Exor's Dungeon - Magazine Reviews - Nintendo Power Volume 7

Nintendo Power is now a year old with July/August 1989 (Volume 7). Things are continuing to take shape. The mail box section is now Player's Pulse (stylized as "Players' Pulse" in the table of contents), which would continue under that name until 2004 when it was renamed as Pulse. One of the letters explains how the magazine is printed, with the magazine going to press the first week of March (for the March/April issue), then finally being delivered to subscribers by the end of March. When I was a subscriber to Nintendo Power around 2005-2006, the month on the cover usually was a week or two away. Player's Pulse (I'll refer to it as this for simplicity's sake) was the catch-all for the Mail Box and Player's Forum features, moving the latter up from NES Journal. But this issue is sort of lame, and it's not even 100 pages, so we'll make this quick.

Turtles and one of the better Aprils. And why would Bruce Wayne live in an apartment?

The featured Mega Man II section covers seven of the ten stages, leaving out Flash Man, Quick Man, and of course Dr. Wily's final stage. Faxanadu strategy follows, then Counselor's Corner (covering questions from Legacy of the Wizard, Bases Loaded, Ninja Gaiden, Dr. Chaos, and Friday the 13th. Top 30, in the middle of the magazine now, has Super Mario Bros. 2 return to its #1 after switching with Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but now Ninja Gaiden premiers at #3 with The Legend of Zelda bumped to #4. Tecmo Bowl moves up to #5 (Contra and Track & Field II dropped to #14 and #12 respectively), Blaster Master holds #6, Bionic Commando moves to #7, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is back on the top ten at #8, Mega Man II moves to #9, and Double Dragon is at #10. Metroid is now at #13, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is at #21, and Super Mario Bros. is at #24.

There's several pages of strategy for Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest), maps and strategy for Strider, with the previews featuring RoboCop (Data East), DuckTales (Capcom), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (published by LJN, but developed by Rare), and IronSword: Wizards & Warriors II, then Howard & Nester (on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). I find it interesting that Nester refers to having red hair, in real life Howard Phillips had reddish-brown hair, but in Howard & Nester, he's blonde.

Classified Information has a full page on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, along with stuff on Gyruss, Seicross, Rambo, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Cobra Triangle, Mappy-Land, Life Force, Jackal, Super Mario Bros. 2, and The Legend of Zelda.

Please tell me that I'm not the only one who thought they were covering O.J. Simpson at first glance.

Video Shorts starts with Bad Dudes (Data East), then King's Knight (Square Soft), Defender of the Crown (Ultra Games, a port of the computer game from Cinemaware), To the Earth (a new game that uses the Zapper), Shooting Range (from Bandai, also a light gun game), Sesame Street: ABC (High-Tech Expression), and The Adventure of Dino Riki (Hudson), while Pak Watch features the Game Boy, Double Dragon II, Bigfoot, The Terminator, Ghostbusters II, Super Off-Road, X-Men, and third-party controllers (among them, Nintendo's own NES Satellite, which allowed for four-player simultaneous play).

Nintendo Power's one-year anniversary discusses where to find 1-Ups in several games, and NES Journal notes that this is not only the 1st anniversary for Nintendo Power but the 100th anniversary for Nintendo itself (founded 1889, as any Nintendo fan knows), with a page talking about the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Super Show animated series. The Celebrity Profile is Micahel Dorn (aka Worf). The Player's Poll Contest is moved to the very back, with five winners going to the Nintendo of America headquarters or even win a Game Boy for another 10. And of course, the Nintendo Power jersey. There's also a hint book on Super Mario Bros. 2 that can be removed from the magazine ("Super Mario Bros. 2 Inside Out"). You can check it out here...the price on it indicates that it was also sold separately.

The scan on Retromags isn't very good, and I don't have a copy of my own. It looks like the poster for RoboCop is only two pages and I can't find what the other side looks like. Anyway, Volume 8 is here.