Tetris
A holiday double issue with Tetris on the cover and the endings of ten classic games revealed inside, from the days when finishing a game was the only way to see them. The U-Force and Power Glove got a feature as the controllers of the future, and a 36-page Dragon Warrior Strategy Guide was bound into the middle. Shadowgate, Silent Service, A Boy and His Blob and Super Mario Bros. 3 all showed up in preview.
I doubt if we had enough fuel to blast off with three passengers anyway.
Scrooge McDuck in the Howard & Nester strip
Power Profile
Celebrity profile · Volume 9
This issue featured an interview with Fred Savage — American actor and director (born 1976).
Kevin Arnold on The Wonder Years, and that December the star of The Wizard, the film that gave America its first look at Super Mario Bros. 3. The profile shares a spread with the film's preview, which is why both pages are here. He had owned an NES since Christmas 1987, kept a library of thirty games, reported that the Game Counselors' line was always busy, and got to World 2-1 in his first weekend with the new Mario, rating it a five for theme and fun. The Wonder Years ran until 1993, after which he spent the 2000s and 2010s mostly behind the camera, directing hundreds of episodes of sitcoms like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Modern Family.
Watch out for fake bricks in World 2 Level 1.
Fred Savage, Nintendo Power #9
Sweepstakes
The Grand Prize was a blank check of sorts: any gift or gifts the winner wanted, up to $1,000, arranged by Nintendo with no portion paid in cash. The same issue opened a side contest to design the next Nintendo Power jersey, since the old design was running low.
Comics
Howard & Nester · Volume 9Howard & Nester
2-page strip · from p. 20
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 NES/Duck Tales Exploratory Mission to the Moon lifts off with Howard, Nester and a duck aboard, Nester determined not to be left out of the action for all the green cheese on the moon. Nester gets abducted by a UFO and finds himself a fellow captive of a blue alien; it's Howard who talks the way out, reciting Duck Tales' moon level — the key from the third floor, the door to the remote control, the remote to summon the Robo-Duck — and punches through a wall. Howard and the duck leave without him, doubting the fuel would carry three.
Classified Information
The codes and secrets this issue gave away.
- Solomon's Key
- Unexpected visit
- DuckTales
- Pogo power
- Mega Man 2
- Menacing minions
- Strider
- Bouncing off the wall
- Robowarrior
- A full load
- Faxanadu
- Extra Allowance
- Ninja Gaiden
- Cast of thousands
- Cobra Triangle
- Built for speed
Counselor's Corner
Game Counselors on callReaders wrote in to ask Nintendo Game Counselors questions about the following games: Mega Man 2, Faxanadu, Strider, Super Dodgeball and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Top 30
These were the top Nintendo games in Nov/Dec 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 | ▲11 Mega Man 2 |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ▼1 Ninja Gaiden |
| 5 | |
| 6 | NEW Faxanadu |
| 7 | NEW Dragon Warrior |
| 8 | |
| 9 | NEW Strider |
| 10 | |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ▼1 Tecmo Bowl |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ▼1 Mega Man |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ▲6 Bases Loaded |
| 17 | |
| 18 | NEW Baseball Stars |
| 19 | ▼1 Contra |
| 20 | NEW Batman |
| 21 | ▼11 Metroid |
| 22 | ▲4 Ultima |
| 23 | |
| 24 | |
| 25 | |
| 26 | |
| 27 | |
| 28 | NEW RoboCop |
| 29 | NEW Super Dodge Ball |
| 30 | ▼1 Bad Dudes |