I had a Nintendo Power subscription for most of elementary school. To me, that era of video games seems nostalgically arcane -- when games weren't just intended to be finished as a function of time, and there wasn't an abundance of information available on the internet. I remember being "stuck" on countless games, until an issue of Nintendo Power finally told me that the way to beat Asura was to use the 'Wall' spell on herself in Final Fantasy 2 (or IV, or whatever the cool kids call it).
Nintendo Power's maps and tips weren't always that helpful, but they almost always covered good games. Most video games didn't have huge mainstream media marketing budgets back then, and without Nintendo Power I would have never discovered lesser known games like Shadowgate, Faxanadu, and Duck Tales. As other commenters have indicated, the magazine was basically essentially a vehicle for Nintendo direct mail advertising -- but one that actually worked pretty well for the era.
Hmm, might be time to find some emulators and ROMs...
Nintendo Power's maps and tips weren't always that helpful, but they almost always covered good games. Most video games didn't have huge mainstream media marketing budgets back then, and without Nintendo Power I would have never discovered lesser known games like Shadowgate, Faxanadu, and Duck Tales. As other commenters have indicated, the magazine was basically essentially a vehicle for Nintendo direct mail advertising -- but one that actually worked pretty well for the era.
Hmm, might be time to find some emulators and ROMs...