Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Turtles finally arrived, with the cover and a big feature on Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the first Nester Awards handed out the readers' picks for 1988. Life Force got maps of its later stages and a mega-poster, and Ninja Gaiden's coverage concluded. The 100 Nintendo Power Critics were announced, and a Father's Day special had Professor Nester picking gifts for dads.
Don't they know ninjas never wear bow ties?
Nester regarding the actor (actually Howard) playing Ryu Hayabusa in the Ninja Gaiden movie
Power Profile
Celebrity profile · Volume 6
This issue featured an interview with Holly Robinson — American actress (born 1964).
Officer Judy Hoffs on 21 Jump Street, the Fox hit that made Johnny Depp famous, and the voice on its theme song; she was recording her first album for Atlantic when this ran. She bought an NES to lure her little brother up to Vancouver, where the show filmed, and ended up keeping it for herself, pausing a game before bed and picking it back up before a 5:30 call. She went straight from Jump Street into Hangin' with Mr. Cooper and, as Holly Robinson Peete, married the quarterback Rodney Peete and co-hosted The Talk. She and her husband run the HollyRod Foundation, which supports families living with autism and Parkinson's, and she has become a Hallmark regular.
Gumshoe is my all-time favorite game, but it's so hard! I haven't been able to save Jennifer—I don't even know what she looks like!
Holly Robinson, Nintendo Power #6
Sweepstakes
A mountain bike was the Grand Prize, the first prize in the run that wasn't a game or a shirt. The card doubled as a satisfaction survey, asking whether you planned to renew and which of the nine reviews you liked best, then had you rank five favorites from a numbered list of 112 games.
Comics
Howard & Nester · Volume 6Howard & Nester
2-page strip · from p. 54
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.
Howard brings Nester to a film set as the expert video consultant on Ninja Gaiden: The Movie, whose director, Umberto Ria, wants every scene exactly like the game. Asked where the 1-Up is in Act 4, Scene 2, Nester points to the wrong end of the bridge, the stunt ninja (a bow-tied Howard) sails past the mark, and Nester yells cut — which only Umberto is allowed to do. He's thrown off the set, still insisting he'd just forgotten where it was.
Classified Information
The codes and secrets this issue gave away.
- Blaster Master
- Extended Grenade
- Golgo 13
- Extra Ammunition
- 1943
- Super Shot
- Metal Gear
- Pitfall Removal
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
- Odd Apparition
- Ninja Gaiden
- Quick Climb Manuever, Listen to Music and Sound Effects
- Mickey Mousecapade
- Continue Codes
- Seicross
- Continue Codes
- Ultima
- Character Development, Hit or Miss, Resurrection
- Bubble Bobble
- Happy Ending
- Adventure Island
- Preview of Coming Attractions
- Super Mario Bros. 2
- Twice the Power
Counselor's Corner
Game Counselors on callReaders wrote in to ask Nintendo Game Counselors questions about the following games: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Milon's Secret Castle, Ikari Warriors, The Legend of Zelda and Cobra Command.
Top 30
These were the top Nintendo games in May/Jun 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 | ▲1 Contra |
| 5 | NEW Track & Field II |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ▲16 Metal Gear |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ▲1 Metroid |
| 10 | ▲8 Rampage |
| 11 | |
| 12 | NEW Ultima |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ▼1 Mega Man |
| 15 | NEW Tecmo Bowl |
| 16 | |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ▼10 Blades of Steel |
| 19 | NEW Skate or Die |
| 20 | ▼6 Castlevania |
| 21 | |
| 22 | NEW Bad Dudes |
| 23 | NEW RoboCop |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ▼9 R.C. Pro-Am |
| 26 | ▼9 Kid Icarus |
| 27 | |
| 28 | ▼1 Life Force |
| 29 | ▼18 Bases Loaded |
| 30 | ▼8 Mega Man 2 |