Your favorite video game magazines, memories of them, and have they aged well?

[newtmonkey]

Some more thoughts:

 

Computer Gaming World

     I blasted through the '90 issues... there ended up being a LOT of stuff not worth reading imo this year, such as straight-up walkthroughs full of spoilers from Scorpia (adventures and RPGs) and "survey" articles that go on and on for pages simply summarizing a dozen games with a sentence or two.  I also ended up skipping the pages upon pages of wargame and sim strategy guides, since I have zero interest in those genres.

     Scorpia has been given a regular column this year, in addition to her letters section and review of the month.  I've complained before about how she would just drop a spoiler-filled mini walkthrough in the middle of her reviews, and she still does that (why would anyone want this???), but she's otherwise an excellent critic and writer, so I enjoyed reading her columns.  Having said that, she seems hyper critical of RPGs at the time, criticizing them for not playing just like pen and paper games around the table with your friends.  I really don't know what she was expecting, as computers are not even capable of doing this NOW never mind in 1990.  She describes her ideal RPG in one column, and it sounds 100% like Baldur's Gate... which is hilarious, because she would somewhat infamously give that game an extremely negative (and bizarre) review years later.

     I must also mention the particularly awful reviews written by Charles Ardai.  He is one of those reviewers who spends 90% of the review talking about anything other than the game, and then wrapping the review up with one of those wishy washy "it's okay, if you like this kind of game give it a try" paragraphs.  Whenever I read any of his reviews, I end up with no idea whatsoever as to how the game plays or what it's about.

     Finally, although the mag thankfully got rid of Arnie Katz's bizarre video game column... they went and restarted the column again, just under a different writer (Roe Adams).  If I want to read about the Sega Genesis in 1990, I'm reading EGM or something, not "Computer Gaming World."

 

PC Entertainment

     I finished the '92 issues, and this magazine is just exceptional.  It's got a really clean, professional layout, and the writing is excellent.  Featured games will usually get 3-4 pages per review, while smaller games will get a single page.  I'm so happy I discovered this mag recently... I would have loved it back in the day.

[Rhomaios]

On 1/31/2024 at 12:52 PM, newtmonkey said:

@Wayler

Not any reviews in particular, but I've just noticed some comments and asides here and there in the first couple of issues suggesting the reviewer doesn't care for traditional RPGs.  For example, in their Soul Blazer review:

"...Soul Blazer treads familiar RPG territory, avoiding the weaker elements that plague many of these games - there's none of that tedious alternate-move combat stuff here, for instance."

 

As for shmups, there were some comments that suggest they are already tired of the genre, which is a strange position to take in 1992, unless you just don't like the genre.  Again, though, they were just asides and not reviews, so they might have even just been joking.

 

Of course, they reviewed only a couple of shmups (fine reviews) and no real RPGs in the first couple of issues, so we'll see how it goes!

Shmups were definitely "out" in 1992. It was the rise of fighting games, the pinnacle of platformers, and the era of weird experimentation. A genre that had its origin in the very beginnings of video games (with Space Invaders) was seen as passe.

 

As far as turn-based RPGs go, that was seen as a weird Japanese thing. I was young enough to not realize that, so I thoroughly enjoyed what JRPGs I had access to, but FF2 and FF3 were definitely outliers until FF7 came around and changed things and made the genre respectable again.

[newtmonkey]

     I don't disagree that platformers and then fighting games became the dominant genre for the 16-bit consoles, but if companies were still releasing shmups and RPGs in 1992, then there was a market and fanbase for them.  It's unprofessional and a disservice to the readers to not review the games on their merits, and if the reviewer in question doesn't "get" shmups, someone else who does should be reviewing them.  The major US mags (EGM, Gamepro, Gamefan) at the time heaped a lot of praise on shmups and RPGs alike.

     It's a moot point anyway, because my impressions were only on the first couple of issues of Superplay.  They improved a lot only a few issues in, and started assigning reviewers properly.

Edited March 6 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Gekkan PC Engine

     This was a Japanese magazine devoted solely to the PC Engine, and it's a decent one at that.  I mentioned earlier in this topic the nice layouts, excellent screenshots, and surprisingly in-depth walkthroughs and strategy guides... but like with any mag, the more you read it, the more you start to find annoying.

     It was fun at first reading these cover to cover (skipping the extensive "lifestyle and hobby" section in the middle)... but I realized after a few issues that much of each issue is just bunch a filler content not worth reading.  So many pages are devoted to previewing the same handful of games month after month and basically just telling you that the graphics are AWESOME!!!! or describing the screen to you and telling you what you do in the game ("fly to the right and shoot things!" "walk to the right and bop things!").  With that in mind, I've mostly just been flipping through these and only reading previews of games that never got released or otherwise just look interesting to me (mostly RPGs), and any interviews they have with game developers (very rare).

     I was also initially reading the reviews, too, but they are some of the worst out there.  There is simply not enough space given for the reviewers to go into any detail, and nearly every game gets a 70-80% review from every single reviewer, with the "review" almost always being some variation of "cool characters, good graphics, good pacing, not too difficult."  Cosmic Fantasy, which was released in an unfinished/broken state (half the items and spells do nothing, enemies and bosses don't use any special attacks or spells, etc.) gets a round of 70-80% reviews ("cool characters, good pacing, not too difficult")... but the straw that broke the camel's back for me was the round of 70-80% reviews for the complete garbage that is the PC Engine port of Golden Axe (laughably described by one of the reviewers as a "fine port").

