Nintendo Power, 1988-2012
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The long-running videogame magazine Nintendo Power only has an issue or two left, according to Ars Technica (and confirmed by its editors on Twitter, although the tweets have been deleted). It’s not surprising — print magazines are pretty well doomed even if their subject matter doesn’t lend itself to print at all (who wants to look at screenshots when there are actual preview videos online?) — but that doesn’t mean it’s not sad. Admittedly, I got my start in the print nerd industry, so I’m probably a bit more emotional about this issue than others, but I can remember Nintendo Power blowing my mind in the late ’80s with its previews, hints, maps and secrets. It was like… well, it wasn’t like anything, really, because it was before FAQs and strategy guides and cheat codes and everything else, but god, it was awesome. Getting a new issue of Nintendo Power was often more satisfying than getting an actual Nintendo game sometimes, even if was clearly shilling Nintendo products. I didn’t care. No one did. We desperately wanted to be shilled to.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.