29 issues of Christmas

[AndrewTS]

While googling some info about EGM2, I stumbled upon this feature which gives amusing overviews of many of the game pubs that have come and gone, and others which managed to weather the years.

 

http://www.defunctgames.com/29days.htm

[MarvinisaLunatic]

I had a sub to incite gaming because they did a lot of stuff with the WWF at the time..in fact I still have all the issues stuffed somewhere and the Lara Croft Poster that was a sub bonus..

 

How is Tips and Tricks a defunct magazine..I could have sworn I saw an issue recently..

 

And Next Generation and Game Players/Ultra Game Players were my two favorite mags..

[Art Sandusky]

I thought I saw Nintendo Power just a couple of months ago at the grocery store. As someone who cut his subscription off (1990-1997[?]) when they started putting ads in there, it was even worse in contemporary form. Man, there was a time when I'd freak out upon seeing that magazine waiting for me once I got home from school.

[Anya]

I always found Die Hard Gamefan to be overrated. The art like that monitor guy was HORRIBLE and they loved everything! This article is so true, they would gush over anything Japanese or a fighting game. The whole magazine was like 90% screenshots too.

[AndrewTS]

How is Tips and Tricks a defunct magazine..I could have sworn I saw an issue recently..

 

 

It isn't. The site is just called Defunct Games.

[The Amazing Rando]

I loved me some Next Generation... I can't believe it's been gone as long as it has.

[tekcop]

Kotz just said everything I've ever thought of Nintendo Power. That was such an awesome magazine back in the day. Now... ew.

[AndrewTS]

Kotz just said everything I've ever thought of Nintendo Power. That was such an awesome magazine back in the day. Now... ew.

 

I don't exactly agree with that. Sure, the strat guides were very good, but the writing was terrible. It was geared towards a very young audience, while NP today needs to cater to older folks.

 

I have some issues of Next Generation somewhere. Sadly, I was too young to really appreciate the magazine when it was out. It was *very* *very* wordy. It wasn't so much that I had a short attention span, but I was more interested in just straight-up getting info on the games than I was about what x game director thought, or an editorial on the way the industry was headed. I'm shocked it lasted as long as it did. It was way too smart for most gamers then.

 

 

they loved everything!

 

No, they (Gamefan) didn't. They hated FMV games, licensed crap, lousy sequels, lame ports, etc.

 

Just about all the criticisms I heard are more accurate for their mid-90's incarnations, less so for their late-90's, where the staff was totally different, art was typically "offical" art or very good original art, it was more common to see ratings in the 50's for reviews. The mag, to its bitter end, seemed to go with the grade-school scale where 60 and below was an F, and nothing else below that was really needed to gauge quality.

 

And during the mid-90s, there were not many mags that would flat out tell you "this game is shit." Game Players gave Shaq Fu a 79%, for crying out loud. Once in a while there would be a critical punching bag everybody would take a swing at, like Rise of the Robots, though.

 

During the mid-90's, their competition included EGM, the always-crappy Gamepro, the Propagandtastic and Game Players, which really thought it was funny, and tried harder to be funny than do much else.

[BUTT]

GamePro was awesome back in the day. I'll never take that back.

[AndrewTS]

GamePro's tear-out fighting game guides were awesome back in the day.

 

EFA. =D

[Anya]

I read Gamefan in the mid 90s. MK era. Then the art was some of the worst art I've ever seen in a game magazine and more pics than text.

 

And yes Gameplayers was not as funny as they thought they were.

[haws bah gawd]

Their review of Game Informer was pretty funny. I'm not a big fan of having to shill the magazine, but its part of the job so what can you do? I also find the little nicknames the reviewers give themselves to be some of the dumbest drivel I have ever read, but that one reviewer Lisa is kind of hot.

[FroGG_NeaL]

Man, I loved Nintendo Power back in the day.

 

I've still got all my old copies in a box somewhere.

 

The SMB 3 special was the fucking shit. Those pages where it reveals what each card is on the mini-games were priceless.

 

That issue is taped together like crazy from so much useage.

[BUTT]

GamePro's tear-out fighting game guides were awesome back in the day.

 

EFA. =D

 

Poor.