Skip to main content

After 24 years, Nintendo Power is calling it quits

Nintendo Power
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sad news for those of us with overactive nostalgia glands: Nintendo Power is most likely going to cease publication in the very near future.

First published in 1988, Nintendo Power became a pretty massive hit thanks both to Nintendo’s domination of the gaming industry during the late 80s and early 90s and the fact that the magazine had a deal with Nintendo to cover its hardware and games exclusively. As a result Nintendo Power often had the best previews, reviews and strategy guides, while other magazines tried desperately to compete.

Recommended Videos

Unfortunately for Nintendo Power the inevitable passage of time and the invention of the Internet seem to have conspired to end its nearly quarter-century print run. Print magazines now lag far behind online media in providing rapid informational updates to consumers, and with Nintendo no longer synonymous with video games as a whole, the Japanese gaming giant seemingly has no interest in extending its long-running agreement with the magazine. Ars Technica reports:

… our source says that Nintendo, which was always “difficult to work with,” was uninterested in renewing that contract or in taking part in a number of digital initiatives that Future saw as necessary for the long-term health of the brand. He added that Nintendo doesn’t seem interested in taking over direct control of the magazine again (Nintendo and Future representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story).

Oh? Nintendo is not keen to explore online options for what has effectively been its print wing for the past two-plus decades? Why, that’s … pretty much exactly what we’ve come to expect from the bizarrely Internetphobic video game company.

Now normally we’d put “rumor” tags around all this information, since it originally stemmed entirely from one anonymous Ars Technica source, but that was before key Nintendo Power employees confirmed the information on Twitter. Though the comments of both senior editor Chris Hoffman and writer Phil Theobald have been since deleted, they claimed they were sad to see the magazine fall apart, and that the editorial team would have “something pretty sweet planned for the final issue.” What that might be, or when this final issue will hit newsstands is still unknown.

If you guys can hold back the tears for a moment, we’d like to say that though we revere Nintendo Power as one of the key early building blocks of our interest in writing about games for far less money than we might make had we actually stayed in school and became a doctor like our mothers wanted, it’s not exactly realistic to lionize the mag as an icon of all things good and right in gaming. Yes, it came to prominence in an era in which video games were still the next big thing and every new advancement was shiny and happy, but if you go back and re-read a lot of those old Nintendo Power issues, it’s quite apparent that for long periods of time the magazine existed purely to sell Nintendo products. Like a J. Crew catalogue, only with fewer sweaters and more pictures of fat Italian plumbers.

We support your right to be bummed by this news, and we are too, but let’s remember Nintendo Power as what it actually was: Another Nintendo entertainment product. On the other hand, it did give us those enjoyably cheesy Howard & Nester comics, so feel free to spend the rest of the afternoon poring over this massive archive of every single strip.

Earnest Cavalli
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Earnest Cavalli has been writing about games, tech and digital culture since 2005 for outlets including Wired, Joystiq…
This shadow-jumping platformer can’t quite live up to its Nintendo-like gimmick
A shadow jumps at a Train station in Schim.

I’m constantly on the lookout for creative, innovative, and generally exciting new video games to recommend. With the AAA industry growing ever-focused on making fewer, bigger games, it’s up to the smaller studios to take more creative risks and present ideas that push the medium forward. When I played Schim at Summer Game Fest 2022, I thought it had the potential to be one of those titles as this shadow-hopping platformer had a distinct look and feel compared to anything I played before.

That’s not fully the case, even if Schim is admirably inventive. That single gameplay gimmick, where players can only move by jumping into shadows, is immediately novel, especially for its first 10 levels. Schim doesn't evolve much past that point though, both mechanically and narratively. A great idea that would be a standout in a platformer with more variety feels stretched thin here.

Read more
Smash-hit PC game finally exits early access after five years
A Singularity character in a full-body jumpsuit and helmet clutching their stomach.

Satisfactory Announcement

After five years, the base-building, resource management sim Satisfactory got a surprise release date announcement on Friday, along with the reveal of an important feature: flushable toilets.

Read more
Nintendo is coming after Switch modders once again
A person plays Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on a Nintendo Switch in handheld mode.

Nintendo is no stranger to lawsuits these days, and it's filed two more, as reported Tuesday. One is against the owner of a company who allegedly sold modded Switches, while the other concerns the moderator of a subreddit where users could learn how to play pirated games.

According to TorrentFreak, which had copies of both complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Nintendo is suing Modded Hardware and its owner, Ryan "Homebrew Homie" Daly, for selling Mod Chips, modded Switch consoles, and a memory card that lets people play pirated games. Nintendo's lawyer wrote in the suit that this caused "substantial and irreparable" harm to the console giant. It's seeking damages for copyright infringement, along with other charges such as "trafficking in circumvention devices."

Read more