Nintendo Power
Nintendo's house magazine began in July 1988, an upgrade of the Fun Club newsletter previously mailed free to its members. Founding editor Gail Tilden built it around things no rival could get: hand-drawn maps, fold-out posters, and insider information about upcoming releases. At its peak it reached roughly 1.5 million subscribers — the largest-circulation children's magazine in the country — and ran for 285 issues before folding in 2012.
- 80 issues
- 77 posters
- 0 gaps in the run
Every issue on the shelf
- 1 Super Mario Bros. 2 Jul/Aug 1988
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2 Castlevania II Sep/Oct 1988 -
3 Track & Field II Nov/Dec 1988 -
4 Zelda II Jan/Feb 1989 -
5 Ninja Gaiden Mar/Apr 1989 -
6 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles May/Jun 1989 -
7 Mega Man 2 Jul/Aug 1989 -
8 Duck Tales Sep/Oct 1989 -
9 Tetris Nov/Dec 1989 -
10 Batman Jan/Feb 1990 -
11 Super Mario Bros 3 Mar/Apr 1990 -
12 Super C May/Jun 1990 -
13 Super Mario Bros. 3 Strategy Guide Jun 1990 -
14 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Jul/Aug 1990 -
15 Ninja Gaiden II Strategy Guide Jul 1990 -
16 Maniac Mansion Sep/Oct 1990 -
17 Final Fantasy Strategy Guide Oct 1990 -
18 Dr Mario Nov 1990 -
19 4 Player Extra Strategy Guide Dec 1990 - 20 Mega Man III Jan 1991
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21 Star Tropics Feb 1991 -
22 Metal Storm Mar 1991 -
23 Power Blade Apr 1991 -
24 Vice: Project Doom May 1991 -
25 Battle Toads Jun 1991 -
26 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Jul 1991 -
27 Mega Man in Dr. Wily's Revenge Aug 1991 -
28 Super Mario World Sep 1991 -
29 Star Trek Oct 1991 -
30 Final Fantasy II Nov 1991 -
31 Metroid Dec 1991 -
32 Super Castlevania IV Jan 1992 -
33 TMNT III: The Manhattan Project Feb 1992 - 34 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Mar 1992
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35 WWF Super Wrestlemania Apr 1992 -
36 Darkwing Duck May 1992 -
37 Lemmings Jun 1992 -
38 Street Fighter II Jul 1992 -
39 Mario Paint Aug 1992 -
40 Felix the Cat Sep 1992 -
41 Super Mario Kart Oct 1992 -
42 Super Star Wars Nov 1992 -
43 Road Runner's Death Valley Rally Dec 1992 -
44 Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse Jan 1993 -
45 Addam's Family Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt Feb 1993 -
46 Tiny Toon Adv. Buster Busts Loose Mar 1993 -
47 Star Fox Apr 1993 -
48 Batman Returns May 1993 -
49 BattleToads and Double Dragon Jun 1993 - 50 Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Jul 1993
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51 Street Fighter 2: Turbo Aug 1993 -
52 Super Mario All-Stars Sep 1993 -
53 Super Empire Strikes Back Oct 1993 -
54 Secret of Mana Nov 1993 -
55 Aladdin Dec 1993 -
56 Mega Man X Jan 1994 -
57 Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage Feb 1994 -
58 Wario Land Mar 1994 -
59 Ken Griffey Junior Apr 1994 -
60 Super Metroid May 1994 -
61 Donkey Kong Jun 1994 -
62 Super Street Fighter 2 Jul 1994 -
63 Stunt FX Racing Aug 1994 -
64 Mortal Kombat 2 Sep 1994 -
65 Illusion of Gaia Oct 1994 - 66 Donkey Kong Country Nov 1994
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67 Earthworm Jim Dec 1994 -
68 Adventures of Batman and Robin Jan 1995 -
69 Mega Man X2 Feb 1995 -
70 NBA Jam Tournament Edition Mar 1995 -
71 Stargate Apr 1995 -
72 Kirby Dream Land 2 May 1995 -
73 Weaponlord Jun 1995 -
74 Donkey Kong Land Jul 1995 -
75 Virtual Boy Aug 1995 -
76 Killer Instinct Sep 1995 -
77 Super Mario World 2 Oct 1995 -
78 Mortal Kombat 3 Nov 1995 -
79 Donkey Kong Country 2 Dec 1995 -
80 New Year Special Cover Jan 1996
The comics, end to end
Nintendo Power drew its own funnies for most of its first eighty issues — a Nester strip from volume one, and from 1992 a comics section running serialised chapters. Every page is here in order, so a serial reads as the story it was rather than twelve chapters on twelve different pages.
40 pagesHoward & Nester
Strip · 21 issues · #1–#25 · 1988–1991
Howard Phillips, Nintendo of America's bow-tied Game Master, and Nester, the know-it-all kid who never took his advice. Two pages an issue from the first volume on, with a different game's world to get lost in each month.
16 pagesBattletoads
Special · 2 issues · #24–#25 · 1991
Rash, Zitz and Pimple, introduced in comic form ahead of the game's cover story.
37 pagesNester's Adventures
Strip · 26 issues · #26–#55 · 1991–1993
Nester carried on alone after Howard left Nintendo in 1991, walking into one game a month and finding out the hard way that reading the strategy pages would have helped.
193 pagesThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Serial · 12 chapters · #32–#43 · 1992
Shotaro Ishinomori's retelling of the Super NES game, drawn in the same year it was released and following Link from the rainy night at the castle to the Dark World.
96 pagesSuper Mario Adventures
Serial · 12 chapters · #32–#43 · 1992
Charlie Nozawa's twelve-part comic, in which Bowser proposes to the Princess, Yoshi eats everything in reach and Luigi gets no respect. Collected in a book by Viz the following year.
18 pagesMario vs. Wario
Special · 2 issues · #44–#56 · 1993–1994
A single story pitting the two rivals against each other, drawn in the style of the Mario Adventures serial.
132 pagesStar Fox
Serial · 11 chapters · #45–#55 · 1993
Benimaru Itoh's serial ran alongside the game, with the Arwing pilots as the magazine drew them: Fox, Falco, Peppy and Slippy against Andross, with a subplot the game never had.
60 pagesSuper Metroid
Serial · 5 chapters · #57–#61 · 1994
Samus's mission to Zebes as a five-part comic, timed to the game's release and ending the month it arrived.