It's Nintendo Power's 50th issue! For July 1993 there's Player's Pulse with the contest winner from Volume 39 (meeting Matt Groening) and some envelope art, which has been showing up for the last past several issues. I should make note of this as envelope art would be a consistent theme in Player's Pulse for years to come. In the Super NES section we open with WWF Royal Rumble, which was in the contest last month. Curiously, neither the photos in the article or the in-game wrestler profiles include Hulk Hogan. (Turns out he's only in the Sega Genesis version, though the SNES has exclusive fighters of its own. Next is Run Saber, with most of the game covered since it's a fairly short game. While it got a bit short-changed last month, Enix's E.V.O. Search for Eden has a four-page feature as well. Before the last Super NES game covered, Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind and the poster (featuring all the covers of the magazine to that point), is an article titled "Edutainment", which I wanted to spend more time on.

We all know "edutainment" is a portmanteau of education and entertainment, and we also know how many of these games were poorly done, with math equations or other educational subject haphazardly inserted into the middle of a rather mediocre title, even if it was a memorable title for millennials from the 1990s. In this time and place, edutainment was a novel concept before the crash around 2000 and the disappearance of the genre along with the companies that produced it.

The article opens with Mario Is Missing!, an educational title featuring Mario (and starring Luigi, in his breakout starring role) licensed out to The Software Toolworks/Mindscape for home computers and backported to Super NES. As I mentioned back in Volume 18, at this time, The Software Toolworks is still The Software Toolworks, despite a vast majority of its output being published under the Mindscape name. (It wouldn't become Mindscape officially until 1994 when Pearson bought it), and unlike the original DOS version featuring awkward graphics that became the basis of the Weegee meme, here, Luigi is just his Super Mario World sprite. At first glance it does look like some sort of sequel to Super Mario World (and bears a heavy resemblance to the unreleased CD-i title, Super Mario's Wacky Worlds, which stopped development around this time...though different developer, different platform), but it isn't. Next, they cover The Miracle Piano Teaching System, also by The Software Toolworks, but both versions were pricey, especially the Super Nintendo version (over $400, as shown last month. Next, there's Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, brought to the Super NES by Hi-Tech Expressions. This was licensed from Brøderbund Software, which exited the NES market years ago. As I mentioned back in Volume 30 (and before), Brøderbund was beginning to focus more and more on educational games during this time (though one of their biggest non-educational game hits was about to come later that year). By the late 1990s, SoftKey (which had taken the name of The Learning Company, which it acquired) would buy both Mindscape AND Brøderbund, but by that time, Mindscape wasn't doing much for Nintendo, and while Myst never showed on a Nintendo console, Konami and Virgin Games helped bring over one of Brøderbund's other hits for the computer, Prince of Persia to Nintendo systems. Anyway, the article discusses a few other titles that could be considered "educational" (SimCity, SimEarth, Mario Paint, and Aerobiz).

Nester's Adventures is on Taz-Mania (and missing another opportunity for the Battletoads, perhaps involving the Dark Queen, and not censoring her this time).

We now get to "50 Issues of Nintendo Power: A View from Inside Out". I could write a whole review just about this article alone. The first one is the choice of best and worst covers. This is the first time they acknowledge the backlash for the cover of Volume 2 but as a consumer, it's an eye-catching cover, and Dracula's head isn't even the focal point. There are worse covers. Volume 3 with its disembodied sneakers with afterburners walking to a lava pit? And that's for an Olympic-themed sports game? I know they discuss Volume 26's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves later on, but that's not a great cover either. I'm not a big fan of Volume 45's cover either. Who even remembers the game...or the cartoon? Or Volume 47 starting the "metal limbs" rumor? For best covers, Volume 44 shouldn't count because that was only in the bonus issue version. But there are other good covers...Volume 21, though you'd have to hold it or have a good scan to appreciate it...Volume 28 (great cover, great game), Volume 41 is another contender...

They talk about how there were lots of Nintendo-compatible titles and needed a way to "let players know which games were the most fun to play", which sounds like they were trying to avoid another Atari debacle (still fresh in everyones' minds), but a lot of the bad games got passes (I've discussed this before). They also mention that it was Mr. Arakawa's vision to "have no advertising, so no one could dictate what appeared in a review". Not only were there ads for Nintendo systems as we've already seen, but the whole thing is an advertisement, and you can bet that Nintendo themselves made sure to give their games high marks. (They were usually good, though. Usually.)