     One fascinating thing about this mag is that you can see the train wreck that was the development of Tengai Makyo ZIRIA happening in real-time.  Early issues of the mag cover the first version of the game, which looked extremely impressive... and then one suddenly the game is some kind of action RPG... and then the very next month it turns out the developers scrapped that and and now the game is yet again completely different.  At some point, it starts to look a lot closer to the disappointing game that was actually released... and then just a few months later it's finished and reviewed!  That explains a LOT about that game!

[Rhomaios]

On 3/6/2024 at 4:16 AM, newtmonkey said:

     I don't disagree that platformers and then fighting games became the dominant genre for the 16-bit consoles, but if companies were still releasing shmups and RPGs in 1992, then there was a market and fanbase for them.  It's unprofessional and a disservice to the readers to not review the games on their merits, and if the reviewer in question doesn't "get" shmups, someone else who does should be reviewing them.  The major US mags (EGM, Gamepro, Gamefan) at the time heaped a lot of praise on shmups and RPGs alike.

     It's a moot point anyway, because my impressions were only on the first couple of issues of Superplay.  They improved a lot only a few issues in, and started assigning reviewers properly.

Oh, not arguing that. If anything, it clearly shows a lack of taste in the reviewer!

[newtmonkey]

I'm in the middle of '93 for most of the mags, so some general comments:

 

Computer Gaming World ('92)

     At first I really liked the quality of the writing in this mag (full sentences, no typos!), as well as the comprehensive coverage of PC games of all genres... but I have to admit that I just don't like most of the articles and reviews in this mag.  The reviewers are too "cute" and are always trying to be witty but, imo, failing miserably.  It's a bit tedious to get through most of the reviews, because you often have to skip anywhere from 1-3 paragraphs before the review starts, and then several paragraphs will be devoted to describing the screen to you in excruciating detail; crucial back when the mag didn't even have screenshots, but not in 1992!

     One perfect example is the review of Ultima VII by Charles Ardai, where he spends two entire paragraphs talking about how seven is an unlucky number, and how many people are avoiding Ultima VII because it's the seventh game in the series (huh????).  This is after Scorpia fully reviewed the same game in the previous issue, so I don't understand the point of having yet another review.  He also suggests that combat in U7 has a turn-based mode (it doesn't), so in other words it fails as a review because it doesn't even accurately describe how the game plays.  He does spend a lot of the review describing the screen and praising the in-game speech, but doesn't actually review the game at all!  Is it good?  How is it compared with the previous game, or even compared with the back-to-back masterpieces of Ultima IV and Ultima V.  I have to wonder if he played those games, or even completed U7!

     At some point in 1992, the mag dropped the fun Rumor Bag column (they seemed to get a LOT of complaint letters about this column)... though they did reinstate it later in the year.

     Reading these mags now, I definitely prefer PC Entertainment (from the Game Player's publisher) for PC game coverage.  The writing is just much better, and I find myself reading each issue cover to cover, even when the mag is covering games in genres I really don't care about.

 

EGM

     I just read through the June '93 issue (Mortal Kombat on the cover), and it was a very nostalgic read indeed!  I was completely obsessed with MK around this time, so I remember reading the MK feature over and over.  It's also just a cool issue overall at around 200 pages long, with lots of import coverage.  This was definitely a high point for the mag, though it would get even better in '94 imo.

 

Super Play

     I ended up mostly skimming through this mag.  It's got great screenshots, awesome page layouts, and quality writing, but it's so jokey that I find it hard to take seriously.  They are just throwing jokes at the wall to see what sticks, though it is sometimes very funny.  The reviews are fine, but it's another case of 1-3 paragraphs of jokes and nonsense before the review actually begins.  I did get a kick out of how much they (rightfully) flipped out over the fact that the Super FX chip was developed by a UK company.  I think everyone knows this now, but I don't recall Nintendo Power mentioning this back in the day (though I might be wrong).

Edited March 13 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

I've caught up on all the mags I'm reading and am nearing the end of 1993.  It's been a lot of fun so far!  Some thoughts:

 

EGM

The October '93 issue is basically the start of peak EGM.  The layout is in place, the screenshots are awesome, and the writing is even decent at this point.  This is the first issue where you get Major Mike reviewing games the main reviewers didn't bother to cover, and also the first issue where you get the awesome "Good/Bad/Ugly" box in the game previews.  It's just such a fun magazine to read at this point.

 

Computer Gaming World

I'm getting increasingly annoyed with this mag!  They expanded their reviews to two, sometimes three, pages, and it's all just a bunch of garbage.  90% of any given review just tells you the story and summarizes the screen (with lots of puns of "comedic" asides), so it just feels like a waste of space.  The mag expanded in '93, but each issue has anywhere from 20-40 pages of wargame/sim coverage, so if you don't care about those genres, it's all a bunch of nonsense.

As a fan of RPGs, I don't get the RPG reviews in this mag at all.  Their adventure/RPG columnist, Scorpia, has several features each issue, including two different spoiler/hint columns... but even in her reviews she insists on outright spoiling the game out of nowhere.  I'm not gonna get too upset about the ending of, I dunno, The Dark Queen of Krynn being spoiled, but why even do this in what is supposed to be a review?  It's crazy.  Why would the editors allow this?

