Exor's Dungeon - Magazine Reviews - Nintendo Power Volume 49

Opening up this issue and past the ad for the Game Boy "Basic Set" ($49.95, but doesn't include Tetris) we get to Player's Pulse, where, among other things, there's a 50-something year old determined to masterThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the joy of a child, and the announcement of the Player's Guide for Mario Paint, despite the fact the game has been out for over six months at this time (and the fact that Mario Paint is one of the games that least needs it). Gail Tilden also has a bit about on why Nintendo Power's magazines tend to "scoop" new releases (the letter seen here—as for overselling the cover feature, I'm pretty sure later Nintendo Power issues pulled this stunt, ESPECIALLY post-2005).

The "Battletoads Extravaganza" teased last month referred to every section (NES, Game Boy, Super NES) getting coverage of a Battletoads game, with the particular cover going to Battletoads & Double Dragon. Ever since Mega Man II: Dr.Wily's Revenge made cover on Volume 27 and Super Mario World making cover the very next month, the NES has had to fight for its cover and Battletoads & Double Dragon marks the final time a NES game would make cover (if you don't count the 25th Anniversary of the NES cover years later)...and despite the three titles, Battletoads as a series basically disappeared. It wasn't something Rare even thought about in the N64 days, and the arcade version (released in 1994 and the last Battletoads game) was included in Rare Replay (2015). In 2020, a new game was created (also called Battletoads) but it was poorly rated on arrival with some extremely unfortunate character redesigns, and the series went into remission once more. The magazine is set up a bit differently to put all the Battletoads games together.

We start with the SNES games as usual—B.O.B., Taz-Mania, "Super Casino Games" (covering Vegas Stakes and Super Caesars Palace), and Yoshi's Cookie.There's a two page article called "Power U." that helps explain some technical facts of the SNES vs. the Sega Genesis but doesn't do it very well. They don't say that "Blast Processing" is just Sega's PR team being good at their jobs (or more accurately, exploiting the faster CPU clock speed of the Sega Genesis, the one thing it could beat the Super NES on on a technical level), the difference between CD-ROM and Super FX (extremely different, but despite being obviously pro-Nintendo, I still think they gave Sewer Shark too much credit), a question regarding sports games on the Super NES (the Genesis was very competitive in that segment, perhaps doing it better than Nintendo), and so on. They do list the tech specs of both systems, however, and the Super NES has Genesis beat in almost every category. It didn't even talk about its superior sound chip.

We then get to the aforementioned Battletoads section, with Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for Super NES, Battletoads in Ragnarok's World for the Game Boy (unlike Game Boy Battletoads, Battletoads in Ragnarok's World was a more faithful port of the NES game), and the cover feature, NES title Battletoads & Double Dragon.

After this is the fifth comic for Star Fox, a four-page article on Super NES controllers and accessories, Power Player's Challenge, and Classified Information (covering Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge, SimEarth, Star Fox, Best of the Best: Championship Karate, Gradius III, On the Ball, Sky Kid, Yoshi's Cookie (NES), and Bump 'n Jump).

Wait, there was a Miracle Piano Teaching System for the
Super NES, too? And it costs how much?!

The other Game Boy games follow with Bubble Bobble Part 2, Titus the Fox (giving the fox on Titus Software's logo his own game!), and Raging Fighter.

Counselor's Corner covers Prince of Persia (Super NES), The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare, Kwirk, and Star Trek: 25th Anniversary. There's also a two page step by step guide to Destiny of an Emperor.

Being good at games AND good on the phone means
that they had to hire some weird-looking people, I guess.

I know I mentioned fairly early on that they used binders with maps and other tips to assist callers, but you could also write to them as well, which presumes that they'll hopefully send back maps or something. Probably not the best use of time but that's going to be a lot easier than trying to make notes of someone describing some particular technique or dungeon layout over the phone.

There's a "Power Puzzler" (the answer is "ON CONTROLLER ONE: L R L R L L R R A") after Nester's Adventures before Fire 'n Ice and "NES Hockey Havoc" (covering Jaleco's Pro Sport Hockey and Taito's Hit the Ice), and "Nester's Father Day Challenge" (basically a handful of two-player games that are easy for non-gamers to play). Nester's dad looks like him except older, taller, and has glasses. I'm not sure who drew this one, it's neither Shuji Imai or Dan Speigle. (The Nester's Adventures this month is a rare and correct "last month's issue" game, featuring Batman Returns as the Caped Crusader conspires with Catwoman to render Nester braindead.)

The Player's Poll Contest is to win a trip to the WWF SummerSlam and hang out backstage with the wrestlers (challenging them to LJN's WWF Royal Rumble on the Super NES, which the winner got a copy of). The second prize is WWF signed turnbuckles and a copy of the game. It didn't say what city the winner would be flown out to. The winner was to be picked mid-July, with the SummerSlam happening that year in Auburn Hills, Michigan in late August of that year. I jumped several issues ahead to see if there was a recap of the winner's trip, but I didn't see any, so there was a delay or they just didn't publicize it. (Should've mentioned that they didn't mention SummerSlam 1993 specifically, it could've been delayed to 1994 and in Chicago). Third place is a shirt...yes, it's still "Version 3" (as opposed to the first two designs in the Howard Phillips days of the magazine) and they're back to being jerseys again).

