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Nintendo Power To Shut Down
stillnotelf writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the official Nintendo magazine, Nintendo Power, is shutting down after 24 years. The gaming magazine has been run by independent publisher Future US since 2007, but Ars Technica's source and deleted Twitter posts say that Nintendo is uninterested in continuing the paper magazine in today's digital age, and also unwilling to convert it into a primarily digital experience. There's been no official confirmation of the cancellation or word of how many issues remain of this bit of childhood nostalgia for so many gamers."
Steve Wozniak was denied a Game Boy Tetris high-score listing in Nintendo Power, so he resubmitted his score with his name spelled backwards (Evets Kainzow), and they printed it! Classic moment in crossover Apple/Nintendo geekery... They later gave in and published his photo and a paragraph about his Tetris obsession.
For those who remember Nintendo Power and are feeling nostalgic, there's a good cover gallery with a smattering of selected inside pages (sadly, Woz's high score in issue 24 doesn't seem to be among the scans).
I remember the promotional material they did for the original Final Fantasy. It seemed like that went on forever, but i was a kid so it was probably only one or two issues right before the game came out. Then the next three issues after it came out they did trivia contests. I entered all three, and got second place in one of them!
I won... a neon pink fanny pack. I believe it came stuffed with a t-shirt and some chocolate coins. The t-shirt was kind of crappy, and the coins were quickly consumed. And the neon pink fanny pack was... neon pink and a fanny pack. So kind of the worst prize ever, but i remember the shit out of having actually won something!
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Nintendo Power is one of the few magazines that could have thrived in a digital format, due mainly to their enthusiastic fanbase. I think quite a number of people would have subscribed to a digital version of Nintendo Power that had exclusive sneakpeak videos, developer interviews, NES game emulations, et al. I think it shows that Nintendo still doesn't 'get' how the internet can benefit them.
I haven't read Nintendo Power since I had a NES back in the '80s, but I have fond memories of it. It was a classy mag with good features; at least the kid version of me thought so. Good quality paper stock, nice art direction. I remember the multi-page dungeon maps of Legend of Zelda. I remember the Legend of Zelda 2 preview and thinking it looked like the best game ever, and then I got the game and it totally was. Metal Gear, Ninja Gaiden. I remember looking at those previews and wondering how a videogame could look so cool. Heady times for videogamers. Constant innovation (well, at least from the top studios) because the industry was still so young.