 

Electronic Games

This mag has a great layout but is just awful.  It's VG&CE part 2.  The writing is excellent, but the reviews are absolutely awful.  Every single game gets a review from 78% to 82%, regardless of quality, unless the game is major title, then it gets a score in the high 90s.  The reviewers all write well, but have absolutely no taste at all, so some random garbage licensed platformer will get an 80% because the animation is cool and there's digitized voice.  You simply cannot rely on these people for reviews.

 

Nintendo Power

An absolutely beautiful magazine with perfect screenshots all over the place and ridiculously thorough maps for whatever game they were pushing at the time, and fun comics too.  Unfortunately, there's not much worth actually reading!  Nintendo's own magazine was way behind the times when it came to future releases and import coverage, so it seems a bit quaint if you were reading EGM or whatever.

Edited March 21 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

I completed reading through all the '93 issues of the mags I'm reading (Computer Game Review and Entertainment, Computer Gaming World, EGM, Electronic Games, PC Entertainment, GameFan, Nintendo Power, Gekkan PC Engine, and Super Play).  Instead of providing my thoughts on all of these (most of them did not change much at all throughout '93, so my comments elsewhere in this thread stand), I'll just list my

 

Top Three Gaming Mags of 1993

1. PC Entertainment

     This magazine really surprised me with its overall quality.  The layout is very text heavy and could be described as dull (though they did end up jazzing it up a bit in a tasteful way), but the actual writing is far and away better than any other contemporary mag.  The reviews are a pleasure to read, briefly and expertly summarizing the plot and overall mechanics before delving into what works and what doesn't.  Reviews tended to be assigned to reviewers who actually like and understand games in that particular genre, and it's obvious that the reviewers all extensively played the game they reviewed.

     My only real complaint is that their "RPG" guy never really seemed to like RPGs, and really only seemed to get excited about the genre once the first-person action RPGs started coming out.

     Sadly, this mag only lasted until early '94... though it turns out there was some good news in mid '94! (See below)

 

2. EGM

     EGM peaked imo in 1994, but by mid-late '93 all the elements were in place: a great layout, nice screenshots, and massive holiday issues.  I don't care for the review format, but I do think most of the review scores are quite honest; they had no problem ripping into a shitty game or praising a hidden gem.  The writing improved a bit this year, though it doesn't matter much as this is not a mag you read for the commentary.  It's still a ton of fun flipping through this mag today.

 

3. GameFan

     I knew going in that this magazine was much loved back in the day, but I was still pleasantly surprised.  It's very amateurish but in a likeable way, and the page layouts and screens are even better than that of EGM!  I love how these guys would just go bonkers over some random game no other magazine gave a shit about, like Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Genesis or Cybermorph on the Jaguar.

 

---

 

With that, I'm on to 1994, which sees the introduction of a new mag to read:

 

PC Gamer

This was my magazine of choice for PC gaming in the 90s, and I was looking forward to revisiting it.  After reading the first '94 issue, I'm happy to report that the magazine has aged extremely well!  It has great writing, and this is especially true of the excellent reviews written by critics who understand the genres they write about.  It really reminded me of the excellent PC Entertainment and it even shares a lot of the staff from that mag... and I was not too surprised when the editor of the letters column mentioned that PC Gamer is in effect PC Entertainment under a different name.  Now I'm really looking forward to reading more of this mag.

Edited April 10 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

I finished all the 1994 issues of the magazines I'm reading.  Instead of giving my thoughts on each mag, I'll list the winners and losers of '94 (all in my opinion of course):

 

Winners:

EGM

     1994 was probably peak EGM.  Massive issues, a wonderful layout, and combined with EGM² you were sometimes getting nearly 800 pages a month of content (with a lot of ads, but still...).  I still love flicking through this mag, even if there's actually not much worth reading besides the reviews, gossip, and the "good/bad/ugly" sidebars.

GameFan

     This is the year the mag catapulted from what was basically a self-published fanzine of unbelievably high quality, to a legit competitor to EGM with national distribution.  It's a great looking mag that looked better with each issue, and the passion for games was infectious.  Their reviews, however, were pretty ridiculous, with some real garbage getting 80-90%+ reviews across the board.

PC Gamer

     A new mag launched late in '94, this was actually my beloved PC Entertainment under a different name.  It's still got the much of the same staff, the same focus on well-written previews and reviews, but a major upgrade in the layout!  I recall this magazine getting very ridiculous later on (Coconut Monkey???), but in '94 it was a serious mag written for adults by editors who really knew their stuff.  It blows the overrated Computer Gaming World out of the water.

     This magazine is really fascinating to me.  You can trace its development straight from the multiformat Game Player's magazine, to their PC offshoot Game Player's PC Strategy Guide and their dedicated PC mag Game Players PC Entertainment, and finally to PC Gamer.  Interestingly, they use a lot of same writers from mag to mag, so it's a pretty consistent read from 1989 to 1994 and onward!

 

Losers:

Electronic Games

     This was the follow-up to VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, and it suffers from the same faults as that mag.  Most if not all of the editors are completely incapable of telling a good game apart from a bad one, regardless of having years of experience writing about games.  Reviews of platformers, for example, seem to come down to how cute or funny they found the animations to be.  A disaster like Ultima VIII (even in its original, frustrating incarnation) gets a sterling review.  The wretched Way of the Warrior gets a higher review than the miracle port of Mortal Kombat II (SNES).  It just goes on and on.  You get the feeling reading these reviews that the writers have not even really played the games in any depth, because it's all stuff you'd see in the first few minutes of playing the game, supplemented by instruction manual summaries.

