kitsunebi

Scanned by the Great and Wonderful J of Oz
If you don't love at least a couple of the games in this mag, we grew up playing very different games from one another.  The first feature article is about point-and-click adventures for crying out loud.  I still have a flaming Max-head cap to this day...
And would you believe I bought this mag right here in Japan?

220 pgs total: 188 pgs + 32 pg supplement
Included with this issue is a supplement covering the top 50 best-selling games each for the PS1, PS2, and PS3. 
What's the best-selling game out of all 3 systems?  Hint: it's not Final Fantasy VII (that one's not even in the top 5...)

As it says, this is a Star Trek special, so about 2/3 of it relates to that franchise, while the other 1/3 hits upon other genre TV/movies like Buffy, Andromeda, and Farscape.

236 pgs including a 32 page "PlayStation Hardware Catalog" supplement featuring every variation of PlayStation console hardware ever produced in Japan prior to the PS4 (good lord, so many PSPs....)

Not all games that get front-cover treatment can be winners.

The mag itself is 262 pages, and there's a 44 page PS4 supplement included for a grand total of 306 pages.

*kitsunebi edition!*
This is an all-new scan and upgrade to the other scan of this issue available here.  The following information is provided for the benefit of anyone unsure of which version they should download, or whether they want to replace their copy if they already downloaded the older scan.
Improvements include:
pages are saved at 3212 px height (around 300dpi) vs. the other scan's 2200 px (around 205 dpi) whiter whites brighter colors debound with heat gun to ensure full edge to edge scan (the other version has the gutter side of every page cropped off) images spread across facing pages are joined as seamlessly as possible more complete cover (due to a foldout ad on inside cover, part of the front cover image is actually printed on page 5 (if the pages of the foldout are counted separately).  This strip of image appears joined with the cover when the mag is closed.  This strip from page 3 has been edited together with the front cover to seamlessly show the full cover as a single image)  *see below for image comparison the aforementioned foldout ad is shown in its entirety.  This ad was designed so that, after opening the cover, you would see two facing pages.  Next, you would unfold the left page, which would display two new pages that would then seamlessly become a single 3-page image along with the original right-side page.  Thus, the right-side page would essentially be seen twice - facing the original left side page, and also as part of the three-page join once the left-side page was unfolded.  Both versions are included here for the first time to simulate the intended effect of the original ad. (One of the advantages of using a CBR reader is that this will cause no problems regardless of whether you are using single or two-page viewing mode.  If you are using a PDF reader (such as Sumatra) to read your CBR files the facing pages may not display correctly.  I strongly urge anyone still using a PDF reader to read CBRs to upgrade to a CBR reader like CDisplayEX or the alternative of your choice.) subscription cards included Comparison screenshots:
cover/extended cover
 
2-page joins - note the missing part of the image in the center of the older scan:


In addition to general white/color differences, the cropping on the gutter side of the older scan is apparent even on pages that don't connect with facing pages. As you can see, the right of this page is cropped off in the older scan.  Viewing the older scan in two-page mode feels more cramped due to the lack of this gutter-side space:
   
 

236 pgs
Supplement included
This is (I believe) the most recent of any mag I've ever owned.  It goes without saying that I've never played any of the games within.  For some people, this mag is 10 years old.  For me, it's 20 years too new.

"kitsunebi edition" is a label reserved for scans I release which are superior in some way to scans already available here, but in essence, ALL of my scans are "kitsunebi editions," since I always do my best to make my scans look as good as I can.  That doesn't mean that all scans require the same amount of effort, of course.  A mag in good shape printed on quality paper will be a much faster edit than a damaged mag printed on cheap, yellowed paper stock.  And paper stock doesn't come much cheaper than these early Game Player's titles.  So this certainly took as much time and effort to edit as any other "kitsunebi edition."
But it's not really the aged paper that makes editing these such a hassle, it's the primitive and poorly reproduced screenshots throughout.  This mag is from the era where magazine screenshots were made by pointing a camera at a TV/monitor, and without a carefully controlled environment, every single photo seems to have a different hue and brightness caused by the varying lighting conditions under which it was taken.  This often necessitates editing each screenshot on a page separately, since, for example, something meant to be white is yellow in one screenshot, light blue in another, and a dull grey in a third.
The end result isn't going to fool anyone into thinking this is a high budget mag from the 90s, but it's still the best this issue has ever looked.

