R.I.P. Nintendo Gamer

How's the Miyamoto interview? Might pick that up when I run out of comicbooks to read at breakfast.

It's good, one or two of the questions have probably been answered a thousand times by now but it's an interesting read anyway. There are even some [laughs]. Would recommend reading.

It’s sheer chance that I replied to gjones’s N64 Magazine chat the other day, as it lead me to reminisce about the old Nintendo magazines and be reminded that the first issue of Nintendo Gamer launched ten years ago this week.



https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/brand-new-nintendo-gamer-magazine-way/

That’s an overly weepy opening post that I typed in 2013, but it was a really good magazine while it lasted. There’s no chance something like Nintendo Gamer would have survived those starving days between mid-2015 and the release of the Switch, but all the same there’s a sense that it was a magazine that never got to realise it’s potential.

I'll need to go back and re-read them.

Nintendo Gamer felt like such a cool, quality product.
I will say, the Matt Castle/ Joe Skrebels/ Gav Murphy/ Kate Grey era of the official mag felt like a little like the Nintendo Gamer that never was.

Imagine the world where we had that Mag during 2017 and that amazing first year of Switch . . .

It’s been a good few years since I’ve looked at a Nintendo Gamer, but what I remember most about it was the high standard of the writing. I dropped off of reading the work of all four of those writers you’ve mentioned though. After Nintendo Gamer ended in late 2012 and after the website went offline in early 2013, I didn’t really follow any Nintendo journalism anymore. I kind of went through the motions with buying ONM until that ended too, I don’t have any strong memories of that magazine either way, I just wasn’t into it.

In a time where the official PlayStation and Xbox magazines still continue and when even EDGE and Retro Gamer still find their audience, surely a return of a Nintendo magazine has been discussed somewhere, sometime?

Considering the Switch is so successful, it's barmy that we have an Xbox mag going but no Nintendo one. I know Castle has explicitly stated he would like to do a Nintendo one in this era, perhaps something a Patreon could support. Do we know if it was Future or Nintendo's decision to close the official magazine?

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I kind of went through the motions with buying ONM until that ended too, I don’t have any strong memories of that magazine either way, I just wasn’t into it.

That's a shame as it was technically kind of life-changing for me - the podcast is what got me into podcasts in general, and also the way I befriended Skrebs.

Quote :

In a time where the official PlayStation and Xbox magazines still continue and when even EDGE and Retro Gamer still find their audience, surely a return of a Nintendo magazine has been discussed somewhere, sometime?

I feel like they're only around because they're still around, if you know what I mean? If the Playstation or Xbox mags had closed, I don't think they'd have been restarted - they've just been chugging along.

gjones wrote:

Considering the Switch is so successful, it's barmy that we have an Xbox mag going but no Nintendo one. I know Castle has explicitly stated he would like to do a Nintendo one in this era, perhaps something a Patreon could support. Do we know if it was Future or Nintendo's decision to close the official magazine?

I’m guessing it was Future Publishing’s decision. I remember the decision to end the Nintendo Gamer came when Future was building up their digital presence and portfolio while cutting staff. I’m sure this wasn’t the only magazine they shut down. That decision was no doubt helped by Nintendo Gamer’s small circulation, which seemed to dwindle year by year. I’m vaguely recall that sales figures were discussed on an ex-writers blog several years later (maybe Martin Kitts?) – they supposedly weren’t good at all. ONM surely went in exactly the same direction.

Buskalilly wrote:

That's a shame as it was technically kind of life-changing for me - the podcast is what got me into podcasts in general, and also the way I befriended Skrebs.

I didn’t even know there was an ONM podcast! That’s pretty cool that ONM had such an impact on you though. I’m sure these British games magazines influenced a lot of people personally and professionally too. I’m sure that was a topic on the NGamer Forums long ago – there was a consensus that N64 Magazine and the likes really shaped a lot of forumite’s writing style and sense of humour.

I use "Natch" all the time and forget its not just standard, well-known slang.

Buskalilly wrote:

I use "Natch" all the time and forget its not just standard, well-known slang.

Same! I like how the Backpage Podcast has allowed Matthew's "Castle-isms" to become a thing. Definitely has big NGamer energy.

'Move over "natch", here comes big NGamer energy!'

But yes, N64 massively shaped my prose and sense of humour. Even though I didn't understand a lot of the first few issues. Incidentally I picked up a few issues of CVG at around the same time and definitely didn't understand a lot of that, aged seven. I don't think my parents knew quite how 'lad's mag' the humour in that was.

"Big NGamer Energy" is like Uncharted with Natch!

I really miss Mark Green's: colon-related disappointing sentence gags.