Nintendo Power

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 Template:Dqw plush.

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 199,8 and ended in 2012.

History

Between 1997 and 1998, Nintendo published a magazine for the Nintendo Fun Club, titled Nintendo Fun Club News. The magazine was cancelled after that period, and the first issue of Nintendo Power would be published the following year.

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 1998, while the final issue was released in December 2012.

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 was discontinued.

External links

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