Entering Volume 22 (March 1991), I'm going to skip Player's Pulse, paying over $100 in 1988 dollars for Super Mario Bros. 2 or another terrible Nintendo-themed rap is just cringe-inducing...but we get right into 12 pages of MetalStorm by Irem, and the cover feature this month.

Then, true to the Howard & Nester formula of last month's cover, it's Howard & Nester with StarTropics. The end of Howard & Nester as we know it is still a few issues away but this issue marks the last (non-special) comic that uses the art of Shuji Imai...so it's kind of the end, already. There's another 20 pages on StarTropics (I must've missed the "dip the paper enclosed in your game with water" part).

Classified Information has a big chart on how many hits it takes to dispatch a Robot Master in Mega Man 3 based on what weapon you use, as well as making a Super Jump with a second controller, or getting Rush Jet without defeating Needle Man. Also covered in this section is Silver Surfer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, NARC, Shadow of the Ninja, and some "Classic Codes" with four games using the Konami Code. Not a bad section this month!

Adventure Island II follows with most of the section being on the reverse of the Battletoads poster.

The Game Boy feature has Operation C (a spin-off of Super Contra/Super C), and the sequel to the A Boy and His Blob, The Rescue of Princess Blobette. Game Boy Classified covers Power Mission, Fortress of Fear, the Game Boy version of DuckTales, Boomer's Adventure in ASMIK World, and Castlevania: The Adventure, with Now Playing featuring bits on Solomon's Club and Rolan's Curse. The Now Playing chart, in addition to all the games covered this month (not the ones in Game Boy Classified), lists The Chessmaster (Hi-Tech), Kung-Fu Master (Irem), Spot (Arcadia), and WWF Superstars (Acclaim). The top 10 for Game Boy now have Super Mario Land back at #1 (from #2), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan at #2 (from #1), The Final Fantasy Legend retaining #3, Dr. Mario at #4 (from #5), Gargoyle's Quest at #5 (from #6), Tetris in #6 (from #4), Castlevania: The Adventure at #7 (from #9), Batman to #8 (previously #7) with Play Action Football and Golf at #9 and #10 respectively. Double Dragon and Qix are off the list.

There's another technical article like how Volume 20 talked about the MMC chip series. I love the technical articles in Nintendo Power, and I do wish they did more. Before the Internet this was the only real place where you could find out this sort of thing. Several pages of maps and strategy (screengrabs with the guy in every shot) of G.I. Joe by Taxan are next before we head into Now Playing for this month. This time the mini-sections are Bandit Kings of Ancient China by Koei, Times of Lore by Toho, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade by Taito (a totally different than the graphical adventure game by Lucasfilm Games), War on Wheels by Jaleco, the NES version of Qix by Taito, and WWF Wrestlemania Challenge by Acclaim. Also in the list is Adventure Island II (Hudson Soft), Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates (THQ), Fun House (Hi-Tech), G.I. Joe (Taxan), The Last Ninja (Jaleco), MetalStorm (Irem), and Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom (Hudson Soft, and the only title to go over 4.0 for "Theme and Fun").

After NES Achievers and just two pages on Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, it's the nominees for "The Nesters" (Nintendo Power Awards 1990). The awards are slightly different from last time. Best Character is renamed as Best Hero, a new award, "Best Bad Guy" has been added with the nominees being Ashtar (Ninja Gaiden II), Bowser's Koopalings (Super Mario Bros. 3), Chaos (Final Fantasy), Dr. Fred and Nurse Edna (Maniac Mansion), Dr. Wily (Mega Man 3), Dracula (Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse), Gremlins (Gremlins 2: The New Batch), Joker (Batman), Metal Slime (Dragon Warrior II), and Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game). Best Player vs. Player is renamed as Best Multi-Player Simultaneous. Most Innovative (which replaced Best Ending and uses the same graphic of Nester giving two thumbs up) has both Miracle Keyboard Teaching System...and Big Bird's Hide and Speak. There's two Best Overall awards, one for the NES and the Game Boy, with the 1989 titles qualifying as well. In theory, at least. Tetris wasn't there, you could only choose between Castlevania: The Adventure, Dr. Mario, The Final Fantasy Legend, Gargoyle's Quest, Golf, Play Action Football, Qix, Quarth, Super Mario Land, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan. The Nesters also pre-empt the Player's Poll Contest, it's just random games.

Counselor's Corner has two questions on Mega Man 3, three on Maniac Mansion, one on Shadow of the Ninja, and three on Dragon Warrior II. When it comes to Top 30, once again it's still Super Mario Bros. 3 at #1 and Final Fantasy for #2 with SMB3 having twice as many points as Square's epic. Part of the problem was that while Final Fantasy was #1 for Pros and #4 for Players, it didn't chart on Dealers, with Crystalis at #3 (returning from #6) ENTIRELY from the Pros. Mega Man 3 makes #4 (up from #13), with its better-known prequel being bumped down to #5 from #4. Dr. Mario moves up one slot to #6, The Legend of Zelda keeps it real at #7 (from #10), Dragon Warrior II is back on the top 10 at #8 after its fall to #17 last month ("Rated high by both Players and Pros"...but not Dealers), NES Play Action Football at #9 (from #3...this is top 10 by Pros and Dealers, but not Players), and at #10, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (down from #5). Super Mario Bros. 2 lingers at #15, Zelda II is still stuck at #18, but Punch-Out!! and Metroid have reappeared at #20 and #21 respectively. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game and Tetris are off the top 10 but at #11 and #12 respectively.

Following Celebrity Profile with Rain Pryor, Pak Watch covers a variety of games including Ufouria by Sunsoft and Star Wars for the NES. The Famicom already had a Star Wars game (also titled Star Wars but by Namco). "Star Wars 1991" would also be released in Japan by Victor Musical Industries. (It wouldn't be the last time there would be two games with the same name on the NES, Ubi Soft would release its own Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade title...and it still wasn't the point-and-click title). There's a section on the winter CES show. It mentions a Game Boy title called Mysterium. While it was published by Asmik, it was developed by Maxis of all developers.

The Super Famicom, now known as the Super NES, isn't shown yet, though a few games that were released in Japan were previewed. These included ActRaiser by Enix (which would be released in the U.S. within a few month's of the SNES's launch), Gradius III (by Konami, Gradius III would be a launch title), Bombuzal (by Kemco--this was actually a port of a British Commodore-64 game and would be released as Ka-Blooey in the U.S.), and Ultraman (by Bandai, released as Ultraman: Towards the Future). They also mention Street Fighter (presumably the first game) from Capcom but I can't find proof that the first game was ever released on the SFC. On the NES Planner is still California Raisins and a title called "Coco Run", but Cocoron wasn't localized in the end. Hi-Tech Expressions announces a Twin Peaks NES game...but it was never released as Hi-Tech didn't know what to do with it. Also, a sequel to StarTropics is announced but it didn't even make on "Coming Later" (where Earth Bound and SimCity still waited). Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II would not be released until 1994, a distant future at the time.

Next issue doesn't look terribly exciting with only promising Sword Master, Power Blade, Monopoly, and Sword of Hope. Oh well.

Return to Main Page | Return to Magazines Index | Contact Me

(c) 2026 Carbon-izer.com