Nintendo Power

In November of 1998, Ocarina of Time finally hit shelves after several years of hype. For almost the entire years of 1997 and 1998, Ocarina of Time was being promoted time and time again with new screenshots, information, and interviews. When the game finally came out it was featured in several issues of Nintendo Power in late 1998 and this continued into early 1999. The February 1999 issue of Nintendo Power had yet another guide feature, this time focusing on the Mask and Trading Sequences.

Ocarina of Time coverage continued throughout the year with numerous appearances in the Counselor’s Corner, the Classified Information section, as well as a near clean sweep in the Nintendo Power 1998 Awards. However, there there was still plenty of news from other Zelda games throughout the year. In the January 1999 issue, Link’s Awakening was featured and the game also saw multiple appearances in the Counselor’s Corner. Heck even A Link to the Past, seven years after its initial release got two questions of its own answered in the Counselor’s Corner.

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The December 2011 issue of Nintendo Power has hit subscribers this week and it contains several Zelda goodies. In addition to the Nintendo Power Skyward Sword review, the magazine also had a two page interview with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma. Within the interview, Aonuma talks about the controls of Skyward Sword, the development, some storyline aspects, some of the strange characters, the items, and even some mentions of Zelda Wii U. I’ve take the time to type up the two page interview in text format and you can see it in its entirety after the jump.

Unfortunately the subscriber version features Resident Evil: Revelations on the cover, while the magazine on store shelves is of the image you see to the left. There are several other Zelda goodies this month in Nintendo Power, so I’d highly suggest picking it up on store shelves or subscribing. The official Nintendo Power website is currently offering 12 issues for just $19.99. A great deal and even a great Christmas present! Make the jump to check out the interview.

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Remember the Legend of Zelda Comic Book that came out in the early 90s? It was released in monthly installments as part of Nintendo Power magazine and it ran for 12 issues. Looking back at it now… there seems to be something that remarkably resembles Skyward Sword. It seems even in the early 90s, Nintendo was thinking about using a giant bird, capable of carrying humans, as a part of the storyline. Without rambling about what is in this single comic book page, why don’t you make the jump to find out for yourself. Be warned, your mind will be blown.

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In Nintendo Power’s November issue, they celebrated the GameCube’s tenth anniversary by creating a list of the console’s top 25 games. All three Legend of Zelda games released for the GameCube made the list. The Wind Waker came in second, Twilight Princess came in third, and Four Swords Adventure came in twenty-second. It’s hard to believe that the Gamecube came out ten years ago, especially when many of the games on the list are still talked about and played today. It helps that the Wii provides backwards compatibility so even if fans don’t own a Gamecube, they can still play the games. Along with all the Zelda titles, many other great games made the list. Make sure to check out all 25 after the jump.

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The latest issue of Nintendo Power is in and includes a preview of Skyward Sword. With this preview we get a handful of extra details that are mostly centered around Faron Woods and the Water Dragon, Faron. These details don’t reveal anything really big, but they do elaborate on a few things and give some nice tidbits. Read on to see what’s new!

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The newest issue of Nintendo Power is set to hit store shelves on October 4th, but scans are already starting to appear online. Our resident forum member, Vibed has posted a few scans and there is a lot of goodies to be heard. In particular we learn quite a bit about the Skyloftian citizens early on in the game. I have to warn you all, these contain some spoilers, so stay away if you don’t want to hear any of the goodies. If you aren’t concerned with spoilers from the early portions of the game, jump on in to find out more.

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The September issue of Nintendo Power arrived for subscribers last week and is now on store shelves all across the country. There are a lot of little goodies to be found throughout the issue, but surprisingly almost nothing concerning the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. One of the goodies came in the Pulse section of the magazine where one of the fans asked this concerning the Zelda Timeline.

