Mega Man 2
The first-anniversary issue gave Mega Man II a 16-page review and Faxanadu a World Tree map, with Dragon Warrior and Strider rounding out the features. To mark the year, Pak Watch grew to three pages of 1-Up tips, and the issue carried a bonus tip book. RoboCop, DuckTales, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and IronSword all appeared in preview.
They look taller in the comic books. And greener too.
Nester meeting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Power Profile
Celebrity profile · Volume 7
This issue featured an interview with Michael Dorn — American actor (born 1952).
Lieutenant Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation, then in its second season and two and a half hours in the makeup chair each morning. The profile can't resist the angle: would a Klingon fear Ganon? Dorn, for his part, preferred Duck Hunt to anything with a sword, because it reminded him of playing Indians with his brother as a boy. Off duty he flew planes and played in a rock band, and before the forehead he had been Officer Jed Turner on CHiPs. He kept the ridges on through seven seasons, four of Deep Space Nine and four films, and put them back on for the final season of Picard in 2023, which makes him the actor with more Star Trek appearances than anyone. He still flies.
Worf would play Nintendo if the game was very serious… maybe a cross between The Legend of Zelda and Punch-Out!!
Michael Dorn, Nintendo Power #7
Sweepstakes
The Grand Prize flew the winner to Redmond, Washington for a tour of Nintendo of America's headquarters, the first of several times the magazine offered its own offices as the destination. As ever, the Player's Poll card was the ticket in: rank your favorite games, answer a few survey questions and drop it in the mail.
Comics
Howard & Nester · Volume 7Howard & Nester
2-page strip · from p. 70
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 gets off at the wrong bus stop on Mean Street and is rescued by April, who takes him to meet some friends who don't wear bow ties: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in their apartment above Bruce Wayne's and Peter Parker's. They're stuck in Area Three of their own new NES game, and Nester the Great tells them to eat 99 pizzas. The Turtles' bitten copy of Nintendo Power says every Turtle needs 99 scrolls, not pizzas — in a guide written by Helpful Howard, whom Nester would love to get through one strip without seeing.
Classified Information
The codes and secrets this issue gave away.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Jump control, Throw it/Catch it, Step over, Comeback
- Gyruss
- Bonus ships
- Seicross
- Risk-free rescue
- Rambo
- Shortcut
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
- Walk through walls
- Cobra Triangle
- Tread water
- Mappy-Land
- Bonus Stages
- Life Force
- Safe spot
- Jackal
- Second chance, Extra players
- Super Mario Bros. 2
- Extra coins
- The Legend of Zelda
- Single out the enemy
Counselor's Corner
Game Counselors on callReaders wrote in to ask Nintendo Game Counselors questions about the following games: Legacy of the Wizard, Bases Loaded, Ninja Gaiden, Dr. Chaos and Friday the 13th.
Top 30
These were the top Nintendo games in Jul/Aug 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 | NEW Ninja Gaiden |
| 4 | |
| 5 | ▲10 Tecmo Bowl |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ▲21 Mega Man II |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ▲1 Ultima |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ▼4 Metroid |
| 14 | ▼10 Contra |
| 15 | ▲4 Skate or Die |
| 16 | ▼2 Mega Man |
| 17 | |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ▼9 Rampage |
| 20 | NEW WWF WrestleMania |
| 21 | |
| 22 | NEW Operation Wolf |
| 23 | |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ▼5 Castlevania |
| 26 | |
| 27 | ▼5 Bad Dudes |
| 28 | |
| 29 | ▼6 RoboCop |
| 30 | ▼5 R.C. Pro-Am |