Zelda II
The first issue of 1989 led with Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, a full-grown Link and villagers whose advice couldn't always be trusted. Marble Madness, WrestleMania, Metal Gear and Operation Wolf filled out the features, and a real volleyball champion, Karch Kiraly, tried his hand at Nintendo's Volleyball. Captain Nintendo wrapped his two-part story, and the magazine put out a call for 100 Nintendo Power Critics.
Get me out of here before they give my medal to some bozo!
Nester, after getting his head stuck in the ground
Power Profile
Celebrity profile · Volume 4
This issue featured an interview with Karch Kiraly — American volleyball player and coach.
Captain of the U.S. team that had just taken volleyball gold in Seoul, its second in a row, and widely called the best player in the world. The team took the NES everywhere: in the Soviet Union they played three-on-three Baseball on a black-and-white set with the console held on by athletic tape, and in Seoul the Olympic village ran on Punch-Out!! and Golf. The one game the best volleyball player alive couldn't beat was Nintendo's Volleyball. He added a third gold on the beach in Atlanta in 1996, the only player with Olympic titles indoors and out. As a coach he took the U.S. women to their first Olympic gold in Tokyo and to silver in Paris.
The volleyball game is impossible to beat. We just can't figure it out. I've only beaten the computer three games—it's embarrassing!
Karch Kiraly, Nintendo Power #4
Sweepstakes
A batch of NES accessories went to the Grand Prize winner, but the more interesting call on the page was for 100 readers to become Nintendo Power Critics, complete with an I.D. card, note pad and pen. Critics would be polled for six months on how to make the magazine better, chosen from the Player's Poll cards at Nintendo's discretion.
Comics
Howard & Nester · Volume 4Howard & Nester
2-page strip
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.
Nester flies Konami Air to the Track & Field II Olympics, convinced they wouldn't start without him, and spends the first page asking every athlete where the coach is while pole vaulters snap and divers belly-flop around him. The coach is Howard, in a USA tracksuit with a stopwatch. He gives real advice for the triple jump — keep the first two jumps between 55° and 65°, the last under 80°, and mind your timing — which Nester ignores on his way to the agony of defeat, face first in the sand.
Classified Information
The codes and secrets this issue gave away.
- Double Dragon
- Mission One magic, Out wait Chintai, Invisible Williams, Avoid conflict
- Mega Man
- Special strategy, One at a time
- Life Force
- Build a fleet
- Gauntlet
- Double agent
- Blaster Master
- Key play
- Bionic Commando
- Alternate weaponry, Indestructable
- Track & Field II
- Hammer throw, Fast flying fingers, Swimmer selection
Counselor's Corner
Game Counselors on callReaders wrote in to ask Nintendo Game Counselors questions about the following games: Super Mario Bros. 2, Golgo 13, Wizards and Warriors, The Legend of Zelda and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
Top 30
These were the top Nintendo games in Jan/Feb 1989, 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 | ▼3 Metroid |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ▼5 Metal Gear |
| 9 | ▲5 Contra |
| 10 | ▼3 Bases Loaded |
| 11 | |
| 12 | |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ▼9 Gauntlet |
| 15 | NEW Adventure Island |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ▼7 Kid Icarus |
| 18 | ▼6 R.C. Pro-Am |
| 19 | ▼3 Mega Man |
| 20 | |
| 21 | NEW Life Force |
| 22 | NEW Pac-Man |
| 23 | NEW Jackal |
| 24 | NEW Track & Field II |
| 25 | |
| 26 | NEW RoboCop |
| 27 | NEW Xevious |
| 28 | NEW Bionic Commando |
| 29 | ▼11 Top Gun |
| 30 |