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The Zelda Publications page has been updated with all the Nintendo Power magazines from the year of 1998. The year was one of most hyped years in Zelda history. The drum of Ocarina of Time, still known as Zelda 64 at the time, was beating louder than ever. While the game repeatedly got pushed back, with each passing month of Nintendo Power magazine, slight details had emerged. As of the end of 1997, Ocarina of Time was slated for a Spring 1998 release. However, as the first issue of Nintendo Power hit in 98, the game had an updated release forecast of Summer 1998. By February of 1998, that release date quickly changed to Fall 1998. In May of 1998, the game was marked for a November 1998 release and this was the final delay in the game as it officially hit stores on November 23rd 1998 in North America.

In March of 1998, the game finally got its tentative sub-title, Ocarina of Time, and it was confirmed that it would release as a gold cartridge, much like the original Legend of Zelda did on the NES. The hype of Ocarina of Time continued in future issues of the magazine, with it spotlighting both the previews and reviews of E3 1998. Nintendo new they had something golden with Ocarina of Time as in September 1998 – Issue #112, they conveniently titled a 4-page feature, A Gem in the Works. This continued the following month in October 1998 – Issue #113, where Nintendo titled their 6-page feature History in the Making. Full coverage of the game continued in November and December, providing guides of the Child Link portions of the game and the first three Adult Link dungeons. You can find all of these goodies in the links below.

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Our Zelda Publications page has been updated with all the Zelda related Nintendo Power features found within the 1997 issues of the magazine. Ocarina of Time was still labeled as Zelda64 during this period and it was featured a number of times throughout the year. However, early in the year, it was said that the game was going to be released by the end of 1997. As time went by, that end of the year and Fall 1997 release dates got pushed back to Winter 1997. Then in the following months, that got pushed back to Spring 1998 for North America. In October of 1997, the game was still hoping for a 1997 release in Japan. Even as late as the December 1997 issue, the game was still slated for a Spring 1998 release. Obviously none of this came to fruition and while the game was delayed a number of times in 1997, the following year would prove to have just as many release delays.

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Recently, Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma sat down with Nintendo Power magazine and revelead some interesting story elements that will be in Skyward Sword. Now we have the rest of the interview in which he talks more about Skyward Sword and the possibility of making Majora’s Mask for the 3DS. Read the interview and hear my thoughts after the jump.

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How do you improve upon perfection? This is a question asked in the preview for Ocarina of Time 3D in the May 2011 issue of Nintendo Power. The magazine hit shelves on May 5th and I just received my copy in the mail a few days back. Inside of the issue we have tons of Legend of Zelda related material, starting right from the cover, where Ocarina of Time 3D is the featured cover title. There was a ton of information concerning the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and you can see it all after the jump. Additionally, Nintendo Power has continued The Greatest Moments of The Legend of Zelda series, this time looking at the Super Nintendo era, focusing particularly on the only full fledged Zelda title to release for the console, A Link to the Past. There were a few other minor Zelda references made throughout the magazine and it is all listed in this post, so be sure to jump on in to take a look at it all.

Ocarina of Time 3D is showcased in this issue of Nintendo Power, where 8 full pages are dedicated to Link’s 3D adventure. On these pages, you’ll find 25 screenshots of the game and a handful of old official art that is being reprinted for the games 3DS re-release. The 25 screenshots shown include a mixture of screens that we’ve already seen online, as well as a few brand new ones. However, all of the screen shots shown are of familiar places. You can see some of the shots in the preview scans below.

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The newest issue of Nintendo Power came in the mail late last week and it is filled with several Zelda goodies. There was updates about Ocarina of Time 3D and Skyward Sword, but the information that they posted was nothing that we haven’t heard already. In fact, most of the material was a look back at what we saw at the Game Developer’s Conference early last month. One thing worth noting is that the writers referred to the Nintendo 3DS version of Ocarina of Time as a 3d reimagining.

I mention this because with many games they refrain from using the term ‘Remake’, but instead use the term ‘Reimagining’, to signify that the game isn’t just a port with updated graphics. A recent game that used this term was Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which while it was a retelling of the same story from the original Silent Hill, the game was so drastically different that they wanted to avoid the term remake. Now with Ocarina of Time, it seems much more like a remake, or rather, a ’3d-port’ with updated graphics. Up until now we have heard nothing new in terms of what additions would be made to the game. As far as we know, it could very well be a direct port with no additional content at all, other than the graphical upgrades. Only time will tell.

