Apologies for the bad scan of the cover, it's from Retromags (most of these cover scans are, though a few are mine) and I'd love to replace it with a better version if I can find one. On Volume 8, we start with Player's Pulse in which a mother discovers what would be dubbed later as "Nintendium", with the adjacent Video Spotlight (Players' Forum) has a 32-year-old fan (30-something year olds playing Nintendo games were rare in those days) who was a dedicated Nintendo player, Mark Discordia. If you've been on the Internet for a while you might remember Internet writer Seanbaby and the short piece about revisiting the letter (the letter on this page is sourced from there). It's not much, just one of those then-novelty "humor" pages Maddox used to make, and back when Something Awful was the forefront of Internet culture.

Anyway, after that article was made, someone tracked Discordia down. Discordia's work as a plumber netted him decent money (for 2001, at least) but he was still single and volunteered a bunch of information about himself including his sexual habits (link NSFW for language and dialogue), though he passed away in October 2024.

Back to Nintendo Power and this issue's cover feature, DuckTales, Capcom's excellent platformer based after the Disney Saturday morning cartoon, as well as a two-page mini-feature on the NES Satellite, both a wireless controller base and four-player expansion for the NES (probably introduced latency). The magazine downplayed the fact that despite the four player ability, there were no games on the NES that were four-player...Anticipation (which was mentioned by name) was four player of the "pass the controller" variety. But not to worry, the next two pages described a few of the new four-player games that were coming to the NES that used the NES Satellite to its full ability.

Following this there were more things that we'll only mildly address.

* Two pages on Jaleco's Hoops.
* Counselor's Corner with tips on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Metroid, and Adventures of Lolo.
* Eight pages on Fester's Quest. It should be noted that Fester's Quest was released by Sunsoft as the first Addams Family game on the NES. The Addams Family and The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt were released by Ocean, and those came later.
* Five pages on Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a bit more in depth from the preview-oriented pages last issue.
* A poster for Batman (or fold out for a map for Fester's Quest).
* Eight pages for the Game Boy and Tetris featuring additional mini Howard & Nester comics.
* Two-page previews for Willow, River City Ransom, Batman, and NES Play Action Football. Nester introduces in a page previewing the previews.
* Classified Information includes a full page detailing how the passwords for 1943 work, with other tips for Ninja Gaiden, Star Soldier, Mega Man II, Guardian Legend, Tecmo Bowl, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and Legacy of the Wizard.
* Howard & Nester featuring Mega Man II (following the same "last issue's cover feature" theme).
* Video Shorts, with Air Fortress, Sky Shark, Casino Kid, Castlequest, Jordan vs. Bird: One on One, Bad Street Brawler, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

With more and more games coming out, there's shuffling in the Top 30. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Super Mario Bros. 2 switched places again with Link ("For the third issue in a row", notes Nintendo Power) prevailing, with Ninja Gaiden and The Legend of Zelda still holding #3 and #4 respectively. Blaster Master jumps to #5 from #7, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest to #6 from #8, Bionic Commando drops down to #8 from #7 (Legacy of the Wizard, the new #7, pulls forward from the back of the list), The Guardian Legend premiers at #9, and Metroid returns to the top 10 (at #10). Some of the games on the Top 30 I've noticed haven't been released yet, not stateside anyway, with Super Mario Bros. (which would be released in 1990) already on the list at #20 (Super Mario Bros. is at #27, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is at #17). Mega Man II, Double Dragon, and Tecmo Bowl are off the top 10, now at 13, 23 (big drop), and 11 (respectively).

On the Pak Watch side of things, announced among other things is a port of Shadowgate and A Boy and His Blob, a new title by David Crane (who designed Pitfall! for the Atari 2600) by Absolute Entertainment, founded by ex-Activision employees (and some from Atari before that, like Crane). Up until this point, Absolute was still making Atari 2600 games (and the Atari 2600 was still being sold by Atari Corporation, despite being 12 years old at this time). Absolute would go onto to make a number of licensed titles for Nintendo systems before going bankrupt in the mid-1990s. I haven't paid attention but Pak Watch looks like they dropped some of the games that weren't going to be released anytime soon, so California Raisins, Super Sushi Pinball, and Chester Field just vanished. (But, as we'll see in a future issue, California Raisins will surface for air again).

NES Journal talks about the new Captain N show (shamelessly ripped off from whoever came up and wrote the Captain Nintendo story back in Volumes 3 & 4), Brian Robbins, the 10th Annual International Othello Tournament (which features the NES game Othello to replicate players' moves to be displayed to spectators), the NES Cleaning Kit, and a report of a contest winner going to Chicago and the CES.

For the first time the Player's Poll Contest doesn't have Nintendo Power jerseys. The grand prize is going to Houston to see the filming of RoboCop II, a second prize (one winner) of the RoboCop arcade machine, and 10 third place winners, winning a copy of RoboCop for the NES (but autographed by "the crime-fighting ace himself"...I assume Peter Weller?).

I'm pretty sure that Captain N was mentioned in Nintendo Power at a later point, but this is the first and last time Captain N would be unironically spoken of well. It's retro cheesiness at best and absolutely terrible at worst. It depends on your point of view—if you think Mother Brain sounding like Audrey II (that is, voiced by Levi Stubbs) is hilarious or obnoxious. You can watch the series here.

I haven't really paid much attention to the backs of the cover, but they talk about the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, which I'm guessing was being pushed as unlicensed titles were being released. (Tengen having broken the lockout chip and Color Dreams now releasing titles). Also in the front page ads, "Captain Nintendo" was now the name of another hotline, a prerecorded 900 line for tips and news.

Oh, and there's also a part two of the Super Mario Bros. 2 strategy guide from last month!

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

(c) 2026 Carbon-izer.com