Last NES game reviewed in Nintendo Power

[loud]

Long story short, in a trek through the Googles looking for something else, I discovered your site. Very cool, but I was also shocked, because I had no idea Nintendo Power just went out of print. That got me rather nostalgic, as I had been a subscriber since issue 5.

Anyway, I was trying to remember which NES game was the last one to have a review in Nintendo Power. I know it was during the days when NES titles were red, Game Boy's were dark blue/purple, and SNES was a teal/green. I knew this bit of trivia at some point, but it was nearly 20 years ago.

When I make it back to my parents' place sometime, I'll have to see if I can dig those old magazines up...

[Schloss Ritter]

The last one to get a full multiple-page review was probably Startropics 2, one of the last official releases for the system.

[TheRedEye]

That would be Wario's Woods in the December, 1994 issue.

[loud]

Wario's Woods was indeed the last official NES game ever released (and the only NES game to receive an ESRB rating), but Nintendo Power had already ceased reviewing NES games prior to its release. I got that info from the Wikipedia page for Wario's Woods. Zoda's Revenge is around the correct time period (March 1994), but that still doesn't sound right. I can't download the entire archive in one swath, and don't have access to my old physical copies, so I can't figure this out until I look at them.

[TheRedEye]

...no, really, it's in the December 1994 issue. There's a four page spread, and then a proper "Power Meter" score in the back of the magazine.

[loud]

I could have made that clearer. Wario's Woods came out for both NES and SNES and the article you're referring to only covers the SNES version. They had ceased all coverage of NES games earlier that year.

[TheRedEye]

No. Seriously, I don't know why this is so hard to believe, but I have the magazine right here in front of me. It's a four-page spread and review of the NES (not SNES) version of Wario's Woods.

[loud]

It's not that I didn't believe you. When I was trying to find this info, the Wikipedia article on the game explicitly said NP only reviewed the SNES version, and it also says March of 1994 was when they ceased covering NES games. No need to get indignant. I'm not at my computer at the moment, and I'm a "newbie" so I can only download one issue per day, or I'd figure it out myself. Your information doesn't fit with the information I found or my memory, that's all.

I'm perfectly willing to accept that I'm misremembering something, but I distinctly remember reading the announcement in NP that they were no longer covering NES games (or at least not covering games that were exclusive to NES). It was not because they were no longer making them (and Wario's Woods was the last game for NES), but because there were so few being made and they wanted the room for SNES games. Forgive me for being skeptical that the magazine featured the NES version of the game over the SNES version smack in the middle of the SNES era.

[loud]

It appears NP did come back and review at least one other NES game after announcing they were no longer reviewing NES games. Now that I'm able to download the issue in question, I see that this issue went out after my subscription lapsed earlier in that year. I do remember the writers saying they were ceasing coverage of NES games, though, so obviously they went back on that and did the review of Wario's Woods. Strange still that they would cover the NES version rather than the SNES version, but I guess it was the last NES game to be released.

Anyway, I hope there are no hard feelings. Wasn't trying to be argumentative, it just appears my question was faulty because I was missing information. Mea culpa.

[E-Day]

Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source of information. Always check here first. We tend to know more about that stuff than Wikipedia

[loud]

Yeah, Wikipedia tends to be less reliable with more obscure information. Harder to cite a source for something like this, and I should have checked that citation on the first pass. It actually has a surprisingly big article for Wario's Woods, but the citation for that bit of info wasn't the actual Nintendo Power magazine, but rather another video game review website that cited the NES review for a review of the SNES game. Based on that info, all they should have said was that Nintendo Power gave the game such and such rating, and not expounded on how Nintendo Power never reviewed the NES version of the game and ceased all coverage of NES games in March 1994 (which is just as incorrect). I've since posted about correcting the info on the talk page, haha.

Additionally, I originally thought Beauty and the Beast was the game I was thinking of, but I also found info on the net that said it was never released. That screwed things up too, because it *was* the game I was trying to think of, as NP did review it, even though it only came out in Europe. After that review, there were 2 months before and 3 months after in which NP reviewed no NES games. Also, Gail Tilden responded to reader concerns that the NES wasn't getting equal coverage, but did NOT explicitly say they were ending coverage. Then there was Wario's Woods, and that was it. When I was posting, I didn't have a chance to look them up myself, and was going on some mixed up information.

Anyway, got it all figured it out now. Going through a lot of these old issues is a trip