NGamer Issue 1

Introduction

The first issue of NGamer was truly a new era for Futures Nintendo magazine legacy, it now had to compete directly with the Future published Official Nintendo Magazine, and as such had to find its own niche. It did this perfectly with its own mix of Nintendo culture and the usual jokes and writing style that had set it apart for the previous 14 years. It also shunned the single console format for one that looked at Nintendo as a whole, and gave as much focus to pocked consoles as it did to home consoles as well as the culture of Nintendo.

There was plenty of news to cover as the magazine pulled together everything that happened in the previous couple of months, including their regular trip to E3. This also included looking at the three biggest Wii releases - Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3, devoting quite a bit of space to these future classics to build hype for their future releases.

With the Wii still nearly six months away, the reviews section focussed on Gamecube and DS games, with New Super Mario Bros on DS and Super Monkey Ball Adventure on Gamecube taking centre stage. Martin scored NSMB 89% and Geraint scored Monkey Ball a dismal 67%. That wasn’t the worst game by a long stretch, Namco museum was also reviewed on Gamecube, scoring a horrible 15%. 

Within the first issue, World of Nintendo was launched, which took over from NGC’s Extended Play, however this was again reinvented, generally showcasing new things you can do with games rather than guides, which were readily available on the internet. As was to become regular, they covered the top 20 Nintendo happenings - a list of 20 things they had found in the last month. Highlights this month included a look at some interesting obscure Mario games and exploring the Akihabara games market. 

In the download section they looked in depth at the PC engine as games were due for release in the Wii’s upcoming virtual console. They also looked at tips for Namco Museums retro games, as well as some of the retro re-releases from previous Nintendo consoles.

This was a pretty good launch issue with plenty to get excited about with the Wii's launch not far away. There weren't many decent games reviewed, but being summer that was to be expected. Plenty of work was put into the back of the mag, which meant that it all fit together nicely and set it apart from the official magazine.