Exor's Dungeon - Magazine Reviews - Nintendo Power Volume 12

Sadly, it seems that the Retromags Reviews stopped at 11, so we'll go on solo. May/June 1990, Volume 12, cover feature Super C, but you can follow along in archive.org. Player's Pulse has a few questions, like why games are so expensive when they cost only a few bucks to physically manufacture, someone smitten with Jenny Lewis (from The Wizard) and wanting her address of Jenny Lewis (Nintendo printed NBC's Publicity Department instead), someone wanting Nintendo Power in French (they're from Quebec), and a fan of the Game Boy.

There's a brief overview of Final Fantasy (I'm sure full strategy will come in the future) with a contest specifically for Final Fantasy, the "Final Fantasy Treasure Quest", a multi-tiered contest with the big prize being a "Final Fantasy Treasure Quest" that would be taped and you and your friends could be in Final Fantasy costumes...or something like that. Apparently this was a multi-month contest thing and there was also a vacation out to the Caribbean...but even Reddit seems to have found practically nothing on it.

Super C strategy follows after that, it starts on Stage 2, and covers through Stage 7. As usual, the last stage is not covered, basically "good luck".

After four pages on Dynowarz we get to the Second Annual Nintendo Power Awards '89. Which games won a Nester? Mega Man II got Best Graphics & Sound (and come on, everyone knew that once this came up when you started the NES, it was bound for greatness) as well as Best Play Control, Link wins Best Character AGAIN, Ninja Gaiden wins Best Ending and Best Challenge. Best Theme & Fun is won by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tecmo Bowl is Best Player vs. Player, and the winner of 1989's Best Overall Game...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...despite some strong competition.

I've always wondered how Mario broke blocks. Nester surprisingly doesn't get himself killed in the game.

Howard & Nester goes back to the "last issue's cover" formula, Super Mario Bros. 3.

After Code Name: Viper (the Final Fantasy poster is on the other side) and Burai Fighter strategy we're now at the Top 30 again.

As the blurb at Top 30 says, the old Top 3 were swept by a "couple of rising stars", with Super Mario Bros. 3 and Tetris taking #1 and #2 respectively. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dropped to #3, the original The Legend of Zelda gets to #4 as its sequel drops to #5, Batman appears at #6, Shadowgate premiers at #7, Super Mario Bros. 2 dropped to #8, Mega Man II drops to #9, and Ninja Gaiden drops to #10. Of the games on the top 10 list as of last month, Dragon Warrior has dropped to #11, DuckTales at #12, and Tecmo Bowl is now #15. Some oddities on the list...Back to the Future premiers at #28 but some of the first NES games like Popeye and Mario Bros. appear on the list for some reason. Meanwhile, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! and Super Mario Bros. are still gone. Sometimes life's just not fair.

The New Games Now Available section ("Spring Into Action With Five Hot New Games") that are there because they don't have "room in this issue to give them all full reviews" covers Adventures of Lolo 2, Rocket Ranger (Kemco-Seika's port of another Cinemaware title--seems that when it came to Cinemaware's games, these were split between companies), Wheel of Fortune Family Edition (another version of Wheel of Fortune by Gametek), Tombs & Treasure (published by Activision/Mediagenic, but under the Infocom label), and Journey to Silius.

The Game Boy section has gotten a redesign and covers two pages of Game Boy's version of Batman, Gargoyle's Quest (also two pages), Qix, Daedalian Opus, the Game Boy version of Bases Loaded (also known as Bases Loaded GB), NFL Football, Fist of the North Star, and Shanghai.

The Previews section (which have the longer two-page spreads) include Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, StarTropics, The Mafat Conspiracy (sequel to Golgo 13: Top Secret Agent), and Crystalis.

When it comes to Counselor's Corner, there's questions on Magic of Scheherazade, 8 Eyes, Battle of Olympus, Willow, IronSword, plus several questions on Shadowgate.

In Classified Information, there's tips on Infinite 1-Ups in Super Mario Bros. 3's World 1-2, which they promise to talk about (and do) next issue (the Super Mario Bros. 3 strategy guide, that is), then there's stuff for Batman, Astyanax, Baseball Stars, Night Rider, Mega Man II (how the passcodes work), The Castlevania Adventure for Game Boy, 8 Eyes, and River City Ransom.

Video Shorts starts with Phantom Fighter, Terra Cresta, Castle of Dragon, Snoopy, Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball, World Championship Wrestling (pro wrestlers from NWA), Jack Nicklaus' 18 Greatest Holes of Major Championship Golf (yes, that's the full name and they printed it like that), Rollerball, Conflict, Ghostbusters II, Double Dare, and Kid Kool. Ghostbusters II is based after the disappointing film sequel (and not a sequel to a game) but it was listed being from Mediagenic, a short-lived rebrand of the company that ultimately caused it to go into debt enough for Bobby Kotick to buy it for a song. As far as other corporate changes went, Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball would be the last Brøderbund Software title for the NES, as they would sell the division and everything associated to THQ (according to Wikipedia, which unfortunately did not archive the link properly), but THQ did not continue on Brøderbund's legacy of bringing otherwise obscure Japanese properties stateside and mostly focused on licensed titles. (Still, THQ would be a loyal Nintendo third party until its 2012 bankruptcy). Brøderbund Software, meanwhile, would focus on educational software title on computers (eventually relegating actual games to its "Red Orb" label) until dying in a series of M&As.

I'm not sure what a "160 Megabyte computer" is. That's for storage or RAM, never a measure of speed.

NES Journal talks about the staff trying the Boeing 747 flight simulator, the "Nintendo Comics System" line from Valiant Comics, "Nintendo World Class Service" being offered at select World of Nintendo retailers (though it didn't say which ones...I could imagine some Sears stores doing it though), an ad/article about various Nintendo-branded foods including the Nintendo Cereal System, and Willie Aames as the Celebrity Profile. It's too large to put on this page, but I'm pretty sure all of these companies have gone out of business or been acquired.

The Houston trip was almost certainly better.

Pak Watch this month covers Wurm, Isolated Warrior, Low G Man (as "Low-G-Man"), Castlevania III, various titles from Hi-Tech Expressions including The Looney Toons Cartoon Maker (unreleased and unrelated to Konami's later Tiny Toon Adventures: Cartoon Workshop), mention of Mindscape's port of Bruce Lee Lives (at this point, Mindscape had been acquired by The Software Toolworks, which had published Bruce Lee Lives for DOS in 1989), FCI's port of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance and Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (based after Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, but it's listed as "Ultima II" instead in the main list), and several others.

The Gossip Gremlins talk about games like Bad News Baseball, Solomon's Club (allegedly a sequel to Solomon's Key but ultimately, it was just a Game Boy version of the original), as well as Enix's new North American division being formed to bring over Dragon Quest II (as Dragon Warrior II, of course).

The Player's Poll Contest was themed after Total Recall and the winner was promised that they would "meet Arnold Schwarzenegger on the set of his next movie", as well as a "video session on the set". But later Nintendo Power had revealed that delays in the trip and Schwarzenegger's busy schedule just became a "quick handshake". The game sucked too, even the 2nd prize winners were a set of patches rather than the abysmal title.

There's an insert booklet that collects Classified Information tips (I'm not sure if a full scan exists but here is the cover.) Next issue is the Super Mario Bros. 3 strategy guide, but they'll resume the full Nintendo Power for July/August 1990. We'll cover that soon...