Review: 20 Years of Nintendo Power is entertaining history abridged
Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 7:00am by Boss Hog
Scott Pelland can write. As a staff writer and later managing editor of Nintendo Power for 20 years (1987-2007), I can’t think of a better historian to tell “the history of Nintendo through the pages of the official magazine,” which is precisely what Pelland did in the special edition of 20 Years of Nintendo Power. After reading it, I’m convinced he’s the grandfather of Nintendo journalism.
The ad-free issue runs 65-pages, with construction-paper like thickness. The design is as clean as something you would expect from Apple and is brimming with photographic spreads of the magazine as an anchor to tell the story of Nintendo. All “the biggest moments” in the company’s history are here: from the NES to Wii, including significant first-party and third-party games. The writing is tighter in the first half than the second, but the overall result is succinct, insightful, balanced, and forward-thinking.
Though short, the issue is well worth $10, the price of six regular issues of the magazine. Perspective like this doesn’t come often to video games, so I recommend it to both collectors and gamers alike. The issue is on newsstands “until May 12, 2009.” I bought mine at Target.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Man, I can’t wait to grab a copy of this special issue! Krogers needs to hurry up with stocking it
March 15th, 2009 at 10:09 am
haven’t bought an np in ages, will grab if i see it though
March 15th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Ad-free? I really wish they could find a way to make all their issues ad free. $20 a year is pretty cheap for a magazine. If they offered a premium version for $50 a year I’d pay for it without the ads. Of course it’d probably be closer to $120 a year if each issue is $10 a piece, but then again that might be the news stand price.
March 15th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Blake, your grammar is messed up. The title should be: Review: 20 Years of Nintendo Power’s entertaining history abridged. Or, Review: 20 Years of Nintendo Power’s abridged and entertaining history. NOT: Review: 20 Years of Nintendo Power IS abridged and entertaining history. Your title doesn’t even work, because you can’t express 20 years of Nintendo Power is (a) entertaining history. Got it?
March 15th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I HAVE IT!
March 16th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Fixed, RoyalRook. Thanks for keeping me honest.
March 16th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
@Blake
Oh it’s nothing, you freaking rockstar.