YMMV / Nintendo Power

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Alan Averill. He was still referenced by writers and readers alike years after he had left the writing staff, all because he refused to show his face and insisted on depicting himself as a Slime.
  • Nester, who got his own video game at one point.
• Fridge Horror: In the Howard and Nester comic about Déjà Vu (1985). Nester blows up Joey Siegel's car, as you can in the game. He's only comically dirty from the blast, but there's no sign of the kidnapped woman who was tied up in the trunk...
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Some of the games the magazine previewed never made it to release or North America. 40 Winks is a prime example. It got a multi-page feature in a 2000 issue, but depending on who you ask, the N64 port was either cancelled, or released in very limited quantities. Though it's gotten a little better with the current owners of the game using Kickstarter to give the N64 port a proper release, even if two decades after its original PlayStation release.
  • The final issue also pointed out that one of their contest prizes was a role as an extra in The Mask II, which never got made (not in its originally intended form, anyway, and the contest winner didn't get a role in that film). Thankfully, the winner was given cash as a substitute.
  • In the March 2012 issue, Chris Slate said something among the lines of "The world hasn't ended yet, but until it does, we'll be covering the hottest games throughout the year." Especially painful, as the magazine ended that exact year.^note Future US had hoped to continue the magazine in an electronic format, but Nintendo wouldn't allow it.
  • Another one that really hurts is Chris Slate saying "Let's plan another big celebration in the next 20 years!" for the 2008 20th Anniversary issue. Four years later, the magazine ceased publication.
  • To celebrate the 250th issue, a fan letter expressed hope that the magazine would reach 1000 issues. It only got 18 more issues before it ceased production.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the very first April issue, they had a joke about how they'd be introducing the AFD Reality System line of games, which included learning to cook and one called Muttroid in which you would have to take care of a dog, including walking it, picking up after it, and bathing it.
  • As noted in "Not So Different" Remark, the writers have joked about the Nintendo-Sega partnership of the Wii era has been turning the magazine into their old rival mag Sega Visions.
  • A mock debate was held about whether Solid Snake or Pit would be a better fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl after the trailer was released. One of the pro-Pit arguments was that Snake can't fly. Then Nintendo revealed Snake's moveset, specifically his Up+B attack.
  • The running gag of deliberately calling Tails a "mutant squirrel", now that another magazine called him a squirrel with no hint of irony.
  • An early issue of the magazine featured a letter from someone describing what their dream future console would be, it was fairly silly, claiming the controller would have 27 buttons and the system would have a band that could play "any song" built in. Among the things mentioned was the name of the Mario game it would come with... Super Mario Galaxy.
  • In their 100th issue, they listed Shaq Fu at number 3, saying it "is not humanly possible to come up with a worse idea than this". 21 years later, the game gets a sequel (albeit one that's considered an improvement on the original).
  • Everyone knows the story of how two North Americans won the contest to have their Robot Masters appear in Mega Man 6. But go back and see some of the other entries in the January 1993 issue of Nintendo Power: It's uncanny how many of them were eventually used in future Mega Man (Classic) games, albeit with their designs tweaked.
  • The 2008 April Fools issue included a section on Mushroom Kingdom Hearts, a made-up crossover between Super Mario Bros. and Kingdom Hearts. In 2021, Sora would finally cross over with Mario when he was revealed as the final DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.^note Though none of the Disney elements of Kingdom Hearts would be brought over with him.
• Magazine Decay: Although the magazine initially began as giving strategies and reviews for the most recent video games, it eventually focused mostly on news, with very little, if any, video game hints and strategies. Justified with the advent of the Internet and free, in-depth, fanmade guides, while Nintendo Power is able to put out exclusive news before any site can.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Some of the ads in later issues.
  • The "toenail clipping" subscription ad. It was so disgusting, The Angry Video Game Nerd stapled the pages shut so he would never see it again.
• Nightmare Fuel: The infamous Castlevania II cover, which had a graphic picture of Simon Belmont holding Dracula's severed head, his heart and eyes cut out in the background. Many angry parents called and wrote letters saying that it gave their children nightmares. NP, on the other hand, considers it one of their crowning achievements. Note that this was only their second issue. Simon Belmont's Memetic Badassery stems from this cover!
• Retroactive Recognition: Not one of their staffers, but a reader - in the 1988 issue, the top score for Super Mario Bros. was held by one Cliff Bleszinski (who would later go on to develop games like Gears of War and Unreal Tournament)^note in case you're curious, his score was 9,999,950.
• Rooting for the Empire: Some viewers consider Sony and Sega to be the best part of the Star Fox 64 promo video, if only for the hilarity factor.
• The Scrappy:
  • Steve Thomason, likely because of his Sega fanboyism. NP seems to be aware of this, judging by the amount of jokes at his expense.
  • In their own views, The Scrappy was Big the Cat and Slippy Toad. Readers who didn't sign their names in their letters got their names affixed to it. Earlier in the magazine's run, their stance on Big the Cat was that they just didn't like him. After the switch to Future Publishing, they dissed him in reviews for Sonic games where he doesn't even show up and expressed a desire for him to die in a fire... until a reader wrote in reminding them that Big's voice actor was the same that voices Duke Nukem. Then they just wanted him in a coma.
• Spiritual Successor: After the end of Nintendo Power, IGN editor Lucas M. Thomas announced Nintendo Force Magazine, staffed by Nintendo fans from the journalism scene. Lucas explained the reason he started his own magazine was that he was upset that Nintendo Power was being canceled — not only was it part of his childhood, but he couldn't be able to share it with his son.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The "Classified" cheat code section originally was printed to look like a manila folder, as though one were being given dangerous secrets. After the redesign of the magazine in the later half of the 90's, "Classified" was changed to a black background, which displeased many fans. Luckily, the manila background returned when the Virtual Console debuted on the Wii, to give readers a bit of nostalgia.
  • For a stretch of about 3 years in the mid-late 90's, the binding of the magazine switched from a bound spine to staples. These were very unpopular, as the magazines fell apart in very short order. The magazine switched back to spined binding around the year 2000.
  • Averted with the format change to their reviews. Previously four or five reviewers would each review the same game, and each could award multiple scores for different aspects of the game. Back then, the score system was also on a five star total rating. Midway through the magazine's run this was changed to 10 point system, then the multiple reviewers and scores for a single game was scrapped in favor of one reviewer for each game (excepting really high-profile titles). Rather than being viewed as dumbing the reviews down, readers preferred the new version because it let individual reviews write longer detailed pieces rather than brief crammed blurbs.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Reading old issues will obviously feel like this. Some specific examples:
  • The focus on printing game strategies, until 2005, gave the magazine a distinct throwback feel, i.e. from before Internet usage was so widespread that someone could find these strategies easily on the web.
  • Take a look at Player's Pulse through the years, and take note of how many letters were sent "via the Internet." In 1992, there was maybe one person who did this. You can chart the emergence and then the predominance of Internet communication because by 1999, every single letter was sent by email.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Chris Shepperd. Though frequently depicted as the Butt-Monkey of the staff, to the point that a joke daily schedule listed finding new ways to deal him bodily harm, Slate was popular enough for fans that one even sent a collage of every picture of Chris in the mag for the past twenty issues. He was both flattered and a little scared by the gesture.
• Vindicated by History: Pokémon Red and Blue, the first games in one of Nintendo's flagship franchises and considered a classic, received the humble (but by no means terrible) rating of 7.2, which is surprising looking back 14+ years later when Pokémon games presently are rated extremely high and Generation I is often considered a Sacred Cow.

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