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Play It Loud!
Apr. 5th, 2012 08:30 amTo start with, here is the entry where I copied a VGMusic forum thread where I shared my memories in general about Nintendo Power:
https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org/138097.html#cutid1
That said, the first thing you should know, is that the NP issues I had bought off of Ebay and received just two days ago are from February through December 1995. Before receiving them, theirs were the only volumes I had remembered reading in 4th grade (95/96) (except for volumes 69 and 73, which I would obtain from Ebay in 2001, and 71 and 76, which I've only looked through for the first time ever). At first, I thought that maybe my library was a year behind or something, because I tend to associate anything that came out in '96 with 5th grade (except for v. 80, which I never read, and v. 81, which Mom did give me my own copy of during 4th). However, there are things I remember reading while still in 4th that didn't appear in any of the issues we're talking about, such as the walkthrough for Mohawk & Headphone Jack, in-game info about Super Mario Kart (which actually came out in '92 and had its own walkthrough back then), a preview of Tetris Attack, and a poster containing tips for beating each of the bosses in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. (Not gonna chase after all of those; the ones I just bought are satisfying enough to read, and have successfully broken the monotony of pressing forward with Kanji in Context.)
See the title of this entry? That was Nintendo's slogan for advertising SNES and Game Boy games at the time, as well as the brand for a special line of colored Game Boys (which I need to make a comment on in this entry). Yeah! Those were the days when most handheld gaming (and by that, I mean the only truly renowned handheld system at the time) was 2D, sepia-toned, and with low resolution and sound quality (unlike the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita of today). And to be more specific, it was also the brief period of time when the Super Game Boy and the ever-unpopular Virtual Boy were being marketed, and the Nintendo (Ultra) 64 was still being hyped for its North American release (although I hadn't been aware of that at the time, until just shortly before it actually came out, since I didn't read most of the news articles at the time). And I also found out only reading volume 72 this time around, about the X-Band, which was a device to hook up one's Super NES to America Online for multiplayer gameplay.
I gotta admit that most of what I actually bothered reading was the stuff I had read all those years ago, though I did take the time to read some other things, such as the Player's Pulse sections. It was always true that some walkthroughs or other articles were interesting enough to read through, while others weren't enough to even read part of, whether we're talking about the copies I borrowed from the library, the back-issues I would buy on Ebay later in '01, or the ones I received in subscriptions from Christmas 1998 to somewhere around 2003. However, back when I was a kid, I would have played almost anything that was immediately available (with exceptions, of course); nowadays, my horizons are broader, I have actual goals in life, and I would personally rather read about anime than about video games (though even between anime magazines, I gotta say that Anime Nsider wasn't nearly as interesting as Newtype back when either of them were still running). So, even if Nintendo Power was still living up to the latter half of its name, instead of barely doing anything except advertising, it probably wouldn't matter at this point (least not to me personally).
Still, it was nice seeing all the same imagery that I had been familiar with from my childhood, and for the record, I have no intention of selling or donating these copies to anyone later on.
One thing I have noticed, was that while there are walkthroughs and maps for Game Boy games in these issues, they didn't get nearly as much attention as the Super NES and the Virtual Boy (at least as far as said walkthroughs go), unlike in 1992 when the NES, SNES, and Game Boy all had their own sections.
Now, about the aforementioned Play It Loud Game Boy line, first thing I was thinking, was that there might as well have been a blue one in the line. According to both Wikipedia and Game Boy Wiki, there actually was, but as Kineticturtle stated in this entry of Blogspot, it's somewhat rare in the United States. Not sure what happened that the blue brand was less common than the other six and got no attention whatsoever in both the magazine ads and the TV commercials. My theory is that maybe Nintendo actually did intend to give it equal attention, but production costs ran a bit high as most of the budget was spent on the others. Anyone else have any idea?
On the positive side, the Epic Center section in volume 74 had featured some games that were only released in Japan. Among those was the original Wonder Project J. Nice! I still plan on playing the fan-translated Wonder Project J2, and since this prequel also got a translation patch on ROMhacking.net, I suppose I'll play that game as well at some point.
Third to last issue of what I bought is volume 77, with Yoshi's Island as the cover game of the month. No maps where it's actually covered, but minus only the bonus levels, the coverage does give one or two tips for every single level (unlike with most other games, where the writers stop at a certain point, never to touch up on it again). Despite also containing the walkthrough for a certain Nicktoon game (which I had Mom conveniently staple shut for me), that one will always be my favorite issue of the series, with my second being 75 (which was one of the first two available at the library when I discovered the series, and also had the preview for Yoshi's Island), and third being 72 (the other of the first two of my discovery).
