I love Nintendo Power

When I was a kid I never bought a single issue of Nintendo Power. This is why we never had many good games for our NES, because we didn’t have the Power. Fortunately once Super Nintendo came around we got better games like Donkey Kong Country, The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past, Star Fox, and Kirby Super Star, but we missed out on nearly everything for the NES. Once the internet came to be, there was REALLY no need to ever get the Power, because anything you want to know, you can just look it up online, usually with more accurate details. However I recently got into gaming magazines, and the one I have overall stuck with is Nintendo Power.

The first issue I ever bought was due to a little company called Wayforward and their DSiWare game called Mighty Flip Champs. I knew little about it, but was really excited for it. I found out via twitter that there was going to be a two page article on the game in the next Nintendo Power, and I waited impatiently for it to come out, and then rushed out and got it as soon as I could. I got home, ate up the article, and put the book down and abandoned it for about a week. Later I went back and read through more of it, and before I knew it I had soaked up every word in the book. It was really fun to read, and while I already knew a bunch of stuff that was in there, it was still really fun to read through. I read big articles about Rabbids Go Home, Punch Out!!, and Let’s Tap, and they were all informative and interesting, and even revealed a lot about the games that I hadn’t heard elsewhere. I was basically experiencing something a lot of Nintendo fans experienced all those years ago, being glued to every page of Nintendo Power. It’s like I finally got to feel something I thought I had missed out on. I thought that Nintendo Power’s awesomeness would only affect you in the old days before internet, but I was very wrong. The first Nintendo Power is still an experience that can be cherished.



Even though I really enjoyed that issue, I was on the mindset that I should only buy Nintendo Power unless there was something I was really interested in. Thus many months passed where I’d flip through the issues in the store, see nothing I cared about and put it back down. But then Wayforward once again stuck their snout into Nintendo Power with a huge 6 page exclusive debut of their next DSiWare project, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. I bought that thing in an instant and once again ate up everything in the book.

I skipped the next issue, (though I wish I bought it cause there was more Shantae stuff in it. I didn’t check that issue) and I bought the next one because it had character evolution pages of Risky from Shantae. (The previous issue had character evolutions of Shantae herself) It also had a big feature on Spirit Tracks which appealed to me. However by this point the novelty of Nintendo Power had waned a bit, and I wasn’t reading everything anymore.

The new year came along and from the January issue until the July issue I bought every other issue. I skipped February, April, and June, but after that I started buying every issue. I should probably get a subscription, but I really hate the subscriber issues. The ones in the stores look flashy and busy what with all the text on them, but the subscriber issues are so empty. Besides, two of the retail issues this year contained beautiful posters, where the subscriber issues got ripped off and didn’t get them. Sure it costs way more money to buy them in the stands, but I say it’s worth it.



As of right now I’m waiting for some money to transfer to my paypal account so I can purchase the issues that I missed this year on ebay. I want to be able to go back someday and read through the whole year’s worth of Nintendo Power to see remember what was hip or whatever in 2010. It will be fun. There are still a few issues left for 2010, and I just have to say that if there isn’t a cover that has Kirby’s Epic Yarn on it, I will be extremely mad because Kirby has had a total of TWO covers in Nintendo Power history, and seeing as how this is Kirby’s most anticipated title in years, they would be foolish to NOT put him on the cover.

So yeah, kind of a scatterbrained blog post, but I just wanted to tell you a bit about my love for Nintendo Power. It’s a great magazine, and it still has a lot of exclusives which make it a must read. Shantae and Sonic Colors were huge exclusives to them, and I’m sure there will be more like that to come. If you’ve never had the Power, go pick up an issue today. It will be money well spent.