     The editors are also completely in love with "interactive" Hollywood games, and spend page after page going on and on about how cool it will be when all games become choose your own adventures movies.  In fact, once the magazine folded in 1995, the follow-up was Fusion, a magazine devoted to this kind of garbage.

Computer Gaming World

     This mag is highly praised, but I've been very disappointed with it.  The reviews are two or three pages long, but only because 1/4th to 1/3rd of each review is just a plot summary... and then everything but that last paragraph is often a summary of the screen or the instruction manual.  You get the actual review in the final paragraph.  It often feels like the PC equivalent of GamePro!

     The exception is Charles Ardai, who instead spends all two or three pages complaining about how the plot and characters are not as good as in movies, or going into spoiler-level detail nitpicking puzzles.  This guy completely savaged the beloved Under a Killing Moon because he reviewed it as some kind of serious Hollywood movie, seemed offended at the charming jokes, and cruelly criticized lead designer Chris Jones' lovable and fun portrayal of Tex Murphy.  This guy doesn't review games as games, but as Hollywood scripts, so every single one of his reviews is completely worthless.

Edited April 23 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

I'm halfway through 1995 in my project to read through a bunch of magazines (Computer Game Review and Entertainment, Computer Gaming World, EGM, Electronic Games, GameFan, Nintendo Power, PC Gamer, and Super Play at this point).  Not much has really changed for most of the mags, so I'll only comment on new developments and stuff.

 

Electronic Games

This mag folded halfway through '95, and toward the end it got pretty bad.  It lost the pleasant layout inherited from VG&CE, started adding more interview content (normally this would be interesting, but the interviews were not great), and really embraced FMV garbage and other "interactive entertainment" non-games.  At some point you have to wonder who they were actually writing for; certainly not for the people actually buying and playing video and computer games.

 

Nintendo Power

Nintendo around this time launched their "Play it Loud" campaign, a somewhat lame attempt to add some '90s 'tude to compete with Sega's advertising.  It was laughable then and somewhat charming today, but more insidious is some deceptive stuff that starting creeping into the mag from '94 to '95.  One example was the mag explaining in a classic case of PR double-speak that "some" of the "finishing moves" had been "changed" in Mortal Kombat, but why would you want all those nasty fatalities anyway?... and then praising MKII for being completely uncensored, as though Nintendo had nothing to do with the censorship of MK SNES.  Another is how they carefully crop the screenshots of Killer Instinct SNES in their first preview so that the characters seem as large as in the arcade version.  Nintendo didn't need to do any of this stuff ('94-'95 was peak SNES), so it comes off as a bit sleazy imo.

This is the year where they added "Epic Center," a column dedicated to RPGs and strategy games.  As a fan of RPGs, I really liked this column, and it's still cool to read today.  It's a good mix of previews and walkthroughs/strategies, as well as special features like behind-the-scenes stuff.

 

PC Gamer

The quality of this mag dropped quite a bit a few months into '95!  You still get some excellent reviews and columns by their regular writers, but they've added a couple of reviewers that are just awful.  If I read a review of some strategy game, I want to know if the game is complex, deep, and rewarding; I don't want to read complaints about there being no first person action (such as the absolutely ridiculous review of Central Intelligence).  Hopefully this problem will sort itself out during the second half of '95...

Edited May 26 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

I completed my run through the 1995 issues of various magazines I've been reading.  One thing I want to mention is how long the love-hate relationship for FMV games kept going.  It's absurd.  Pretty much every mag fell over themselves to praise ACTUAL VIDEO in video games, only to admit how dumb it is just a few months later.  But then you'd get some FMV travesty that has rendered backgrounds, and then everyone is praising it all over again... this just kept on happening, and by the end of '95 (!) these buffoons were writing about how, yeah, FMV has always sucked, but in this game, it uses real Hollywood stars and is awesome!  The only exception through it all was GameFan.

 

Anyway, here are some comments on each mag:

 

Computer Game Review and Entertainment

I considered just stopping reading this mag halfway through the '95 issues.  Published by Sendai (EGM), it uses a similar review format, which makes absolutely no sense for the complicated PC games that were being released at the time.  You have the same three guys reviewing a dozen games every month, from FMV nonsense to ultra detailed war games.  Each game gets a single paragraph from each reviewer.  As you'd expect, the reviews are completely worthless, with precious space wasted on stuff like graphics (for wargames???) or installation programs.  The only saving grace for this mag is that they cover a LOT of games, so it's good for finding some hidden gems you might have missed back in the day.

 

Computer Gaming World

I really lost interest in this mag in '94, and it didn't do much to win me back in '95.  The magazine ballooned in size in '95, with many issues in the 200-300+ page range, but so many pages are just ads.  The reviews are often ridiculous, because you'll get three full pages per game, but the vast majority of the text is just taken from the instruction manual or listing off all the weapons you can find, or whatever.  One change that was made this year is that their "humor" columnist, Martin Cirulis, started reviewing games... and I found his reviews to be completely unreadable with lots of sarcastic comments about how dumb the story is, etc.  The magazine also was completely unequipped to review the fast action games that were increasingly becoming prevalent on PCs at the time.  For example, every single garbage fighting game gets a good score because the reviewer simply has no experience with fighting games, and is incapable of telling a good one from a bad one.