Today, I'm gonna continue with Kanji in Context, but I fully intend to bring all of these to share with Brian when we meet him and Marie and everyone else in Massachusetts next month.
https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org/138097.html#cutid1
That said, the first thing you should know, is that the NP issues I had bought off of Ebay and received just two days ago are from February through December 1995. Before receiving them, theirs were the only volumes I had remembered reading in 4th grade (95/96) (except for volumes 69 and 73, which I would obtain from Ebay in 2001, and 71 and 76, which I've only looked through for the first time ever). At first, I thought that maybe my library was a year behind or something, because I tend to associate anything that came out in '96 with 5th grade (except for v. 80, which I never read, and v. 81, which Mom did give me my own copy of during 4th). However, there are things I remember reading while still in 4th that didn't appear in any of the issues we're talking about, such as the walkthrough for Mohawk & Headphone Jack, in-game info about Super Mario Kart (which actually came out in '92 and had its own walkthrough back then), a preview of Tetris Attack, and a poster containing tips for beating each of the bosses in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. (Not gonna chase after all of those; the ones I just bought are satisfying enough to read, and have successfully broken the monotony of pressing forward with Kanji in Context.)
See the title of this entry? That was Nintendo's slogan for advertising SNES and Game Boy games at the time, as well as the brand for a special line of colored Game Boys (which I need to make a comment on in this entry). Yeah! Those were the days when most handheld gaming (and by that, I mean the only truly renowned handheld system at the time) was 2D, sepia-toned, and with low resolution and sound quality (unlike the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita of today). And to be more specific, it was also the brief period of time when the Super Game Boy and the ever-unpopular Virtual Boy were being marketed, and the Nintendo (Ultra) 64 was still being hyped for its North American release (although I hadn't been aware of that at the time, until just shortly before it actually came out, since I didn't read most of the news articles at the time). And I also found out only reading volume 72 this time around, about the X-Band, which was a device to hook up one's Super NES to America Online for multiplayer gameplay.
I gotta admit that most of what I actually bothered reading was the stuff I had read all those years ago, though I did take the time to read some other things, such as the Player's Pulse sections. It was always true that some walkthroughs or other articles were interesting enough to read through, while others weren't enough to even read part of, whether we're talking about the copies I borrowed from the library, the back-issues I would buy on Ebay later in '01, or the ones I received in subscriptions from Christmas 1998 to somewhere around 2003. However, back when I was a kid, I would have played almost anything that was immediately available (with exceptions, of course); nowadays, my horizons are broader, I have actual goals in life, and I would personally rather read about anime than about video games (though even between anime magazines, I gotta say that Anime Nsider wasn't nearly as interesting as Newtype back when either of them were still running). So, even if Nintendo Power was still living up to the latter half of its name, instead of barely doing anything except advertising, it probably wouldn't matter at this point (least not to me personally).
Still, it was nice seeing all the same imagery that I had been familiar with from my childhood, and for the record, I have no intention of selling or donating these copies to anyone later on.
One thing I have noticed, was that while there are walkthroughs and maps for Game Boy games in these issues, they didn't get nearly as much attention as the Super NES and the Virtual Boy (at least as far as said walkthroughs go), unlike in 1992 when the NES, SNES, and Game Boy all had their own sections.
Now, about the aforementioned Play It Loud Game Boy line, first thing I was thinking, was that there might as well have been a blue one in the line. According to both Wikipedia and Game Boy Wiki, there actually was, but as Kineticturtle stated in this entry of Blogspot, it's somewhat rare in the United States. Not sure what happened that the blue brand was less common than the other six and got no attention whatsoever in both the magazine ads and the TV commercials. My theory is that maybe Nintendo actually did intend to give it equal attention, but production costs ran a bit high as most of the budget was spent on the others. Anyone else have any idea?
On the positive side, the Epic Center section in volume 74 had featured some games that were only released in Japan. Among those was the original Wonder Project J. Nice! I still plan on playing the fan-translated Wonder Project J2, and since this prequel also got a translation patch on ROMhacking.net, I suppose I'll play that game as well at some point.
Third to last issue of what I bought is volume 77, with Yoshi's Island as the cover game of the month. No maps where it's actually covered, but minus only the bonus levels, the coverage does give one or two tips for every single level (unlike with most other games, where the writers stop at a certain point, never to touch up on it again). Despite also containing the walkthrough for a certain Nicktoon game (which I had Mom conveniently staple shut for me), that one will always be my favorite issue of the series, with my second being 75 (which was one of the first two available at the library when I discovered the series, and also had the preview for Yoshi's Island), and third being 72 (the other of the first two of my discovery).
Today, I'm gonna continue with Kanji in Context, but I fully intend to bring all of these to share with Brian when we meet him and Marie and everyone else in Massachusetts next month.