Even though my reading habits have made a significant transition to the online world during this decade, I've been a little more aware of gaming magazines since the death of EGM. After all, print publications are what helped me become obsessed with the medium during the first 15-or-so years of my relationship with video games; during those grade school days of yore, I couldn't be seen without a current copy of Nintendo Power open at any possible free moment--just ask all of those horrible, child-hating teachers who confiscated them from me. We can only hope that they're dead now.
So, on my latest trip to Barnes and Noble, I was surprised and delighted to find a special issue of Nintendo Power along with the newest Retro Gamer--the latter of which is actually quite good if you can get around an overdose of Eurocentricity. In an age where no one really seems to care much about video game magazines, it's odd to see a special publication about the history of a video game magazine; but, given the fact that I picked up one of only two copies remaining on the magazine rack, 20 Years of Nintendo Power seems to have hit upon a nostalgic Hooksexup of old-school Nintendo nerds.
The 66-page issue covers various eras of the magazine, from the NES to the Wii—though, to be honest, I’d be fine with a retrospective that only covered Nintendo Power’s early years. Really, this special edition is just a re-telling of Nintendo's history through the pages of Nintendo Power, but it's important to note that's how most of us children of the children of the 80s lived through this history. That being said, 20 Years is a delightful trip down memory lane for those whose old issues are in storage or rotting away in some landfill. It's a tad pricey at $9.99, but the contents are definitely worth the monetary equivalent of a large pizza. Your bowels will thank you.
Related Links:
WTFriday: Play it Loud
Worlds of Power: Books That Worried Your Parents and Pissed Off Your Teachers
The Nintendo Literary Canon