A Note on Nintendo Power

NP is Nintendo's official gaming magazine, and I have had a subscription for some time now.
I thought I would talk about it for a bit, sort of like a review.

The mag starts out with Pulse, and a message from Chris Slate. Chris S. is the editor in chief, coming from Future US which recently "took over" Nintendo Power. Then come the letters from fans, which sometime contain pictures of wacky Nintendo-related, home-made food items, to questions, to spelling error corrections, etc. I've been in Pulse two or three times.
Whoever answers the questions does a really good job at making them humorous, and this is always a fun section to read (usually three pages long).
Then NP gives you the latest on Wii and DS news, followed by the "Game Watch forecast", similar to our Upcoming games web-page, but lists all known games in production, not just the ones that they find interesting as we do here. Amidst this list is what they call "Bits of Tid", which are.... Tidbits. Heh.
Then they keep us updated on Wii Channels and Virtual Console games, showing which ones they prefer and a brief explanation.
Then come previews.
After these come the main articles, cover-stories, etc.
Then come contests, which you usually just write in for a drawing.
The next section is called a "Power Profile", consisting of a brief history of a game developer, music writer, etc. along with a interview with the person.
Another fun section - Playback. This is where they take a page to talk about old, retro games - most of the time making fun of them, very enjoyable to read.
After that are the reviews, which I usually find logical and fair in their ratings.
"Writers block" is a small strip where the NP writers respond to a question.
Then comes the archive of reviews, small lines telling which games got what score, who made the game, the ESRB, etc.
Lastly is the Community section, where they show off fan's handiwork and what they call a "screen test". This is where the show a screen shot, and fans write in with a funny caption - then the print their favorites in the next month's mag.
After that is just a preview of the next month's issue.

And all this for only $20 (US) is a great deal. Sometimes they even throw in deals like "renew now and get a free Wii Remote key-chain". The best offer I ever got was a renewal (12 mo.), Twilight Princess guide and soundtrack. For only $20! The guide would have cost $15 just to buy. I don't know if they still do deals like that (I haven't seen one in a while), but I still recommend subscribing to the magazine.