Nintendo Power: Giving Players the Power

I opted not to talk about a magazine with groundbreaking political or economic knowledge. Although I do read magazines with such information at times, for the most part, I glance at them when I’m idle somewhere such as the dentist’s waiting room. However, for my magazine, I choose to look at one that was a large part of my childhood: Nintendo Power.

The Issue that started it all

Near the end of every month, I anxiously awaited for my mom to look through the mail and pull out the latest issue of Nintendo Power. As a kid with a Super Nintendo, a Gameboy and later a Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, it was important for me to learn about the latest Nintendo games available. Not only that, but each issue had tips and tricks for games that I owned which proved useful on many occasion.

My favorite section was the classified information section. This contained cheat codes that would otherwise never be discovered by normal gameplay. At the time I read the magazine extensively, the only other way to learn about games was to talk with friends about it, so having the knowledge from the classified information, so knowing the information from that section made you the coolest kid on the block.

However, as technology got more advanced, I got older as well and I eventually cancelled my subscription to Nintendo Power. For one, the internet, especially a site called GameFAQs, had a goldmine of information concerning the latest videogames, not only for Nintendo Systems, but others as well. With the internet being my primary source of information these days, Nintendo Power doesn’t really cut it anymore. However, for its time, it was invaluable.

For more information about Nintendo Power, watch the Angry Video Game Nerd’s look back on it.