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The April issue of Nintendo Power has a neat feature showing off the greatest moments from The Legend of Zelda. The spread includes screen shots from some classic scenes in the game and includes a bit of commentary on each scene explaining why that particular scene is memorable. The spread includes the hungry Goriya who won’t let you pass without first giving him some food, the cryptic Lost Woods and the ‘secret’ Moblins. Click here for the full image.

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Our Zelda Publications page has been updated with the 1996 issues of Nintendo Power. When you think of the year 1996 in terms of Nintendo and Zelda, what are the first things that come to mind? What obviously pops to my mind when I think Nintendo in that year is the release of the Nintendo 64. This marked the transition from the 16-bit Super Nintendo to the three dimensional Nintendo 64. Starting with Nintendo’s gaming trade-show Spaceworld in November 1995, the Nintendo 64 was shown to a widespread audience. It was the January 1996 issue of Nintendo Power that saw full coverage of Spaceworld, including the very first looks of Zelda 64, what would later become known as Ocarina of Time. Yet as the year went on, it wasn’t Zelda 64 that stole the spotlight in the Zelda world, but rather, it was still the lingering legacy of both Link’s Awakening and A Link to the Past.

Throughout the year Link’s Awakening was still frequently featured in both the Counselor’s Corner and within the Classified Information section, with all such appearances linked to below. It’s quite amazing that after nearly three years of being released, the game was still at the top of the Nintendo Power Game Boy charts and tips and tricks were still being featured. It was even a bit more remarkable in the case of A Link to the Past. It was announced in the March 1996 issue of Nintendo Power that due to popular demand, A Link to the Past was going to undergo another production run. This would be known as the Player’s Choice version of the game and with its re-release, several months of A Link to the Past material was featured.

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I’ve continued to update our Zelda Publications page of the website, adding several new Nintendo Power magazines to the listing. If you are unfamiliar with the project, the plan is to go through every single Nintendo Power issue and pull out all the Zelda related material. As long as there is a Zelda reference, outside of the top-listings of each month, the issue is listed on the Publications page, along with the cover artwork of the magazine, links to the pages, as well as descriptions of what is found within the issue.

The latest update takes us through the rather dead period of the Zelda series. The mid-90′s, after A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening had a few years under their belt, and Ocarina of Time was still a long time away, there wasn’t too much going in the Zelda series within Nintendo Power. However, there were still several goodies to be found and they are listed below.

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Part of an ongoing project here at Zelda Dungeon is to try to build a collection of all the Zelda references that we can find in the various official publications. I’ve been slowly but surely updating our Zelda Publications page, including all the Nintendo Power mentions of Zelda. I have added sixteen new issues and they range from early 1992 to mid-1993. Listed below are some of the cool Zelda related features that were found in the magazines.

Starting in January 1992 in Volume #32, Nintendo started an A Link to the Past Comic that greatly resembled Link’s quest during the game. In each of the 12 issues that were released in 1992, 16 pages of the Comic could be found. The Comic would later be released on its own as a stand alone Zelda comic, but you could also see the comic in its entirety within Nintendo Power.

The Legend of Zelda series was featured twice in sections relating to Mario Paint. In Volume #39 Link can be seen in multiple scenes, highlighting the Animation program that was in Mario Paint. In Volume #40 the magazine shows you how to draw Zelda sprites, make animated sequences, and even create Zelda songs with the built in Mario Paint composer. Read more…

Thanks to Avenged, former webmaster of Zelda Dungeon, and current webmaster of Zelda Chronicles for sending in this news bit to us. In the latest issue of Nintendo Power, there was an interview with Spirit Tracks Director Daiki Iwamoto. Within the interview itself, there were quite a few interesting tidbits and shown below is one tidbit in regards to the items in Spirit Tracks.

