Nintendo Official Magazine (Nintendo Official Magazine)

Name: butters

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Product:	Nintendo Official Magazine
Date:	29/11/06 (280 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Informative.

Disadvantages: Seems to be biased and lack of humour.

At the start of the year this magazine, which shown by previous reviews, has received a lot of slate over the years, and generally not being a Nintendo fan, preferring the mighty Playstation 2 over the Gamecube which had a lack of third party support. However, with my anticipation growing for the new Legend of Zelda game, Twilight Princess, and the new console which has motion sensors making games interactive, I had to get news somewhere. Gladly though, my first issue was issue 8 of this monthly magazine-the post count restarted when the new publisher ‘Future Publishing’ started publishing the magazine, who also publish the superb Official Playstation 2 magazine.

~Information~

Name: Nintendo Official Magazine
Consoles: Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Gamecube, Wii.
Pages: 132
Price: £3.99
Subscription: £8.43 every 3 months
Website (including forum): http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/
Availab ility: Most newsagents and supermarkets.

~Magazine~

It has a lot of information in-between these tiny pages and one of the things I noticed with my first issue a few months back (when the Wii information wasn’t pouring in so fast) I noticed with-in five minutes that the magazine wasn’t exactly cramped and was filled with pictures and random information that you wouldn’t find in the OPS2 magazine. It could be argued that this may be to cater for the younger audience that Nintendo seems to attract, but I am pretty sure that this was because of the lack of Gamecube titles, being a console that never attracted too much third party support. Recently though it has been pouring with information about the upcoming games for the upcoming console, which covers a large portion of the magazine itself, then. However, there are many DS games due to the success of this great handheld. Here is what is included though:

News: Not much to say really, but it keeps you up to date with the information on the console and games. A lot of the information is new, though I have found that if you are scouring the web for information that is up-to-date, some of this information may already be known. However, most of the information I have found out to be new.

Coming Soon: Basically the previews section. The magazine I have in front of me has no Gamecube games, just DS games and Wii games with new information. It has a decent amount of information though over a 2 page spread but with no screenshots it could be done in 2/3rds of a page. Many magazines do this, and again, it could be done for Nintendo’s younger fan base, but it happens throughout most of the magazine in most of the major information. What is written though is extremely good and to the point with a bit of humour though it is a bit ‘mellow’.

Features: My magazine has information on probably the best launch title ever, Twilight Princess, and articles on the Wii. Not news, just articles and it makes a decent read. Especially for me since both of the ‘features’ I was interested in. Once again, it is to the point yet ‘mellow’.

Reviews: The main reason for buying games magazines, reading reviews of games they have got before launch and write about them just to taunt the readers. A ‘ten page review’ On Twilight Princess consisted of a double page picture, a map covering a page, and on another page screenshots covered 2/3rds of it leaving a third of a page of writing. Over the next two pages there was about 1/3rd writing, and 2/3rd pictures, as were the next 2 double spreads. Again, it is done in other magazines but it shows how the magazine is spaced out. The pretty little pictures though are very interesting and just tease you more, making you want the game. The reviews are also pretty detailed. They don’t give out spoilers (obviously) and just go on about gameplay and controls etc.-everything that is important in a game that you need to know. The screenshots may contain a sarcastic comment or two but other than that the humour is sparse and ‘mellow’. The information is there but it lacks the humour and innuendo that the OPS2 magazine has which makes it so funny. And the sarcastic comments for the screenshots are far less funny and the magazine seems innocent compared to 0PS2 which makes it more informative and less humorous.

Then there is the bias. When reading the Playstation magazine it is obvious I will disagree with results. Just like this magazine. And I have noticed that OPS2 does rate games higher that are made by SONY. For example, Killzone which got 7’s and 8’s but got a 9 in that magazine. It is just opinions though, and I would give a 9 to Killzone personally.
However, Red Steel, a ‘Wii’ launch game got a 90% in this magazine, though on IGN, a trusted game site it got 6, and an 8 off someone else. Gamespot gave it 5.5/10 and EDGE magazine gave it a 5/10.

Obviously it is down to opinion and many review sites may class Graphics as a bit more important, but that is a huge gap and I have found that they highly rate many Nintendo games which is far above my opinions and many other peoples and a quick scan at the Top 50 shows how many 90%+ and even 95%+ games there are.

Game guides: To be honest I find this to be a space filler because of the lack of games that come out on all consoles. Although I have had a quick read through and they would be useful.

There is obviously more though-the A-Z on Nintendo, competitions (absolutely loads of them)-all which add more pages and which is a decent read. Then there are the challenges in which you post best times etc. on certain games. What I always look forward to though-the letters I don’t find particularly that interesting. Once again, it may be because of the younger audience meaning fewer letter filled with humour and rude jokes, but it seems to be Nintendo fan-boys who go on about the DS and the Wii, and games and nothing that is so disturbing that you’ll laugh, or cringe.

The layout of the magazine is pretty decent too. The reviews in one section, previews in another etc. and it doesn’t change much from issue to issue. My only gripe is that the letters aren’t at the start of the magazine where they are easily accessible, but are stuck in the middle.

Then of course, the freebies. It will range from Nintendo extras like stylus’ ad cases which are pretty good, to a pack of MnM’s which you see sticking out of the cover, feel, it seems interesting, so you buy the magazine and it is revealed the really weird feeling freebie is sweets. I thought it was a mini Link statue or something….


~Overall~

For Nintendo information it is a really decent magazine. It has all the news and updates a Nintendo fan could dream of and all the information any Nintendo fan will want. The reviews have loads of screenshots and information wanting you to play the game and it does all seem to be excellent. However, there are flaws in the magazine which really mark it down.
The bias in the magazine which I noticed straight at the start in my first issue and have seen in subsequent issues. This really defeats the point of a magazine which is to review games fairly so all fans will know the game and what it is like. There will always be people with conflicting opinions but there is too much that can be considered biased to be a coincidence.
Plus-the lack of humour. Sure, it is a good magazine for information, excellent in fact. But since this magazine is aimed a bit more towards kids, it doesn’t have the innuendo or humour which would make the magazine a lot more fun to read and which would make it more enticing to older Nintendo fans (teens and above), since there are a lot of them.

Summary: Has the informarion but no fun.