They mention that in planning one of the columns rejected was "Games That Make Me Hurl" (likely for the name, but unlike "Killer Kodes", had no equivalent). They dig into the history of Howard & Nester, which reveals that it was Howard Phillips' idea and Nester was at least partially based after him (red hair and wisecracks). Which does explain why the writing direction DID change after Phillips' departure, because Scott Pelland didn't really have a direction to write Nester.

A few other interesting facts to note:
- The "Least Favorite Column" is George & Rob's Now Playing, anyone could've told you that.
- They mention that since Volume 1, over 1,319 games have come out for the NES, Game Boy, and Super NES, but a lot of those just didn't get coverage. When I first launched the "Magazines" page of this website years ago, I had a mirror of the "Nintendo Power Index", and that has less than 1,100 games INCLUDING all the games released in the four years following. Unless this list is missing stuff, there's a LOT of games that Nintendo Power simply skipped over with nary a listing.
- It was Arakawa's decision to push the Zelda and Mario comics of 1992, some people loved them and some people hated them.
- They imply that "someday you may have to strap on an interactive visor to enter the world of Virtual Nintendo Power", foreshadowing the demise of print publications, though Nintendo Power never did become an online-only publication, and if it did, it really wouldn't be Nintendo Power anymore. All it would be is a collection of reviews by game journalists and some occasional op-ed that's guaranteed to be wretched, clickbait, or both.

We've barely gotten a third of the way through the magazine. Classified Information covers MechWarrior, Road Runner's Death Valley Rally, Super Bases Loaded, Cybernator, Wayne's World (SNES), Prince of Persia (SNES), Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose!, Super Conflict, Bases Loaded, and Mega Man 5, with another installment of the Star Fox comic following (thought the defeat of Andross' visage was the end, and it's just wrap-up now? Think again!).

Now we get to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, the cover feature. Starting back in Volume 4, a new Zelda game was an event that made cover. Unusually, this is the only time a Zelda game has made cover without Link personally appearing but he made up for that with Soul Calibur II in Volume 169. There's ten pages here but a lot of it seems to be on early information. They refer to there being only seven dungeons before the Wind Fish (was Turtle Rock meant to be a surprise?), makes no reference to Richard, and introduces lore that I'm not sure is canon, referring to the second dungeon as once the home of "a family of skilled potters". The other Game Boy games include Gargoyle's Quest II (a port of the NES version, for the most part), and T2: The Arcade Game.

Counselor's Corner covers Shadowrun, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose!, Fire 'n Ice, and Milon's Secret Castle. After Power Player's Challenge, they talk about the NES games, starting with The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt, explaining it isn't the same as the the Super NES game that was featured back in Volume 45 but rather a stripped-down port of The Addams Family for Super NES released in 1992. Then there's Mighty Final Fight, a version of the game with weirdly proportioned chibi characters as well as Bubble Bobble Part 2 for the NES, which is also a completely different version than the Game Boy version explored last issue.

Another Power Puzzlers follows, this time a code for Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, the "Nintendo Power Shop" (like a $50 set with all 50 issues, magazine holders, and the Nintendo Power Index, which to my knowledge has never been scanned...an incredible bargain), stand-alone books for the Zelda and Mario comics (which went out of print for years), and some other stuff. The contest had five grand prizes to choose from, you had to select one to be in that drawing.

While one of them (the third one) was a straight $500 gift certificate you could spend at your "nearby Nintendo dealer" (basically Toys R Us or a department store) and all prizes could be substituted with $500, not all the prizes are created equal. The first one was "Win a game a week for fifty weeks", at the retail prices described, even if you lowballed it and assumed all Game Boy games (which had an average price of around $30), that's about $1,500 worth of merchandise. Factor in SNES games and that shoots even higher. That's assuming that it's new titles and they wouldn't screw you with bare cartridges bought on the used market for cheap, but still...it's a lot. All you would need is for the games to surpass an average of $10 to get ahead. The second one was "5 Game Boys with 5 Games". A single Game Boy without a cartridge pack-in was $50 as an advertisement last month showed, and with five Game Boy games (again, Now Playing indicates the newest stuff is around $30) that hits around $400. Better take the cash on that one. "An arcade party for fifty friends" isn't very specific...it doesn't talk about any paying for food (if you had one of those big arcades, as opposed to a storefront in the mall) so I assume fifty rolls of quarters...and since those are typically $10, that's $500 even. But that's nothing compared to 50 pounds of quarters, the fifth prize. Given the weight of quarters minted post-1965, some quick calculations (okay, ChatGPT did it for me) tells me it's about $1,000. But if readers did all that math, there would be a lower chance of getting drawn on those >$500 prizes.