“When coming up with items, our basic policy was to make all the items new ones, except for things that were a hit in the last game and things we might still be able to use to propose new ways of playing. We kept the boomerang, bow and bombs, and got rid of the grappling hook, Bombchus, and hammer. Then we started by thinking up three items to replace the ones we’d discarded. As much as possible, we specifically tried to think of things with DS-specialized functions, and things that could be used in a number of different ways. We come up with the puzzles not beforehand, but while we think up the item functions and examine the ideas those items give us.”

I liked the new items that they included and thought in general it was one of the high points of the game. It would have been nice to get a couple new ones as well, or perhaps more optional ones that could be used for fun or in side quests. The inventory was kind of small, much like Phantom Hourglass, but I thought the items were each done justice with the amount they were actually used. You can check out the rest of the interview of over at our affiliate Zelda Chronicles.

In the year 1991, mentions of the Super Nintendo began to slowly pop up in the Nintendo Power magazine. While the Super Famicom had already been released as of November of 1990 in Japan, the Super Nintendo didn’t release until Fall of 1991 in the United States. In the months before the release, Nintendo Power was slowly but surely building the hype by offering quick previews of many of the upcoming titles. Super Mario World got a lot of the attention, but there were a lot of games mentioned, including what would become known as A Link to the past.

In the July 1991, Issue #26, the very first screenshot of a Link to the Past appeared in Nintendo Power. You can view the screenshot by clicking here. You’ll notice that there is a lot different in the display of the number of rupees, arrows, and bombs that you got. In the final version, this material was displayed in two rows, rather than one. You’ll also notice the magic bar looks slightly different and a different sprite was used for the lantern. Read more…

Today I have for you all four more issues of Nintendo Power added to our Zelda Publications archive. If you haven’t been following along, what I am doing is going through all of the old Nintendo Power magazines and pulling out anything related to the Legend of Zelda series. In this update we have four issues ranging from November 1989 to February 1991. During this time period, the two Zelda titles for the NES were beginning to fade away, the Nintendo GameBoy was released, Nintendo Power went to monthly magazines, and the Super Nintendo was on the horizon. There was very little to offer in terms of Zelda content and listed below are some of the notable sections.

In issue #10 (January/February 1990), there was a game designer profile of Shigeru Miyamoto, in which it was confirmed that he was working on Zelda 3 for the Super Famicom.

In issue #12 (May/June 1990), Link from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link won the annual Nintendo Power award for being the best character.

In Issue #21 (February 1991), nearly four years after the American release of the original Legend of Zelda, four more questions were answered in the Counselor’s Corner.

I personally think it’s amazing that four years after the games release, the original Legend of Zelda still got mentioned in the Counselor’s Corner. Remember, Nintendo Power was available in an age where there was no internet to look to for help. So if you got stuck, you either needed a friend that beat it, needed Nintendo Power, the Nintendo hotline, or your were just stuck to do it yourself! The next few Zelda updates in Nintendo power should be concerning the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Before then though, I’d like to know what you guys think about the Nintendo Power archive project. Is it fun to look at? Does it bring you back to your early days? Do you think it is pointless? Is it nice but doesn’t need index page updates? Let us know in the comments below! Read more…

Today I’ve gone ahead and updated our Nintendo Power Archive collection adding two new magazines with all the Zelda references that there are. We now have the first 8 issues available in our Zelda Publications area of the site.

The first 8 issues of Nintendo Power each had some Zelda references with at least 7 of them having specific material dedicated to the games in the form of secrets revealed, strategy guides, a comic strip, etc… If you’re an old school gamer like myself, it really has a nostalgic feel to it when you glimpse through these old magazines.

Issue #007 – July / August 1989: View at Gallery
–The Adventure of Link has a tip about walking through walls in the Great Palace, found in the Classified Information section.
–The Legend of Zelda also has tip in the Classified Information section about leaving one enemy alive in the overworld to avoid enemy respawns.
–Listing of all six 1-up’s found in the Adventure of Link.

