Batman
Batman took the cover for a full-length review, but the centerpiece was The Making of Super Mario Bros. 3, a behind-the-scenes look at the most anticipated game of the year. Shadowgate, Willow's second part, Double Dragon II and River City Ransom filled the features, the latter with a fold-out map. The Game Boy section covered Golf, Boxxle, Kwirk and SolarStriker.
I guess some people just need to make a grand entrance.
Howard Phillips
Power Profile
Celebrity profile · Volume 10
This issue featured an interview with Stephen Furst — American actor (1954–2017).
Flounder in Animal House and Dr. Elliot Axelrod on St. Elsewhere, discovered while delivering pizzas for a Hollywood shop called Two Guys from Italy. The magazine could not believe its luck with that one. He practised up to four hours a day, coached Little League and soccer, and still couldn't beat his sons, eleven and eight; his review of Double Dragon II is mostly an admission of it. His best-remembered role was still ahead of him: Vir Cotto, the put-upon diplomatic aide on Babylon 5, which he also directed episodes of. He died in 2017.
The only thing I didn't like about the game was the fact that I wasn't as good at it as my kids were.
Stephen Furst, Nintendo Power #10
Sweepstakes
The Grand Prize was a private sneak preview of the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie for the winner and up to 25 friends at a theater near home, courtesy of New Line Cinema. Fifteen second-place winners got a movie-based NES game paired with the film on VHS, from Batman to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and 50 third-place winners got the jersey.
Comics
Howard & Nester · Volume 10Howard & Nester
2-page strip · from p. 66
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.
The great Dragon Warrior Nester arrives at Tantegel Castle for the Stone of Sunlight, which lies beneath it, and tries a shovel, a knock, a magic spell, a bomb and finally a full drilling rig on the courtyard's red X. Howard's suggestion — go out the back door, walk round the castle's edge and use the entrance there, which is how you actually reach the Stone in Dragon Warrior — is dismissed with 'Do I look like I was born yesterday?' Some people just need to make a grand entrance.
Classified Information
The codes and secrets this issue gave away.
- Mega Man 2
- Stars sprout wings
- Kid Icarus
- Invincible Icarus
- The Guardian Legend
- Short cut, Buy out the shop
- Godzilla
- Uncanny codes
- Bad Dudes
- Powerful punch!
- Kung-Fu Heroes
- To be continued
- Super Mario Land
- Coin collection
- Rambo
- Well trained warrior
- Faxanadu
- Extra items
- Robocop
- Unlimited continues
- Bubble Bobble
- Stage select
- Baseball Stars
- Well balanced team
- P.O.W.: Prisoners of War
- 21 gun salute
- Gyruss
- Points a-plenty
- DuckTales
- Bonus stage revealed, Connect and collect!, 1-Up loop
Counselor's Corner
Game Counselors on callReaders wrote in to ask Nintendo Game Counselors questions about the following games: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Faxanadu, Legacy of the Wizard, Monster Party, Adventures of Lolo, Ultima: Exodus and Air Fortress.
Top 30
These were the top Nintendo games in Jan/Feb 1990, as voted by Nintendo Power readers. Arrows show the move since the previous issue's chart; the peak is the best position the game had reached by then.
| # | NES |
|---|---|
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ▼5 Mega Man 2 |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ▼3 Faxanadu |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ▲1 Tecmo Bowl |
| 12 | |
| 13 | |
| 14 | NEW Marble Madness |
| 15 | ▼6 Strider |
| 16 | ▲14 Bad Dudes |
| 17 | ▲11 RoboCop |
| 18 | ▼4 Mega Man |
| 19 | ▲1 Batman |
| 20 | ▲1 Metroid |
| 21 | |
| 22 | |
| 23 | NEW Ghostbusters |
| 24 | |
| 25 | |
| 26 | NEW Blades of Steel |
| 27 | ▼8 Contra |
| 28 | NEW NFL Football |
| 29 | NEW Metal Gear |
| 30 |