Getting Lost in Nintendo Fun Club News, Vol. 3 + Personal Update
Everything a growing body needs.
Shew! What a whirlwind couple of weeks.
New job starting the day after my old job ends.
New job considerably more physical than old job, which makes my body feel great, but also tired and sore.
Need extended period of rest to make body feel reasonably normal, in which any deep thinking/writing is out of the question.
Decry the aging process. All exactly in that order.
But here I am, alive, half-awake, cup of coffee on standby, ready to immerse you all in the splendor that is Vol. 3 of the Nintendo Fun Club News.
Please enjoy, and as always, to my patrons, thank you for your support and patience.
Link and Hyrule are in bold, beautiful color! Nintendo’s upgraded their budget for this issue and likely all subsequent issues. No more “acceptable fanzine” quality for early Nintendo fans, no sir.
We’ll see how this upgrade was made possible on the next page.
Also shout-out to Tony B., a real one. Thanks for making this issue readily accessible online.
That’s right, ads! Can’t print your slowly growing newsletter on expensive color without some coin to make it all worthwhile.
Taito must have coughed up the most, since their ad is the first you see in the magazine. All of these games are worth playing, except for Renegade.
Crazy to think we ever lived in a world where kids didn’t know about “passwords.”
Consider Metroid’s at-the-time insane depth, then look at the Data East “favorites.” Forget their quality (or lack thereof, in Karate Champ and Tag Team Wrestling’s case). All three of these games are simple arcade ports with repetitive gameplay.
In 1987, Metroid’s non-linear exploratory style pointed to gaming’s future, whereas Data East’s games hearkened to the not-so-distant past.
Samus is very proud of her color screenshots and of the fact that her game is cooler than all of Data East’s arcade hits put together.
Medusa’s aged into your great-aunt Betty, apparently.
Just like in the last issue, Nintendo wants you to tell them if you’ve beaten Ganon. Small potatoes, perhaps, in the age of video walkthroughs, but this Fall 1987 issue emerged pre-Internet (obviously), pre-strategy guide, pre-any real outside help, save for playground rumors and secrets.
Also “Pitfall Harry’s Greatest Adventure” is such a bald-faced lie. Activision’s treachery goes back decades, I see.
This tips corner is gold, I tell you! In the days when games refused to give up their secrets without a fight, these precious, seemingly innocuous hints gave gamers another lifeline.
Also, Mr. Howard Philips - the Master Gamesman himself - still wants to know where the other Minus Worlds are in Super Mario Bros. If you find them, let him know.
That “flat Goomba” tip… never heard of this one. I’m sure Mr. Philips vetted it, otherwise it wouldn’t be published. Anybody ever try this one?
I know Nintendo published both Rad Racer and Punch-Out!! and developed the latter, so they’re basically obligated to give them a one-page preview in their company propaganda newsletter. Still! Great games!
Blurry screenshots! Buy FCI and Sunsoft games! A Winner is You!
Whereas the Legend of Zelda manual gave players the locations to the first 4 dungeons, this handy map gives you the locations of dungeons 3-6, out of 9 total.
For those who totally haven’t beaten Ganon twice already.
Bandai believed in their Fitness Pad enough to run a full-page ad in Nintendo’s official newsletter. Nintendo loved the Fitness Pad so much, they purchased the rights to it and rebranded it as the Power Pad (now you’re playing with power, etc.)
I also thoroughly enjoy the reference to the “new and exciting” Stadium Events coming soon.
Crazy that Nintendo of America was already hyping Zelda II a couple months after the original Legend of Zelda was released. Pro-Am Racing would later be renamed to R.C. Pro-Am and become a cult favorite.
And just in case you missed this…
We are fifteen pages in to Vol. 3 and this issue still has nine more pages to go! It’s the Fun Club’s biggest issue by far and they’re only going to get bigger from here.
Next time, I’ll be looking at the remaining nine pages, but let me ask you all: do you enjoy these types of posts?
I enjoy making them, but in the future, I’m not sure I’ll be breaking down each page in, say, a 75-page issue. Maybe just draw attention to some highlights.
But what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments below, and as always, thanks for reading!
I really like these, especially with how the games featured in them are lining up with your write-ups. I think the two different types of posts are complimenting each other and creating a cool sense of progression (having both “new” or “up-and-coming” and current-day perspectives). It’s been a cool way to “relive” this time period. Early Days of NES: Remastered Edition.
Great posts. They really bring back the cultural moment, plus lots of memories. I remember getting stuck on Level 6 of Zelda as a kid. I'm now realizing that I probably had this as a guide, combined with the instruction manual.
I'll admit that almost all of these SMB tips (or quirks) eluded me, included the flat goomba thing.
I like your point on the depth of some of Nintendo's offerings at this point, contrasted with the much more "arcadey" third-party stuff getting advertised alongside it. Forward-looking vs. backward-looking.
I was trying to think what third-party games we would have had at this point that are legitimately forward-looking? It seems like Castlevania is about it. And we're about to get Mega Man.