 

EGM

The layout, and to some extent the character, of the magazine was changed halfway through '95, and while the mag is not really much different, I don't really like it.  The industry made the leap from 16-bit to the first generation of polygonal games, and you get a lot of "why would you want to play these ancient 16-bit games" from these guys.  EGM did the same thing during the switch from 8-bit to 16-bit, and it was similarly annoying then, but somehow even more annoying "now."  I think it's partly because the SNES and Genesis were such a clear upgrade in every way over the NES and SMS, while the early polygonal games have aged much more poorly compared with the last generation of games released for the 16-bit consoles.

 

GameFan

These guys were amazing.  They started out from nothing and could barely write, but somehow were able to become a serious competitor to EGM.  They also did the best job during the transition from 16-bit to the first polygonal systems, retaining the character of the magazine while embracing the future but also respecting the past.  They definitely championed some weird ass games (Hermie Hopperhead????), but it always feels like they did so out of actual admiration rather than shilling.

 

Nintendo Power

Lots of great walkthroughs, but that's really all that's worth reading in the mag.  The reviews are worthless, consisting of a paragraph describing the story/mechanics and then a single sentence each about what's good and bad.  Still a fun mag to flip through.

 

Official Sega Saturn Magazine

This is a new mag with its first issue published toward the end of the year.  It's quite good with some nice reviews, but suffers from reviewers clearly trying to fill up space by being jokey, sort of similar to Super Play.  It's too early to say for sure, but I've noticed some annoying comments about any game that's more complicated than shooting or jumping on a thing, so it will be interesting to see how they cover RPGs and strategy games once they start coming out.

 

PC Gamer

IMO the best PC gaming mag of the time.  The only problem I have with this mag is that they replaced their regular RPG columnist who seemed to not like RPGs at all, with a new guy who also doesn't seem to like RPGs.  His column every single month seems to be about how much he dislikes combat, character building, and exploration, and how he can't wait until the day when every game is online and all you do is have conversations with other real people.  Okay, that is actually what ended up happening with MMORPGs, but it's ridiculous for their "RPG guy" to not actually like RPGs.  Contrast that with their wargame columnist, William R. Trotter, who lived and breathed wargames and appreciated them for what they were; I don't even like wargames, but I read his column in every issue because he's such a great writer, and because his love for and expertise in the genre is infectious.

 

Super Play

I really don't care much for this one.  The SNES doesn't have much life left in it at this point, and it's just not that exciting to read anymore.  I dunno.  They reviewed Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV in one issue and the reviewer came off as a complete dumbass.  If you don't like or get strategy games, don't review them.

Edited June 14 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

I'm a little halfway through 1996 in my project to read through a bunch of mags, and there were some big changes to a few mags this year!

 

Computer Gaming World

This mag finally changed things up a bit for the better a few months into 1996.  They used to lump all their content into sections by type (previews, reviews, tips) followed by the bizarre strategy/sim section toward the end, but now the mag is organized by genre, with each genre getting a column from their resident genre expert.  This is a change for the better imo.  Each column also has a photo of the genre editor, and I got a kick out of how famously anonymous Scorpia's column has a photo of a scorpion.

The reviews are still mostly awful, but the columns are a lot of fun to read.

 

Computer Game Review

This mag actually ended up folding halfway through 1996, which is sad because the final two issues were quite excellent.  They ditched the ridiculous EGM-style reviews, and instead went with article-style reviews similar to CGW or PC Gamer... a great change, but sadly didn't work out.  You still have the problem of just a handful of reviewers reviewing way too many complex games each issue; you have to wonder how much time these three games devoted to each of the half dozen games they played each month in addition to all the other stuff they had to do to actually produce the mag.

 

GameFan

This mag just gets better and better every month.  Unlike EGM, which was always obsessed with the newest shiny thing, the GameFan guys loved sprite and polygon games equally, so they weren't the type to review some 2D side-scroller and immediately subtract points because it seems "old."

There is of course some dumb stuff in this mag; after all, everyone makes mistakes.  There was the embarrassing "blue shadows" incident where one of the reviewers, writing an arrogant and hyperbolic screed about arcade accuracy that wasn't even actually true, rated the Saturn port of Street Fighter Alpha below the PSX version.  There was also the shameful incident where they left placeholder text that was actually a racist tirade against Japanese people in one of their issues (and then the next month lied and blamed it on some evildoer out to destroy them).

That's just stuff in print... the stuff that went on behind the scenes at this mag is unbelievable.  Still, it's a great read today, and it's such a pleasure to read writing by people who just love video games for what they are.

[newtmonkey]

BTW, for anyone interested in what was going on behind the scenes at GameFan, check the following massive wall of text summarizing posts from various GameFan writers:

 

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gamefan/GameFAN.htm

 

Highlights include the reason for the infamous "blue shadows" review of the Saturn port of Street Fighter Alpha, the actual explanation behind the the racist placeholder text in that one issue, the LSD-fueled review of Cybermorph (in which the reviewer claimed that the enemies somehow seemed aware of his presence), races to the bank to cash paychecks every month, and more.  Warning: If you start reading it, you will get sucked in and have to read until the end.

Edited June 27 by newtmonkey

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

1 hour ago, newtmonkey said:

BTW, for anyone interested in what was going on behind the scenes at GameFan, check the following massive wall of text summarizing posts from various GameFan writers:

 

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gamefa the actual explanation behind the the racist placeholder text in that one issue, 

Heh, I actually have that issue and was so surprised reading it at the time, did a video abut it years ago (at the 4 min 50 sec mark) it's a very crappy out of focus video due to the horrible fixed focus my camera had 14 years ago! Still, I read the entire offensive placeholder text. 

