Two-hundred eighty-five. If that number holds any special meaning to you, then you were likely a lifetime follower of the American official Nintendo magazine Nintendo Power. While other magazines, namely Famitsu, have had longer runs and more issues multiple times over, Nintendo Power always held the spot as the longest-lived monthly Nintendo-focused magazine. That now changes as a new king of the hill emerges. The February 2018 issue of Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream will be number 286!
The issue - which features Breath of the Wild Champions’ Ballad DLC on the cover - also comes with a “Switch All Software Catalogue,” highlighting each Japanese release from 3rd March last year until 19th January. Other new and soon-to-be-released games are featured as well.
Nintendo Dream began life as The 64 Dream, and was the first Nintendo dedicated magazine in Japan. The first issue saw release on 21st September 1996 and gave N64 fans a home for more in-depth detailed coverage that other multi-format magazines couldn’t do.
When the N64 gave way to the GameCube, the name was changed to Nintendo Dream and month after month after month they kept putting out issue after issue after issue. Next year, “Nindori” (as its often also called) will pass 300 issues. With the popularity of The Switch and Japan’s continued devotion to print, who knows how long the publication will last?
As for Nintendo Power, from 1988 all the way to 2012, it dutifully appeared in mailboxes delivering the best news, tips and insider info straight from the source. Even in the Internet Age, Nintendo Power still held its own against the web. Despite the speed and access that online delivery can bring, fans of the magazine kept renewing their subscriptions and keeping with tradition. However, Future Publishing, which had taken control of the magazine from Nintendo in 2007, just couldn’t maintain Nintendo Power any longer and in December, 2012 ended the magazine on a high note.
What remained were 285 issues, and several great guidebooks as its legacy. At least we can take comfort that the idea that Nintendo Power started lives on in Japan and continues to do so.
Comments 12
I loved Nintendo Power...... Twas a simpler time
How did it survive the Wii U years? There used to be no new games to review
I hope this gets official digital distribution together with Dengeki Nintendo. I'm already subscribed to Nintendo Force via their Patreon and Weekly Famitsu via Book Walker
@Bunkerneath Indies and DS/3DS games
@Zyph Can you read Japanese?
@Bunkerneath I assume by making the font size extra big to fill up pages
@FragRed I'm attending courses. One of the reasons I subscribe to JP mags.
@Zyph Nice. Always wished I had the time to learn Japanese.
I’ve been living in Japan for 14 years and I’ve never seen this magazine in any book store... I might need to look more closely next time I visit one.
I still miss getting my np every month in the mail.
This is why I backed Nintendo Force.
And Arlo is in it now too, which is humorous.
Nintendo Power was awesome when they were published in-house by Nintendo themselves. It got kinda lame once they turn the publishing duty to a third party and eventually killed it. Once it got turn to a third party publishing magazine, it started losing features such as in-game poster, no more counseling section, the tip and strategy section are getting smaller and smaller and eventually were ignore. Also one of the best part of subscribing to the old Nintendo Power was getting all the free stuffs they sent for being a new or renew subscriber. Stuff like a free GBA headphone, t-shirt, discount for hot games on SNES, N64 and Game Boy, e-Reader card, and even free game such as Dragon Warrior. You just don't get those with the newer publisher and any other Nintendo focus magazines.
@maruse You might because there is so much stuff to look at in Japan it's pretty easy to miss something.
Tap here to load 12 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...