R.I.P. Nintendo Gamer

Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of Future Publishing's announcement of the closure of Nintendo Gamer magazine:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/365656/future-publishing-closes-nintendo-gamer-magazine/?site=cvg

Gutted. I remember Cube calling Nintendo Gamer’s closure “the death of print” over on the old forum, and it might as well have been. There'll never be another Nintendo Gamer.  I'm grateful that there are still alternatives on the shelves of our newsagents such as ONM, but most of what’s left is either too bland, dry or inoffensive to be worth spending money on. Nothing round at Sainsbury’s excites me. How can it? Nintendo Gamer was the rarest of games magazines: intelligent, charming and witty, but never at the expensive of sacrificing its integrity or what was cold, hard, honest fact.

I almost hate Nintendo for being so secretive: when Nintendo Gamer needed fresh topics to write about, there were simply none. I think we all felt that the magazine had turned a corner with the revamp – it was bloody fantastic for those ten months – and it’s a shame that all it could offer was baseless speculation. Imagine how good Nintendo Gamer would have been if it had survived beyond 2012, and taken us through the Wii U launch, or that glorious 'Too Many Games' period. Fire Emblem Awakening, Lego City Undercover, Pikmin 3, New Leaf, and the list goes on. There's so much that Nintendo Gamer missed. That’s maybe what’s so rubbish about the closure of Nintendo Gamer: it was on the cusp of being something very special.

I recall many of the writers who worked on the final issue have said that they were disappointed with the lack of notice they had received regarding the winding-up of Nintendo Gamer (nine days before print), and Nick Ellis mentioned in the final issue that he has wanted a final Nintendo Gamer issue to be a 120-page retrospective on Super Play, Nintendo Gamer and everything in between. #80 of Nintendo Gamer wasn't as good a send-off as it could been, but under the circumstances I thought those who worked on it did a fantastic job. Actually, I’ll go further than that - it makes me happy that the dozens involved were able to produce the best send-off they possibly could. I feel everybody did themselves proud.

I still sort of miss Nintendo Gamer, but at least they got to say goodbye, and at least Future let Chris Scullion continue with the website, Facebook, Twitter and official forum for a few months after the final issue (NRevolution didn't get anything like that!). It’s all gone now, of course, but I still keep up with all the staff on Twitter and such. It's great to see that they've all successfully moved on.

It was truly a pleasure reading Nintendo Gamer, from my first issue in November 1997 to it's last breath on Twitter at the start of 2013. Thanks.

Great post Phillips, said everything I could add to the thread succinctly. It felt like 2013, especially late Spring/early Summer, was a good time to be a Nintendo gamer. It's a shame Nintendo Gamer wasn't around to report on it.

One thing I'm glad about is that this place lived on. I know we were offered the chance to stay on at the old place, but I'm glad GNamer exists, as a) the new CVG is a mess and b) all our NGamer threads were absorbed by the amorphous mass that is the CVG forums. I'd missed most of 2012 on the NGamer forums, but coming here has been a real treat each day so far.

Aww, Phillips, don't do that. You'll make me cry...  

It is a shame that the magazine is no longer there to report on the issues that matter. I get my news from CVG and ONM now, and while there's still the same Castle/Scullion spark in the reviews, the news is mostly delivered in an utterly humourless fashion. Can't blame the journalists, really: when Chris tried to do a humorous piece on the new FIFA box art and Lionel Messi's gaping cakehole, CVG rose up in fury. "Time wasted", "slow news day" etc. etc. That's what I really miss off the print journalism.

That said, I've long since adapted. I miss NGamer and its variants sometimes, generally when I'm reminded of it: the rest of the time, it is forgotten. Having the community around no doubt helps with that.

A year already?!  

I do miss reading a monthly magazine I tried to give ONM a go but it just wasn't the same despite it having some cracking reviews, a few of you here may choose to game while in the bathroom but I tend pick up a randon NGamer issue & have a wee trip down memory lane.

*Raises glass*

The_Jaster wrote:

A year already?!  

I do miss reading a monthly magazine I tried to give ONM a go but it just wasn't the same despite it having some cracking reviews, a few of you here may choose to game while in the bathroom but I tend pick up a randon NGamer issue & have a wee trip down memory lane.

*Raises glass*

*giggles*

Nintendo Gamer was a big part of my gaming life and the culture around it, its absence has certainly been felt in the Wii U's run since launch. Forum aside, the launch just felt less exciting than if the magazine were still around.

I still miss all the great in-jokes found in Nintendo Gamer. As readable and informative as I find ONM, it's never what I'd call funny and it sometimes feel that Matthew is the main reason to keep up with it. Can't believe it's been a year almost a whole year without NG.  

Having the best NGamer forumites here almost makes up for it, though. This place is just as chilled out and fun to keep up with as NGamer Forum used to be.

When I hear this song it reminds me of this place

Awwwwwwwww!

("Where everybody knows your name"... )

The_Jaster wrote:

When I hear this song it reminds me of this place

Now, which one of us gets the spinoff which lasts ten years?

It's nearly been two years...but it's almost been far longer than that.

Real shame, this. To me, it didn't really feel like Nintendo Gamer had a long enough run for me to be able to distinctly remember it in the same way I remember N64/NGC and Planet GameBoy.

I've been re-reading the final issue recently, and it got me thinking. With the Gintendo site receiving regular content (and I aim to contribute more frequently from June), is Gintendo the spiritual successor to Nintendo Gamer? It would be great to carry the torch, even if it isn't as brightly lit, there would still be something there covering Nintendo gaming in a light-hearted yet knowledgeable manner. It would be carrying on the legacy, albeit unofficially so The Suits don't come knocking.

Or is the aim of Gintendo to become its own entity?

I think it's a bit of both from my point of view being someone that never read the magazines and being multi format gamer but I still prefer we cover Nintendo mainly.

I've always seen it as its own thing, but that thing is going to be heavily inspired by the mags because everyone loves them so much.

I don't think I could ever claim that my writing is a worthy successor to the likes of Castle and Scullion! It's definitely inspired by Nintendo Gamer (hence the name!), but bar its use of humorous image captions, not a successor per se. It's far too rude, for one thing.

I don't see it as a deliberate homage or anything, but obviously the origins of the site are a forum formed after the closing of the NGAMER one. Everything from the people writing it to the name is dropping with Nintendo Gamer nostalgia.

Balla's point about writing skill is a good one (agreeing admins UNITE!) (God bless us). To my mind Gintendo is more in the spirit of Nintendo Gamer, rather than an intentional successor.

Yeah, as the others have said, it's more trying to emulate the spirit of NGamer than a true spiritual successor. That honour should go to The Rotating Platform.

If it's not making any money than there no point of publishing the magazine and Nintendo official magazine is clearly the best, I even had them when I was young but stopped when I had internet. You can read them on kindle/kobo now too they trying to bring the new released magazines every month or so now which is better for people who want to keep them and go back to them whatever they want.

There is no Nintendo Magazine any more and then little I have read of the two magazines NGamer was better hence why there's a better sort of forum member on here then that other fan made forum.

Well everyone got the internet so they really don't need the magazine really anymore and you can find out stuff on the actual consoles itself too which we couldn't do as a child but now we can, techology as changed to make it more easy to find information we need to know instead of buying £6.99 magazine all the time. Would be a shame not to publish it still on the e-reader as there lots of issues to collect on there I know that and would sell still.

Still it's a shame and the other systems get magazines even smartphones games get a magazine.

flora-chan wrote:

...Nintendo official magazine is clearly the best...

One for Jas' George of the Jungle .gif, I think.