Nintendo Power, Volume 5 (March/April 1989)

For a long time this was the earliest issue of Nintendo Power that I owned. I had to take a look at this one too just to show how different the magazine was in the first year. What a cover, huh? The early covers can be really colorful.

Zelda II: Adventure of Link, Part 3 - Shadows

Previously on AMC's The Adventure of Link... Our hero fought Not-Agahnim and rescued young Damien from the clutches of Maze Island. Now, in the final chapter, Link must face... Link? Featuring a live performance of "Forty Six and Two" by Tool!

Zelda II: Adventure of Link, Part 2 - Hammer to Fall

Holy Crusader Link sets sail for more palaces. I'm surprised Nintendo allowed a religious symbol into these games considering they're the same company that censored "Holy" to be "White" and "Pearl" in some of the Final Fantasy titles.

Zelda II: Adventure of Link (NES, 1988)

 Time to cover a Zelda game that I sorta skipped over before. If I don't cover it, it'll bother me, so here we go. This one suffers from the same thing that Castlevania 2, Dragon Quest 2, and Final Fantasy 2 on the NES suffered from: It reinvents something that was working fine before, to mixed results at best.

Nintendo Power, Volume 38 (July 1992)

 Here's a Nintendo Power that I remember reading as a kid. At the time I didn't have a subscription or even any games, but By God these things were still so much fun to read. Let's see what memories it brings back now that I've gotten ahold of this issue again.

Nintendo Power, Volume 27 (August 1991)

It's August 1991. The Super NES is on the way. What's Dr. Wily doing in that mech? Getting revenge, that's what.

Nintendo Power, Volume 23 (April 1991)

I recently tracked down the first Nintendo Power that I ever read. I was eight, and the local library had a ton of Nintendo Power back-issues. This was the most recent issue at the time, and despite barely playing any video games yet I was enraptured.

Nintendo Power, Volume 52 (September 1993)

 Today I'm going to be looking at a magical relic from September 1993: Issue 52 of Nintendo Power (RIP). I just picked up a used copy on Amazon, so I'm reading it for the first time.

This was nearly the first issue of Nintendo Power that I had as a kid; I subscribed in August, but it didn't get processed in time to get this issue. Instead, the first one I got was the fairly underwhelming October issue. That issue still blew my mind at the time, but I can only imagine the level of mind-blowing that would have occurred had THIS issue been my first. I was an absolute Mario fanatic.