ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/a8041ebf-095f-4bb9-b2bd-57702a22aff0

SONIC ON THE COVER OF NINTENDO POWER??

Special guest host Jess VoidBurger joins Ty to revisit Nintendo’s legendary in-house publication during its awkward tween years: still clinging to some of the looks and features of its 16-bit glory days, but starting to evolve to compete with the super-professional, grownuppy output of the Ziff-Davis and Future/IGN publications.

With Sonic the Hedgehog on the cover and longtime “Publisher” (Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa) announcing his departure in the News section, Ty and Jess get whiplashed by the old-school/new-school dichotomy–and flummoxed by just how few games there are being released in spring of 2002.

They discuss how it’s much like today, with AA and AAA publishers constantly scaling back release schedules and focusing on key franchises. But unlike today, reviewers back then didn’t have a robust indie scene to cover.

And speaking of reviews, have Nintendo Power’s reviews gotten any more ‘independent’ or ‘unbiased’ since the last time we looked?

———

Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!