Scan Updated March 22, 2025   The demo disc included with this issue can be downloaded HERE

268 pgs
Fun fact: Although I scanned and edited this file in 2020 (couldn't upload it here due to the cutoff date), this was actually the very first magazine I ever (test) scanned with my first ADF scanner, way back in 2016.
Debinding mags is a step that deters MANY a potential scanner.  People just have a hard time wrapping their brains around the concept that "to preserve you must destroy."  I eased my way in by debinding THIS mag to break in my (then) brand new ADF scanner, since I had two copies of it, so destroying one still left me with one intact.  I didn't scan the entire issue at the time, just the first 10 pages or so, and I later scanned the entire thing from scratch, which is what you'll get if you download this file.  But this mag popped my debinding cherry.  
Now, of course, I'll debind anything that moves without batting an eye LOL.  And that extra copy I had of this issue?  Yeah, once this scan was complete, I just tossed that extra mag into the recycling as well.  Who needs it?  Isn't that the whole point of making a scan?
What I'm saying is, becoming a scanner will change you.
     

This mag was ravaged by time, scanned by J of Oz, and edited with excruciatingly time-consuming exactitude by moi.
   

I don't know much about Minecraft other than that it seems to function as the Oregon Trail of the current generation of kids in Japan (i.e. it's the most entertaining game you're allowed to play at school - granted we only got to see if we could avoid getting dysentery back in the day on the rare occasions when we had a class in the computer lab, while kids today get to whip out their school-provided tablets and play Education Edition Minecraft whenever they've got a free minute between classes.)
But it must be a pretty decent game if kids are still playing it all these years later.  This issue, from 2015, previews a Minecraft clone...but it's Dragon Quest themed.  And yet here we are 10 years later, and the kids are still playing Minecraft, while Dragon Quest Builders is all but forgotten.  If a Dragon Quest Minecraft clone can't compete with the original in Japan, you know it's got something.

268 pgs
A rare case of a Western game making the cover of Famitsu.  Minecraft, Witcher 3, and GTA V even crack the top 30 sales that week.  That's 10 percent!!  Western games on the rise?

285 pgs
I've always wondered just what type of game Senran Kagura is.  So I looked it up on Wikipedia, but after reading the entire description and not seeing the word "boobs" even once, I realized that the Wikipedia page must have been talking about some other game.

298 pgs
I'll be honest, I've never played any games made after 2008 or so.  So I can't offer any anecdotes about anything in this mag, and there would be no point in trying to look up info on any of the games in it since most people visiting this site probably already know whatever I could turn up.
So I thought about talking about the Jpop group given a 4 page feature, Country Girls, but...sigh...I hate Jpop. Here's the single they were promoting this issue. Maybe you share my opinion or maybe you think this tune slaps 🤨:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1tj7Q1UxXY
 
So instead I'll talk about Yuusha Yoshihiko (The Hero Yoshihiko), a 3 season TV series from 2011-2016.  It has nothing to do with this issue, but you may find it interesting, nonetheless.  It's a parody of JRPGs, Dragon Quest in particular, and they even got approval from Square Enix to utilize a lot of Dragon Quest monsters and the like.  Of course, the show proudly proclaims its "no budget" status, so the monsters are mostly paper mache and guys in leotards and masks (they rarely show up for more than cameo appearances, anyway).
I haven't finished watching the whole series, but so far the second season is not as good as the first.  The whole thing is ostensibly terrible, of course, but it's silly enough to have made me LOL several times.  Fair warning: it can be very politically incorrect sometimes.
The good news is, you can watch the entire thing subtitled in English on the Internet Archive HERE.  
If anyone gives it a watch, I'd like to hear your take on it.
 

This is the original printing with a square-bound white cover.  It appears to have been reprinted several times, each with differences to the cover and/or title.
Variations include:
red spiral-bound cover with the same "Nintendo Strategies" title. red squarebound cover under the title "Strategies for Nintendo Games" yellow spiral-bound cover under the title "Strategies for Nintendo Games" So far as I know, the contents of all 4 editions are identical.