Finally, we get the "NP 50" shirt, different than the "Version 3" jersey introduced back in Volume 27, we've had that same shirt for almost half the magazine's existence.

Top 20 has Star Fox finally hit the Player's Picks, so it takes #1 spot (from #4), with Street Fighter II: The World Warrior assuming #2 (formerly #3), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past taking #3 (#1 last month), and Super Mario Kart dropping to #4. Final Fantasy II is up (#6 to #5), Mario Paint is up (#7 to #6), NCAA Basketball is down (#5 to #7), Super Star Wars is stable (#8 like last month), Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! premiers at #9, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time is up (#12 to #10). Also of note is Super Mario World (#10 to off the list), the return of F-Zero (at #12), NHLPA Hockey '93 (#9 to #14), and SimCity struggling once more (#11 to #13). Battletoads in Battlemaniacs premiers at #19, a poor showing.

In Game Boy's category, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins still leads by a 2:1 margin, Super Mario Land is up (#3 to #2), Metroid II: Return of Samus is down (#2 to #3), Kirby's Dream Land stays at #4, Tetris is up (#7 to #5), The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening stays at #6, Dr. Mario is down (#5 to #7), Battletoads is up (#10 to #8...but no Battletoads in Ragnarok's World to be found), FaceBall 2000 is up (#11 to #9), and Final Fantasy Adventure is up (#14 to #10). The Ren & Stimpy Show: Space Cadet Adventures dropped off the top 10 (#9 to #11), as did Mega Man III (#8 to #13). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers does appear at #18, however.

The Turtles haven't been vanquished from the NES lists for good, either, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project at #12, but it's clear they aren't going anywhere, nor are the Battletoads, at least, not for now. Super Mario Bros. 3 and The Legend of Zelda hold the top two slots like last month while Mega Man 5 broke into #3 (it was the best-selling NES game that month). Tecmo Super Bowl dropped from #3 to #4, Metroid jumped from #13 to #5, Dragon Warrior IV went to #6 from #7, Final Fantasy dropped to #7 from #5, Dr. Mario went up from #11 to #8, Battletoads improved slightly (#10 to #9), and the NES Tetris dropped from #8 to #10. Mega Man 4 lost out (#9 to #11) as did Super Mario Bros. 2 from #6 to #14.

There's a big spread of games this time around in Now Playing, but it doesn't include The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The games include Alien³ by Acclaim (the highest-rated title that month with 4.0 or more in more than one category, a huge accomplishment), Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind by Accolade (they do note the blind jumps are a problem), Dungeon Master by JVC, Mario is Missing by Mindscape (actually The Software Toolworks corporate-wise and in branding), P.T.O. by Koei, Run Saber by Atlus, Super Turrican by Seika, Super Widget by Atlus, Troddlers by Seika, Tuff E Nuff by Jaleco, Ultima: The False Prophet by FCI (cool intro not included), Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? by Hi-Tech Expressions, and WWF Royal Rumble by LJN (they too note the absence of popular wrestlers, though the Hulkster isn't mentioned by name). There's three NES titles (The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt by Ocean, Bubble Bobble Part 2 by Taito, and Mighty Final Fight by Capcom) and three Game Boy titles (Gargoyle's Quest II by Capcom, Star Trek: The Next Generation by Absolute, and T2: The Arcade Game by Acclaim.

They talked about Mega Man X in Pak Watch (clarifying that it's "X" and not "10") as well as previewing FX Trax, a game that would later become Stunt Race FX. As for the preview for next issue, they seemed to like Alien³ but it didn't get a feature this time, but they promise it next month.

That was the 50th issue of Nintendo Power! Things seemed great at the time but things will start changing later on, and not necessarily for the better. (What a long review! Can't do this every month!)

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