor) so it wouldn't be wasted (as overseas instead received a Super Mario Bros. 2 that was an edited version of Doki Doki Panic), however the idea was rejected in concerns that it would "confuse the market". Eventually, overseas received remakes of the game; beginning with the remade versions inside of a hidden mode in the Game Boy Color game Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, and as one of the games in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Super Mario All-Stars. The original Famicom game was eventually released on the Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Virtual Console via Wii Shop Channel (Nintendo's Hanabi Festival), Nintendo eShop (Nintendo 3DS, Wii U) and Nintendo Switch Online for the Nintendo Entertainment System emulator since then).

Notable staff

• Gail Tilden (Former marketing manager of Nintendo of America and Nintendo Power Magazine's founding editor-in-chief)
• Howard Phillips (Former Director Game Creative and "Gamemaster" of Nintendo of America and Nintendo Power Magazine's senior editor - content)
• Pam Sather (Nintendo Power Magazine's senior editor - production)
• Scott Pelland (Editor-in-Chief until 2007)
• Chris Slate (Editor-in-chief until early 2012)
• Steve Thomason (Editor-in-chief until the magazine's cancellation in 2012)

External links

• Nintendo Power on Wikipedia
• Nintendo Power on Super Mario Wiki
• Nintendo Power on Zelda Wiki
• Nintendo Power on Bulbapedia

Notes

In other regions during the circulation of Nintendo Power, Nintendo Dream (Japan), Nintendo Official Magazine (United Kingdom), Nintendo Magazine System and its successor Official Nintendo Magazine (Australia) were popular Nintendo-focused magazines. Of these, all but Nintendo Official Magazine (UK) and Nintendo Magazine System are still having new volumes produced. However, it appears none of these were ever produced in-house by Nintendo.

After Nintendo Power ceased to exist, an unofficial successor was produced known as Nintendo Force (also known as NF Magazine), with direction of video game journalism websites such as IGN. The Nintendo Force magazine is released in both print and digital format hosted by MagCloud.

See also

Note: There are many other Nintendo or Nintendo-related magazines as well.

• Nintendo Dream (Japan)
• Official Nintendo Magazine (UK)
• Official Nintendo Magazine (Australia) (a follow-up to Nintendo Magazine System)
• Famitsu (Japan)
• NF Magazine (Nintendo Force) (USA)
• CoroCoro Comic: Although it is owned by Shogakukan, is not focused on Nintendo, and compiles manga from many franchises or brands (Nintendo IP such as Super Mario-Kun manga series are only a small portion), there is a little involvement from Nintendo; in particular for the original distributions of Pokémon Blue (Japanese), as well as the special CoroCoro Comics Pocket Camera.