As we start moving to what is considered "Late Era NES", Nintendo Power has tweaked a few things. There's been modifications and additions since the magazine started, but there are a few changes here and there of note, which we'll discuss as we get into Volume 18 starring Dr. Mario (November/December 1990). The table of contents looks a bit different, for starters. The Player's Pulse Mail Box has a theme of "Your Worst Nintendo Nightmare", usually some accident where the console gets reset or something gets damaged, like a kid who managed to drop three Game Boy games into the toilet and two of them clogged it (they saved them all!) and another where a kid who beat Super Mario Bros. 3 went to turn the lights off for a picture didn't realize that the house was wired in a way that a light switch controlled the power outlet (some houses do that. Why do they do that?) with Video Spotlight just getting smaller and smaller.

After a feature on Solar Jetman, the Howard & Nester stars Howard, Nester, and Razor (from the game, of course) as they infiltrate Maniac Mansion. It takes some liberties from the game though the mummy pin-up picture is still used. (I see that it didn't go unnoticed by The Cutting Room Floor so there's really no need to elaborate further). Razor's spiky hair looks a bit like Nester's, and Razor is an interesting choice, guess they needed a girl to play the foil to Nester (instead of Howard)...but missed an opportunity to do anything mean with hamsters.

The next section is Little Nemo: The Dream Master ("Fans of Super Mario Bros. 3's animal suits and fantasy setting will love Little Nemo", that's perhaps overselling it) as Counselor's Corner reveals the secret to the Warp Whistles in Super Mario Bros. 3. There are three questions for Crystalis and two for Tombs & Treasure.

After the cover feature of Dr. Mario, it's a big Game Boy feature with three pages on the Game Boy version of DuckTales, one page for Dr. Mario (for the Game Boy), two pages for RoboCop (also now in a Game Boy version), and two for Play Action Football, the Game Boy counterpart to NES Play Action Football. There's a few pages for a Game Boy-exclusive version of Classified Information and Now Playing for the Game Boy, and the Game Boy Top 10 now with sales incorporated into it but not yet reader reviews. With this, the top 10 is now Super Mario Land (#1 from #8), Gargoyle's Quest (#2 from #7), Batman (#3 from #8), Tetris (#4 from #1), Golf (#5 from #2), with the rest being new--Daedalian Opus at #6, Castlevania: The Adventure (#7), Nemesis (#8), Alley Way (#9), and NFL Football (#10). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan, Double Dragon, The Final Fantasy Legend, Revenge of the Gator, and Quarth all got knocked off the charts (at least for now). The Now Playing feature, which we'll see later in the issue, is the proper reviews section of Nintendo Power with a list of new games and the ratings they got.

There's maps for Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (a poster for Mega Man 3 is on the other side with a whopping 21 pages for the game (wow!).

Like Volume 16, Super Mario Bros. 3 takes #1 by a huge margin, Final Fantasy holds #2, Mega Man II jumps back to #3 (from #6), Tetris is now back in #4 (from #7), Ninja Gaiden II is in #5 (from #4), with the sequel boosting the original Ninja Gaiden to #6 (from #14), Super Mario Bros. 2 at #7 (from #5), though its prediction of staying in the top 10 forever would be eventually dethroned. The staying power of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is still on display (at #8), The Legend of Zelda retakes its rightful place in the top 10 at #9, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are at #10. They're likely to be kicked off the top 10 for the sequel (premiering at #13). The return of Ninja Gaiden and The Legend of Zelda means that Batman (#15 from #9) and Battle of Olympus (#17 from #10) are thrown out. Crystalis premiers at #11 and will probably see the top 10 soon enough (as will Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game). Metroid is at #18 and Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream is at #25. (Like last time, the magazine lists it as "Punch-Out!!", but this time explain it).

Classified Information has some neat things to do with a P-Wing when fighting Bowser in Super Mario Bros. 3, there's also stuff for Ninja Gaiden II, IronSword, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, Double Dragon, Solstice, The Magic of Scheherazade, and Tecmo Bowl.