On Top 20, the Super NES list is shaken up...it was a narrow win, but The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has regained the #1 spot on the Super NES charts, ending the dominance of Street Fighter: The World Warrior, which is now in #2, with Super Mario Kart dropping to #3. It was a good chart this month, while F-Zero has dropped off and Mario Paint went from #5 to #7, Super Mario World is on the top 10 (at #10, from #11) and even SimCity is #11. Others include Star Fox (still #4), NCAA Basketball (#5 from #7), Final Fantasy II (#6 from #9, continuing its rise back to prominence), Super Star Wars at #8 (from #6), NHLPA Hockey '93 (back on the top 10, from #15 to #9). The Turtles lose out ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time went from #8 to #12) as does John Madden's Football '93 (gone).

Debuting last month at #12, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening has climbed to #6 on the Game Boy charts. It and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins )(still #1), would be a fixture on the charts for years to come. Metroid II: Return of Samus returns to the top 3 at #2 (though still loses out to SML2 on a 2:1 ratio). Super Mario Land drops from #2 to #3, and Kirby's Dream Land drops from #3 to #4. Dr. Mario holds #5 for the third time, Tetris went from #6 to #7 as Link moved in, Mega Man III went from #9 to #6, The Ren & Stimpy Show: Space Cadet Adventures drops to #9 (from #6) while Battletoads drops to #10 (from #8). At this point, while FaceBall 2000 (#10 last month, now #11 thanks to getting pushed off by Link's Awakening), Yoshi, Golf (yes, from 1989), Final Fantasy Adventure, Final Fantasy Legend, Final Fantasy Legend II, and Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge all occupy slots in the Top 20, there's no Turtles to be found. Sure, there's nothing relating to Batman, or Kid Icarus either, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan was a fixture for years. That same sort of energy carries over to the NES list where the highest-ranking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project at #14. Otherwise, the games in the top 10 on the NES side are Super Mario Bros. 3 (after several months, they regained their #1 spot from #2 last month), The Legend of Zelda (#1 last month, now #2), Tecmo Super Bowl (still #3), d sends Metroid II: Return of Samus from #2 to #4, Mega Man 5 at #4 for the third month, Final Fantasy at #5 (from #6), Super Mario Bros. 2 at #6 (from #11), Dragon Warrior IV (#7 from #17), Tetris at #8 (from #9), and Battletoads still at #10. Metroid lost out (#7 to #13, but it's still hanging in there due to that rerelease (for a long time it was gone) as did Dr. Mario (#5 to #11).

Usually, when a new game hits the magazine the Pros will rate it highly before it goes on sale, but I didn't see that with any of the new Battletoads titles. Maybe we'll see what happens in the future.

Now Playing (for SNES) has Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (Tradewest—this game was the only SNES game this month to break 4.0 in any category), B.O.B. (Electronic Arts), E.V.O.: Search for Eden (Enix—more on that in a second), Family Dog (T*HQ, based on the animated series), Kawasaki Caribbean Challenge (Gametek), Operation Logic Bomb (Jaleco), Super Caesars Palace (Virgin Games—Vegas Stakes was back in Volume 45), Super James Pond (American Softworks), Taz-Mania (Sunsoft), The Terminator (Mindscape), Utopia (Jaleco), Wolf Child (Virgin Games), and Yoshi's Cookie (Bullet-Proof Software). NES only has Tradewest's Battletoads & Double Dragon. Game Boy has Battletoads in Ragnarok's World (Tradewest), Bubble Bobble Part 2 (Taito), Buster Bros. (Hudson Soft), F-15 Strike Eagle (MicroProse), and Titus the Fox...but not Raging Fighter. Anyway, for E.V.O. (as they called it, I guess that's fine) they don't seem to be kind to it, only noting that you can save up to three files and complaining that the "game isn't based on scientific theories of evolution" (that's not what I would complain about) or indications as to what evolutions help. I had my own complaints about it of course like bad hit detection. Luckily, E.V.O. will get covered in a future issue.

Pak Watch reports that Monsters (as mentioned last issue) has officially been renamed as Zombies Ate My Neighbors, its release name. Other notes include announcing Super Metroid and Super Mario All-Stars, and "PC hit" Spectre coming to the Super NES. (No! It was primarily for Mac! Get it right!)

Next issue is the big 5-0 featuring Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, WWF Royal Rumble, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, as well as The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (the NES version this time). I could imagine Bubsy getting a cover feature in a world where Nintendo Power was still operating to present day when it gets something relating to Bubsy 4D, but in these days when Bubsy was still an unironic mascot character, nah.