So here's a fun PS3/PS4 game.  Take photos of girls in compromising positions - up skirts and down shirts. If the girls aren't posing in a way convenient for your photos?  No problem - just do a slide or lay down on the ground and you'll have those panty shots in no time.  OH NOES!  HERE COMES THE PERVERT POLICE!!  Run away to be a sexual predator another day!  Wheee!!!
Did you all know that there's an actual law in Japan that makes it illegal to sell any camera (including those on mobile devices) that doesn't make a loud "click" shutter noise when a photo is taken?  This noise cannot be disabled, and finding a workaround is illegal.  That's because of shit like this game happening in real life.  But I guess you aren't allowed to murder people in real life, either, and we've got thousands of games where that's the goal, so...yay, lets take photos of underage high school girls' panties without their consent. 🙄

*kitsunebi edition*
There was already a very good scan of this issue made available here, but this is my all new scan and edit.  I think it offers some improvements, but encourage you to give it a look and decide for yourself.
Some differences include:
slightly whiter pages more complete scan of each page from edge to edge (the older scan was presumably debound with a guillotine cutter, while this was debound with a heat gun, ensuring the entire page could be scanned) more seamless joins of images that spread across facing pages inclusion of an alternate 3-page spread of the opening fold-out ad. This ad was designed so that, after opening the cover, you would see two facing pages.  Next, you would unfold the left page, which would display two new pages that would then seamlessly become a single 3-page image along with the original right-side page.  Thus, the right-side page would essentially be seen twice - facing the original left side page, and also as part of the three-page join once the left-side page was unfolded.  Both versions are included here for the first time to simulate the intended effect of the original ad. (One of the advantages of using a CBR reader is that this will cause no problems regardless of whether you are using single or two-page viewing mode.  If you are using a PDF reader (such as Sumatra) to read your CBR files...WHY?!  Seriously, you're using the wrong type of program LOL.  As such, the intended order of facing pages may not display correctly, but what did you expect - this isn't a PDF. 😜) inclusion of scans of subscription cards inclusion of scans of included demo CD sleeve and disc (and I've uploaded the ISO of said disc HERE.) Here are a couple of comparisons showing how two-page joins in this scan are more complete.  You can see how the older version is missing information near the center of the join:


This is just a regular page to show the slight difference in overall page coloration:

Mags debound and shipped across the sea by yours truly, and scanned by J of Oz.
This title remains a total b!%ch and a half to edit.  I can only get through about 10 pages per hour - it's a nightmare.
Luckily for the world, the resulting edited files mean that no one will ever be forced to look at brown-haloed copies of these mags ever again.  Digital preservation ftw.
  

246 pgs.
Another edit finished, another magazine tossed into the recycling bin.  And yet the pile of mags waiting to be scanned never gets any smaller.  Indeed, just when you think you're making progress clearing out the mags cluttering your home by the box-load, you "accidentally" buy some more.  In your head, you know what you're doing is abhorrently wrong, but just like this duck, your body has a mind of its own and your finger clicks the "buy it now" button before your brain has a chance to stop it.  You hang your head in shame.  This is the scanner's own private hell.

I uploaded the included CD-ROM HERE

So it seems the editors of Famitsu thought that people would like to see Persona 5 on the cover.  I mean, sure - on a NORMAL day, that might be the case.  But how they decided to go with Persona 5 when they had this in the same issue, will forever be a mystery:

This is Tsuri Bit.  Which means "fishing bit."  Note the fishing rods?  Wikipedia tells me that this jpop idol group formed out of a desire to sing, dance...and fish.
Their concept:
You can't even make this stuff up.
Based on views, this seems to be their biggest hit, from around the time this magazine came out (the song's title is "I'm going to dance, fish" presumably meaning "I'm going to dance and fish," or maybe "I'm going to dance, then fish" and not someone addressing a fish and telling it that they're going to dance.  Though I suppose it could be that...)
 

I had a certain song playing through my head while flipping through this mag, looking for my random "about this file" comment.  The version on Youtube is from an older version of the 5th grade elementary school English textbooks, and has been updated for the newer ones with new music and lyrics (same refrain and melody, though), but the newer version isn't on Youtube, so far as I know.  But it's ironic? fitting? that the song (Yokoso! Welcome to Japan) was stuck in my head when I came across a page featuring this toy:
 

A twin-barrel battleship gun emplacement...that couldn't be more Japanese if it tried.  I think foreigners who have never been to Japan watch some anime or some wacky Japanese commercials or whatever and think that Japan must be some zany place fully of quirky people doing quirky things like they saw once on a game show or in a video of an idol concert in Akihabara or something.  But it's actually a really quiet, ordinary place.
Except for the cuteness.  Everywhere you look, CUTE CUTE CUTE.  The kawaii aesthetic is everywhere.  Please observe exhibit A, a collection of roadside construction barriers.

So why not make cute anthropomorphic guns?  If you absolutely positively HAD to be shot out of the sky, wouldn't you prefer it be by something adorable?