The premier of Now Playing is the reviews section. It replaces the Previews (which were often delayed and then just recycled for next issue anyway), New Games Now Available, and Video Shorts. It also incorporates the Power & Player Meter, now just the Power Meter (no space for your own). This will continue in some form or fashion for the rest of the magazine (until 2005 when it became Reviews). Sometimes it would be less helpful (George & Rob's Now Playing is in 1992 or the star ratings in the early 2000s) but it was there. In this form, Now Playing has a few blurbs of games that won't get further coverage (so a few snoozers like Thunderbirds or Pipe Dream) with a listing (and reviews) of all the new games available, some of which are covered by Nintendo Power (or will be covered), some of which aren't. You can see the initial list here. Going down the list we have Battle Tank, Big Bird's Hide & Speak, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Caveman Games, Classic Concentration, Conan, Days of Thunder, Destiny of an Emperor, Digger, Dirty Harry, Dr. Mario, Dragon Warrior II, Family Feud, Formula One: Built to Win, Gremlins 2 (based after the film, not a sequel to a game), Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Loopz, M.U.L.E., Mendel Palace, the Miracle Piano Teaching System, Monster Truck Rally (by INTV), Muppet Adventure: Chaos at the Carnival, Orb 3-D, Palamedes, Pipe Dream, Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Trouble, Solar Jetman, Street Fighter 2010, Super Glove Ball, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game,Thunderbirds, Time Lord, Ultimate Basketball, and Yo! Noid. I'm calling out INTV specifically; I mentioned them last month as they were the successor to Mattel Electronics, which had produced the Intellivision in the early 1980s. They had started by purchasing Mattel's existing inventory, finished and released games that Mattel had cancelled, and even manufactured new versions of the Intellivision (along with new games), but following the discontinuation of the Intellivision, their foray into Nintendo was short-lived. Their localization of Popeye for Game Boy never made it to market and was considered lost for years, with the poorly-rated Monster Truck Rally the only game they ever released for the NES, and not only did they not get Nintendo Power coverage, it didn't actually make it to market until September 1991, a full year later. Goodbye, we hardly knew ye. (Mattel was also a NES licensee, producing Super Glove Ball, listed this month). Also, for future reference, at this point forward The Software Toolworks would be using the Mindscape name almost exclusively (except for Mario is Missing! and Mario's Time Machine later) until 1994 when it became Mindscape. So going forward, Mindscape is a label of The Software Toolworks, okay?

NES Achievers (with Game Boy games) shows up with a familiar name for those familiar with Apple's history...then it's off to Pak Watch. Pak Watch has also seen some redesign...the Gossip Gremlins are gone (good!) and it opens with a preview of Déjà Vu. On page 95, there's features for four games, the first screenshots of Super Mario World for the Super Famicom (as it was known then), StarTropics, the localization of Japanese title Mother and the NES port of Maxis' popular game SimCity. Earth Bound was found and dumped in the late 1990s as "EarthBound Zero" (to distinguish it from the SNES EarthBound) but SimCity was not found until 2018, almost twenty years later. (In many ways this is parallel to how far apart California Raisins: The Grape Escape and Super Sushi Pinball were found...see Volume 5). I assume that at the time SimCity on the NES was expected to be identical to the computer versions in every way (not quite) which was why it was included the way it was in The SimCity Planning Commission Handbook and no mention of unique Nintendo-specific features.

NES Journal, as you may have noticed, is gone for good. The only thing left is Celebrity Profile (with Kadeem Hardison), and a wrap-up of PowerFest 1990. I was wrong last last month, turns out the Nintendo Power Bulletin Board page DOES mention the re-release of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!. But limited quantities is right, despite Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream being in all the re-releases, the cartridge version is much harder to come by then the original. I should also note that while The Legend of Zelda: Tips and Tactics and How to Win at Super Mario Bros. were still sold, the old Official Nintendo Player's Guide wasn't...but they're gearing up to revive that name in 1991.

The Player's Poll Contest finally seems to be settling into the "game only" vs. "game theme big prize" theme it had going on. The Grand Prize was a trip for four to go to Super Bowl XXV in Tampa, Florida (and touring, presumably), the NES Satellite package, while the second prize was just the package, with the NES Satellite peripheral and copies of NES Play Action Football and Super Spike V'Ball. Better get ready for more on four-player NES action next issue.

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