Things at Nintendo Power continue to take shape for Volume 3 (Nov/Dec 1988). Some of the changes in this issue are subtle. Howard & Nester is now elevated as a full feature with two pages of comics, not just one, this time on Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. This is the first time H&N does the usual play of covering last month's cover feature. (More on that in the future). Of course, subscribers aren't buying it for Howard & Nester, they want to see the games, starting with the cover feature Track & Field II, Mickey Mousecapade, and a real feature on Blaster Master. It didn't include full maps for every stage, but at least had a general overview of the multiple worlds so you know which direction to go. Additionally, there's a "Role Playing Game Special" with features on a port of Ultima (actually Ultima III: Exodus, which had to be reworked quite a bit to use menus instead of typing commands like in the computer versions) and Legacy of the Wizard, a difficult action-RPG out of Japan (Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family) and published by Brøderbund Software. While the NES would be the home of early JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior as it would be released in the United States), trying to marry computer-based WRPGs (and computer games in general) into the console often had mixed results...but a lot of these NES games all got softball reviews. We'll see more of that in Volume 5, when the Winter CES show is covered.

The fold-out includes some of the licensed Nintendo merchandise available in stores, with both licensed merchandise including clothing, lunchboxes, and beach towels, but also the gimmicky controllers like the Roll & Rocker. There's another section for the new NES Advantage and NES Max controllers. (See the page for the NES Advantage here, the corresponding page for the NES Max is here). On the NES Advantage in particular, the "Slow" button was basically a rapid-fire button that paused the game to fake a slow motion effect. The fact that the NES Advantage made some of these games actually playable should indicate that you shouldn't worry if someone tries to tell you shouldn't use emulator tricks to help you along in games...and it also tends to undermine how hard Nintendo went against the Game Genie. I'm not sure if the Game Genie ever makes a mention in Nintendo Power but I could imagine that Nintendo might've put out something like how it could damage your system (save files, maybe).

Counselor's Corner and Classified Information get updated again with slightly new layouts, with the former having questions on Double Dragon, Metal Gear and Rambo, the latter on Gradius, Seicross, Zanac, Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road, Super Mario Bros. (the Minus World), and Deadly Towers. Counselor's Corner has some profiles of the "agents" working there, a blend of professional video gamer and call center associate. The list was overwhelmingly male, though included two women.

Now Playing's games include Blades of Steel, Cobra Command, Racket Attack with Anticipation taking top billing and a four page feature. Anticipation was billed as "Nintendo's first video board game" many years before Mario Party. Its pedigree is solid, published by Nintendo and developed by rising star Rare, but is almost completely forgotten by both parties and the rest of everyone else, getting snubbed on re-releases and no references to it on the Super Smash Brothers series. Since it was listed among the other Nintendo merchandise in the fold-out, I have to assume Nintendo was hoping that Anticipation was going to be a huge hit for the holiday season, which I can only assume it wasn't. Video Shorts has Bubble Bobble (Taito), Paperboy (Mindscape), Ghostbusters (Activision), Tecmo Baseball (Tecmo), Challenge Pebble Beach (Bandai), Dr. Chaos (FCI), Tecmo Bowl (Tecmo), Platoon (Sunsoft), and Milon's Secret Castle (Hudson Soft).

Pak Watch has information on three football games, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde which became better-known under the Angry Video Game Nerd. It was published by Bandai, and while many Japanese kusoge never made the trip over, somehow this one slipped through. There's a bit on WrestleMania (you don't have to be a pro wrestling fan to admit most of these guys are legends), Hollywood Squares ("one of the greatest TV game shows of all time", though apparently TV Guide would agree), the Power Pad (which had already been released, just new under Nintendo's branding and new name), California Games (by Epyx and Milton Bradley), Skate or Die, Operation Wolf, and Spy vs. Spy. While this wasn't the first non-localized game to appear (that would be Chester Field), Spy vs. Spy II: The Island Caper actually has a title screen and everything shown, and it still wasn't released as a NES game. The game was released for the Famicom overseas and for other systems in the States but never a localized NES release. Volume 3 marks the first list of games in Pak Watch! This would continue in some form to the end of the line. As I've already reviewed in previous articles, there's usually a cancelled game or two at any given time, in this case Spy vs. Spy II: The Island Caper, Chester Field (mentioned back on Volume 1), and Empire City: 1931 (which also got an arcade release in the States and a Japanese Famicom release but no NES release). Volume 3 also includes "Captain Nintendo", a short story that was more-or-less adapted into the animated series "Captain N". Many years ago I saved a text file that was the story transcribed as a text file, but this is the modern Internet so I might as well let you read in context, starting with the first three pages.

The Player's Poll Contest this month was combined with a "Giant Holiday Giveaway", with the big prize being a trip for 4 to Disneyland (4 days, 3 nights) with other games being given away. NES Journal talks about the WOOZ in Vacaville, California, talking it up as if it was the next big thing but as you can imagine it was a huge failure and attendance was plummeting even when the issue went to press. The page is shown below. Even if it sounds awesome, today it's just a part of Vacaville's history. The celebrity profile was Jay Leno, who had apparently previously called in to the Nintendo help hotline (he could certainly afford it).

Top 30 now has three colors, green to represent games with staying power, red for new entries, and blue if it moved up in the rankings (downrankers stayed green). Despite this, there's a notable error where Metroid moved up to #2 and stayed green. Volume 2's top five include The Legend of Zelda remaining at one, Metroid at #2, Metal Gear premiering at #3, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! now in four, and Gauntlet premiering at #5. The next five are Super Mario Bros. 2, Bases Loaded (new), Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Double Dragon (new), and Kid Icarus (now in 10). Super Mario Bros. dropped off the top 10 (now in 11). I have no idea why SMB2 and Zelda II premiered so low. I'm guessing that there's no Players rating.

The letters section feature someone who asked who created Mario, to which it was a "Dr." Miyamoto in Japan (their quotes, not mine) with Mario named after an old landlord of Nintendo of America's, likely the very first time such a story was mentioned. I'm not sure if it ever will make a return, but there weren't television previews for this episode. (As one can expect).

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