 

[newtmonkey]

I finally finished reading through the 1996 issues of the magazines I'm reading.  This has been a little pet project for my own amusement, where I've been reading a bunch of gaming mags somewhat cover-to-cover, from the very first issue to the last (or stopping if a mag changes too much).  I already finished reading through all of VG&CE, Electronic Games, Game Player's, Super Play, and Computer Game Review, and I currently "subscribe" to:

 

Computer Gaming World, EGM, GameFan, Nintendo Power, and PC Gamer

 

Not much changed over 1996 for most of the these mags, so I'll just mention some general trends.

 

I really began to dislike EGM toward the end of 1996.  The layout became too busy, and I really don't like the reviews.  You always got the sense from the old review crew that they were actually playing the games (though probably not completing them all), and could tell a good game from a bad one... but I often got the sense that the new review crew guys were just making stuff up and praising games mostly based on the graphics.  One reviewer mentioned Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain requiring 100 hours to complete, which is absolute nonsense (and probably just taken from the game's press kit; I remember all the mags mentioning "100 hours" in their previews).  Another described Genso Suikoden as a massive RPG that takes forever to finish, which is similarly ridiculous because the game takes 30 hours maximum to do absolutely everything in it.  I feel like this mag really struggled with the switch to the new generation of console hardware (and probably the buyout from Ziff David), and lost a lot of what made it special up through 1995.

 

On the other hand, GameFan really just got better and better year after year, and they really shined in '96, making the transition from 16-bit to 32-bit gaming perfectly.  They had a similar review format as EGM and, like the old EGM review crew, were able to fit excellent critiques in a space not much larger than six or so postage stamps.  I always look forward to reading a new issue of GameFan.

 

---

 

1997 is up next, and there are some changes coming.  I completely lose interest with EGM after this, so I'll just be reading this mag up to its 100th issue toward the end of '97.  I'll be doing the same for Nintendo Power, which I find less and less interesting and has its 100th issue late in '97, too.  Finally, I'll be "subscribing" to a new mag this year: PSM.  I have fond memories of that one from back in the day, so it'll be interesting to see how it holds up.

[dudeguy]

On 8/1/2024 at 5:26 AM, newtmonkey said:

I finally finished reading through the 1996 issues of the magazines I'm reading.  This has been a little pet project for my own amusement, where I've been reading a bunch of gaming mags somewhat cover-to-cover, from the very first issue to the last (or stopping if a mag changes too much).  I already finished reading through all of VG&CE, Electronic Games, Game Player's, Super Play, and Computer Game Review, and I currently "subscribe" to:

 

Computer Gaming World, EGM, GameFan, Nintendo Power, and PC Gamer

 

Not much changed over 1996 for most of the these mags, so I'll just mention some general trends.

 

I really began to dislike EGM toward the end of 1996.  The layout became too busy, and I really don't like the reviews.  You always got the sense from the old review crew that they were actually playing the games (though probably not completing them all), and could tell a good game from a bad one... but I often got the sense that the new review crew guys were just making stuff up and praising games mostly based on the graphics.  One reviewer mentioned Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain requiring 100 hours to complete, which is absolute nonsense (and probably just taken from the game's press kit; I remember all the mags mentioning "100 hours" in their previews).  Another described Genso Suikoden as a massive RPG that takes forever to finish, which is similarly ridiculous because the game takes 30 hours maximum to do absolutely everything in it.  I feel like this mag really struggled with the switch to the new generation of console hardware (and probably the buyout from Ziff David), and lost a lot of what made it special up through 1995.

 

On the other hand, GameFan really just got better and better year after year, and they really shined in '96, making the transition from 16-bit to 32-bit gaming perfectly.  They had a similar review format as EGM and, like the old EGM review crew, were able to fit excellent critiques in a space not much larger than six or so postage stamps.  I always look forward to reading a new issue of GameFan.

 

---

 

1997 is up next, and there are some changes coming.  I completely lose interest with EGM after this, so I'll just be reading this mag up to its 100th issue toward the end of '97.  I'll be doing the same for Nintendo Power, which I find less and less interesting and has its 100th issue late in '97, too.  Finally, I'll be "subscribing" to a new mag this year: PSM.  I have fond memories of that one from back in the day, so it'll be interesting to see how it holds up.

EGN was great up through like 2002. they had some great articles on arcades during one of the Dreamcast issues (green cover with Sonic on it.) always loved reading their reviews. fan mail was always fun to read too

[newtmonkey]

They were pretty quick reads, so I blasted through the '97 and '98 issues of the mags I've been reading.

 

Things get pretty cringeworthy around this time with every other page trying to convince you to buy some garbage game by showing you some tits with some "sexy" ad copy (usually along the lines of "want to get your hands on these?" or "coming out soon"), or just throwing a random lady in a bikini on the page (the bizarre ads for Shogo).

 

I ended up very disappointed with PSM, which I actually have fond memories of.  Their reviews are simply awful and they come off as a bunch of drooling idiots bedazzled with polygonal graphics and lighting effects.  Master of Monsters apparently deserves the brutal review, but not because "lol it looks like a 16-bit game!!!!" but because it's a buggy unbalanced piece of shit according to reviews written by people that actually played it.

