Review: 20 Years of Nintendo Power is entertaining history abridged

20 Years of Nintendo Power
Scott Pelland can write. As a staff writer and later managing editor of Nintendo Power for 20 years (1987-2007), I can’t think of a better historian to tell “the history of Nintendo through the pages of the official magazine,” which is precisely what Pelland did in the special edition of 20 Years of Nintendo Power. After reading it, I’m convinced he’s the grandfather of Nintendo journalism.

The ad-free issue runs 65-pages, with construction-paper like thickness. The design is as clean as something you would expect from Apple and is brimming with photographic spreads of the magazine as an anchor to tell the story of Nintendo. All “the biggest moments” in the company’s history are here: from the NES to Wii, including significant first-party and third-party games. The writing is tighter in the first half than the second, but the overall result is succinct, insightful, balanced, and forward-thinking.

Though short, the issue is well worth $10, the price of six regular issues of the magazine. Perspective like this doesn’t come often to video games, so I recommend it to both collectors and gamers alike. The issue is on newsstands “until May 12, 2009.” I bought mine at Target.

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