Issue #008 – September / October 1989: View at Gallery
–A question about how to get the hammer in The Adventure of Link is answered in the Counselor’s Corner.
–A secret tip in the Classified Information section about how to avoid monster scenes in the Adventure of Link.
–The Adventure of Link reaches #1 on the Nintendo Power Top 30 while the Legend of Zelda sits at #4.

We will be adding these on a relatively frequent basis over the next couple months. If you really enjoyed these, let us know by posting in the comments below. Also, remember you can make individual comments about the images with the image gallery. Read more…

Back in 1988 and 1989, several of the first issues of Nintendo Power featured the Legend of Zelda series. The original Legend of Zelda was featured in the first ever issue of the magazine, and also had a bit of information in the second issue. It wasn’t until the 4th issue that Zelda made its first appearance on the cover of Nintendo Power, and this corresponded with the featuring of the Adventure of Link.

The 4th issue of Nintendo Power included a ton of information, artwork, a fold out map of the overworld, as well as a walkthrough for the first four palaces in the Adventure of Link. The following issue of Nintendo Power also had a large section devoted to the Adventure of Link, with a walkthrough for palaces five and six. That’s not it though, as there were numerous mentions of both the Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link throughout the magazine in various sections.

I’ve uploaded the Zelda related portions of issues number four and five and you can check them out at our Zelda Publications section of the website.

Back in the late 80′s there was no internet to go to when you were stuck in a Nintendo game, and there certainly was no internet to go to get the latest news in the video game world. What we had instead was Nintendo Power.

Nintendo Power was the best. It had sections for news, small strategy guides, revealing all sorts of secrets, and each issue even came with its own poster! As a Nintendo and Zelda fan, I loved reading the magazine back then and even today it is a lot of fun looking back at some of the early issues.

With the sheer popularity of the Legend of Zelda series, it’s no surprise that the games were often times mentioned within the magazines. Even the very first ever Nintendo Power magazine had a featured section on the 2nd Quest of the original Legend of Zelda.

With all the Nintendo Power love in the air. Here at Zelda Dungeon we are opening up a brand new section entitled, Zelda Publications. In this section, I will be adding portions of various magazines and other publications over the years that were released that had material about the Zelda series. At the launch of this new section, we have the first two issues of Nintendo Power available. Both of which had plenty of Zelda galore. While we do not have the magazines available in their entirety, we have all of the Zelda related pages for your viewing pleasure. Over the next several months, I plan on going through much of the Nintendo Power magazines, and pulling out all the various Zelda previews, guides, interviews, and anything and everything that is Zelda related. So be sure to stay tuned!

I have added the Nintendo Power Player’s Guide from The Wind Waker to the Strategy Guides section of the website.

Nintendo Power’s guide is far inferior to the Prima and BradyGames counterparts as it is much shorter and far less detailed. One of its best features is that it does have some more realistic looking dungeon maps that are very simple to follow. It is also the official released English guide from Nintendo, and thus can be considered official.

There is very little reason to purchase the guide unless you are strictly a collector. The BradyGames and Prima Games are just far superior. Its only saving grace, is the official Nintendo Power guide is incredibly cheap, with used copies selling for as low as $2 at Amazon.

Legend of Zelda Strategy Guides
The Wind Waker Nintendo Power Player’s Guide

I have added the Prima Games strategy guide from The Wind Waker to the Strategy Guides section of the website.

I’ve gone ahead and adjusted the strategy guide section of the website and have included links to amazon where you can purchase some of these great guides. Fortunately, most the American released guides can be picked up for just a couple bucks. The Prima Games Wind Waker guide can be purchased for under $6.

We have just recently completed our Wind Waker Walkthrough for Zelda Dungeon, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t worth looking at. Prima Games is well known for having some of the best guides out there and this one is no exception. While I personally think the BradyGames guide is superior, this one is still quite useful and contains all the necessary information. It has the usual official artwork as well as some nicely drawn maps of the dungeons.

I will be adding more miscellaneous strategy guides from the older Zelda titles in the coming weeks, including some more rare imported guides that I have recently gotten my hand on.

Legend of Zelda Strategy Guides
The Wind Waker Prima Games Strategy Guide