 

I completely lost interest in PC gaming back in the late 90s, and now I remember why.  Imagine flipping through a nearly 400-page issue of CGW or PC Gamer, and every single game is a yet another real-time strategy game or flight sim.  Even if you absolutely love those genres, surely you would not get excited over the fourth Command & Conquer clone released that month.  As a fan of RPGs, this was an especially awful couple of years, and things didn't really start to get better (though only briefly!) until the release of Fallout, Might & Magic VI, and Baldur's Gate toward the end of the decade.  CGW straight up dropped Scorpia's columns, because there was simply nothing for her to review or cover.
 

Even my beloved GameFan began to suffer.  Sure, the page layouts and screenshots are still great, but some of the new editors are extremely annoying.  The magazine completely lost its unique "personality" once Dave Halverson, "Nick Rox" (btw don't look up what this guy has been up to lately, unless you want to be disgusted and disappointed), and "Takuhi" left.

 

Anyway, GameFan is still not bad, so I'll keep reading it through the final issue.

Edited September 4 by newtmonkey

[dudeguy]

On 9/4/2024 at 4:24 AM, newtmonkey said:

They were pretty quick reads, so I blasted through the '97 and '98 issues of the mags I've been reading.

 

Things get pretty cringeworthy around this time with every other page trying to convince you to buy some garbage game by showing you some tits with some "sexy" ad copy (usually along the lines of "want to get your hands on these?" or "coming out soon"), or just throwing a random lady in a bikini on the page (the bizarre ads for Shogo).

 

I ended up very disappointed with PSM, which I actually have fond memories of.  Their reviews are simply awful and they come off as a bunch of drooling idiots bedazzled with polygonal graphics and lighting effects.  Master of Monsters apparently deserves the brutal review, but not because "lol it looks like a 16-bit game!!!!" but because it's a buggy unbalanced piece of shit according to reviews written by people that actually played it.

 

I completely lost interest in PC gaming back in the late 90s, and now I remember why.  Imagine flipping through a nearly 400-page issue of CGW or PC Gamer, and every single game is a yet another real-time strategy game or flight sim.  Even if you absolutely love those genres, surely you would not get excited over the fourth Command & Conquer clone released that month.  As a fan of RPGs, this was an especially awful couple of years, and things didn't really start to get better (though only briefly!) until the release of Fallout, Might & Magic VI, and Baldur's Gate toward the end of the decade.  CGW straight up dropped Scorpia's columns, because there was simply nothing for her to review or cover.
 

Even my beloved GameFan began to suffer.  Sure, the page layouts and screenshots are still great, but some of the new editors are extremely annoying.  The magazine completely lost its unique "personality" once Dave Halverson, "Nick Rox" (btw don't look up what this guy has been up to lately, unless you want to be disgusted and disappointed), and "Takuhi" left.

 

Anyway, GameFan is still not bad, so I'll keep reading it through the final issue.

yeah the ads using literal naked women to sell games were retarded. its like, im buying the game to play it, not f*** it.

 

always liked Nintendo Power for this reason. as they catered toward children, there weren't any stupid ads. it was just about the games

[HatefulGravey]

I was never allowed to subscribe to any video game magazines, but from time to time I would get mom to buy me one. I would just get the one that had reviews or information on the games I was most interested in at the time. I do recall loving Tips and Tricks. I was the kid that knew the cheat codes for every game on the market. 

[newtmonkey]

Having read through all the mags I intend to read, I thought it would be fun to comment on which magazines I'll keep in my virtual library.

 

EGM/EGM2 (up through Issue 100 [1997])

  You gotta love EGM.  Having grown up with this mag, it really encapsulates US console gaming in the 80s and 90s.  It's a great skim-through even today, thanks to the excellent page layouts and lots of import coverage.  I think the peak of this mag was from late '91 until the end of '94, and the massive holiday issues were legendary.

  My only real complaint is that they really did not appreciate anything other than side scrollers and shooters.  Their reviews of RPGs and strategy titles are mostly worthless, because most of their reviewers simply did not get these kinds of games.  A review that says, "This strategy game needs more action" is completely worthless.

  I definitely lose interest in the mag somewhere in '97, as I don't think the mag handled the 16-bit to 32-bit transition very well.

 

Game Player's

  The console/computer mag is a nostalgic favorite of mine and I will also enjoy flipping through them.  However, I must admit that the reviews can be pretty poor (the review of Phantasy Star II, which simply summarizes the story for multiple paragraphs and then ends with a "Sega has made some great RPGs before and this another one," sounds like something a kid who forgot to do his homework would write on the bus to school).

  However, their PC-dedicated mag (PC Entertainment), is simply awesome.  It's written well by people who know games, and imo is the best PC games mag of the early 90s.  Most of the staff would go on to work at PC Gamer, which was similarly excellent for its first few years.

 

GameFan (up until Dave Halverson left in 1998)

  This mag is worth hanging on to simply for the awesome page layouts.  Having said that, the mag also has a lot of personality, and is a fun read cover to cover.  I love how they would champion some random game other mags barely even mentioned, like Hermie Hopperhead, Wonderdog, or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.

  They weren't perfect though, and while their reviews were often pretty entertaining, they tended to score even garbage games way too highly.

 

Nintendo Power (up through Issue 100 [1997])

  Another great looking mag that's still a joy to flip through today.  I absolutely love this mag from its first issue in '88 to mid '92, but I feel that it declines with each year after that (though it never gets bad).  I especially like how the covers during the first few years would have custom art, sometimes even a custom model or toy photographed for whatever the cover game was (such as the Maniac Mansion model in '90).

  The reviews are completely worthless, but even back in the day it was not a magazine you read for criticism but just to get the latest information straight from the source.

  I always skip stuff like comics in magazines, but I actually like Howard & Nester (thought definitely not Nester's Adventures, which sucks), and the tag team of the Zelda comic (nice adventure story) and the Mario comic (wonderful art) was great.

Edited September 6 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Even having read all these mags, I still revisit them from time to time, just to flip through them, enjoy the layout, look at the screenshots, takes notes on games I might want to play, and reread articles that strike my fancy.

 

With that in mind, here's my #1 favorite magazine to review/reread:

 

Nintendo Power

     Nothing beats this mag from Issue 1 in 1988 to around mid 1992.  The layout of each issue is awesome, and really draws you into the games being covered.  Even if you don't care about an extensive walkthrough of, say, Super C, it's still a ton of fun looking over the maps and strategies.  The custom artwork commissioned for each article really gives the mag a unique feel.

     I must mention how awesome the magazine was during the first few years with Howard Phillips on board, as mostly every game the mag covered was an undeniable classic.  He was a real advocate for gamers.  I mean, how exciting and diverse was the NES lineup was before it devolved into a bunch of licensed games, with highly experimental games like Top Secret Episode: Golgo 13, Faxanadu, and Strider?

     The mag also did its best to champion awesome RPGs like Dragon Warrior II and Final Fantasy, though the NES audience was sadly mostly not interested.  The quality of the games covered dropped rapidly once Howard Phillips left the company, sadly.  I mean, look at the the issue bidding farewell to Phillips (June 1991).  You have extensive coverage of garbage like Day Dreamin' Davey (this would never have been allowed in the pages on NP under Phillips' watch), and a full 35 out of 107 pages devoted to selling you Battletoads!  Don't get me wrong, that's a fine game, but it's page after page of maps and awful comics, trying to convince kids that this is the next TMNT.

     Even though the mag started to increasingly cover some really awful games from then on, it's still a fun read until imo mid '92.  Crack open any of these issues, and you'll have a blast.

Edited September 21 by newtmonkey

[Tanooki]

@newtmonkey An interesting take, and to a point I do agree with the Howard the game master era, but I think you're selling the 90s magazine short some, more so the 91-96 era and it did wane from there more throughout the n64 into the cube/gba period.  The coverage was quite good, yet maybe a sign of 3D games and immense space to pressures, but the N64/GBC era just never covered stuff like the NES/GB/SNES era of time of the early into mid 90s did as they still kept up the standards with solid partial/near-to full guides, the great per issue comics from the 90s hits, the later manga after manga cards and other resources for the dawn of Pokemon the bar was still there, even if it did tarnish into 96 and beyond.  It hit a pretty steady good but not pure awesome point into the 00s but once the GBA was on the way out the magazine just wasn't the same.  By then they got nerd and loser rage from online cowtowing them into being more generic, a me-too magazine with the bland setup and trying to look overly tight while competing with 0day internet fluff style of print which was a shame.  It could have been a period with more interviews, artwork, comics, special guides, and other crap they had done and abandoned, but they doubled down trying to look like Game misInformer, EGDE etc instead which did them no favors to where so many bailed the utter losers of FutureOne took it over to collectively shit all over the brand and subscribers who had been with the brand for years and from there it was done, even if it went another 100~ issues it was done, a zombie with a name on it.

[newtmonkey]

@Tanooki

Good points all around, especially about how all the magazines increasingly started to look the same.  During this little project of mine going through all these mags, it was pretty disappointing to see all of the character and uniqueness of each mag get slowly wiped away to the point in the late 90s where basically every mag has the same loud, hyperactive layout.

[Tanooki]

@newtmonkey Agreed, I hit thanks, but was conflicted wishing I could click sad too because both are true.  Nintendo held out the longest but even they gave in as the 21st century hit and it killed them.  The internet was no help, but the unofficial NP magazine runs we got like twice since the era showed the format could have worked both at print and digital, minimally as digital had Nintendo put the effort forward.  THe fact the homage magazines went back to the late 80s into mid90s style of special tech articles, multi-page interviews, developer journals, partial guides of sorts on games, the 1-2 tips/codes sections showed people did desire THIS TYPE OF MAGAZINE not the homogenous bullshit we got shoveled in the 00s and 10s that killed all of them off rightly so.

 

I've got a LOT of NP magazines I've almost entirely scooped up in bulk cheap buys making them even liek $2-4/ea in price (including the first few years entirely in this value issue 1 included) over the last 5-7 years.  I rarely look at them, but when I do, it's like I said, reviewing so much and down to the mini to full guides done in a way you can feel like you're teleported into the action and just enjoying the ride on the small.  It's a true loss, and a shame it's not happening anymore because how the web handles it now (youtube excluded) SUCKS balls.  Lame paragraphs with e generic image or a map of the area, a fluffed gamefaq, or it IS a gamefaq with just a mountainous  wall of text which at times is barely helpful if not leaning into confusing based on writing skills of the author.  It's why I still will buy a cheaply (And to me fairly) priced NP magazine issue or a 1st and some 3rd party strategy guides as the layouts, the boxes of text by each image, full maps, they're just a lost art.