Old Magazine Chat

I wonder what's happened with Switch Magazine there? I didn't bother with it - I'd heard that it was the size of a pamphlet. Surely not?

Was sort of and it always read to me anything on Switch is great, like I wouldn't be shocked if they would give Caretaker at least 2/5 because its on Switch.

Same with the VITA one they did.

I'm pretty sure Switch Player is still going, they usually have nice cover art at least.

The main fault is that they're something like 2/3 reviews. Nobody actually refers to a magazine to find out how good or otherwise a game is: they'll go to the Internet. The edge I always felt NGamer had over online coverage is that it had quality writing, interesting features, and pure entertainment. It obviously wasn't enough of an edge (yes yes, ho ho) to guarantee its survival, but if you're just going to give reviews that outline the features of a game without eliciting even a glimmer of a smile, you may as well make a website and do so in a timely fashion.

I guess the bottom line is that I don't think Switch Player's writing is very fun to read, whereas Ninty Fresh's is. It probably also benefits from the more staggered releases: I had a pile of SPs building up on my loo that I just hadn't read.

Remember ibbsters from the NGamer Forum? He’s only gone and given the Out of Print Archive his collection of single-format and multiformat UK gaming magazines from the ‘90s and ’00s. That's just one of the posts - he’s gave over several other boxes of magazines too, and lots of stuff that wasn’t already scanned and available online. What a man.

I recognise almost all of these issues! I should have a look when they're scanned.

Good on Ibbsters though. Still got all my ONMs, NOMs and NGamers and I will not be giving them to any cunt.

I'd missed that Games Asylum had published an article that looks back on the Christmas 1999 edition of N64 Magazine:

https://www.gamesasylum.com/2021/12/24/issue-36-of-n64-magazine-was-a-colossal-christmas-cracker/

That's what I remember to be N64 Magazine's biggest and best issue. It's the one with the Cartwarming Christmas Tales too. Remind me about that next Christmas - I think we could have fun doing something similar...

I very fondly remember reading Christmas issues of Ngamer. I would go back to them year after year. So I'd be dead keen to do something on here.

Whenever it eventually becomes possible for me to visit the UK, one of the things I plan on doing is arranging to ship my Nintendo mags over here. At the very least, I'll bring all the Christmas issues and the issues I appear in back with me to Japan.

Balladeer wrote:

The main fault is that they're something like 2/3 reviews.  Nobody actually refers to a magazine to find out how good or otherwise a game is: they'll go to the Internet.

That's probably true now, but back in the day I didn't care what anyone else thought, I was waiting for the NGamer verdict.

Oh, me too! It's fair to say that the likes of Switch Player need more engaging, and more permanent, staff in order to get anywhere near those giddy heights for me though.

...I say that like, with my nostalgia, 'those giddy heights for me' are accessible to any other production or establishment. They're probably not.

There are a lot of italics in that Carmageddon 64 review - still great to read, twenty-something years later.

Ha! I've found a bit of soul-searching was needed when thinking about what to play on the N64 Switch Online, but that N64 mag article felt like the "good old days".

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I'd missed that Games Asylum had published an article that looks back on the Christmas 1999 edition of N64 Magazine:

https://www.gamesasylum.com/2021/12/24/issue-36-of-n64-magazine-was-a-colossal-christmas-cracker/

That's what I remember to be N64 Magazine's biggest and best issue. It's the one with the Cartwarming Christmas Tales too. Remind me about that next Christmas - I think we could have fun doing something similar...

I still remember flicking through Issue 36 in the back of my family's old 306 on the way back from Smith's, with that shonky Worms pen on the front. Best gift was the Top Trumps cards, they never topped that (other than maybe the cartridge holder). Pretty sure I devoured every word in this issue, and it had a bit of everything. Absolute stinkers like Carmageddon, bangers like Smash/Resi 2/Wrestlemania 2000/Dk64.... and then Weaver even stuck an 80% on Roadsters. Must have been feeling merry. I only jumped in on Issue 32, so #36 was what truly converted me away from the official magazine at the time. I miss those days, eagerly anticipating the next page... that team covering Switch would be glorious.

gjones wrote:

I miss those days, eagerly anticipating the next page...

Man, that was exactly the feeling. I was genuinely stoked for the new issue every month, and kind of bummed out when I finished devouring every word.
I kept every issue though and they received regular rereads.

Man, kids have no idea how valuable time is

They’re still very readable too. Not long ago I re-read an N64 Magazine issue with Turok Rage Wars on the cover, it might have even been the one before that Christmas ’99 one. It was very enjoyable, and clearly written and designed by individuals who really liked and were enthused about what they did for a living.

From N64 Magazine, I remember those Top Trumps and that Worms Armageddon pen really well. I used that pen at school! It’s hard to disagree that the cartridge holder was the best gift they gave away. I’ve got two of them, making me think that it was an idea so good – and that the issue sold so well - that they repeated it.

I remember a time where N64 Magazine hyped up their next issue, which was to come with an ‘extra-special’ gift that they said was ‘their best one yet’. I was excited about that, but it ended up being an Ocarina of Time decal sticker for your N64. Not being ars ed with the game in its build-up, I papped it straight in the bin – I was well disappointed!

Eagle-eyed Secret Santa participants might have recognised that I slip an old magazine gift into my present each year. I’m running out of NGTV DVDs, but don’t fret: I’ve got enough NGamer ‘Best of DS Cheats’ books and Wii pin badges to go around until 2122.

That is a very fine new avatar Cappa. Lots of nostalgia being cooked up there.

Buskalilly wrote:

Man, kids have no idea how valuable time is

Argh, don't. Too painful.

I watched some of my NGTV DVD today from August 2007

The review for Fire Emblem on Wii, was one chap going this is the sequel to the one on Cube, the other saying it's for the hardcore gamer and that was it. I would have know idea what the game is actually about and the video was part of the opening cutscene, if it was gameplay maybe that would have given me a clue on what the game is.

The looking at some imports went into more detail and showed playing a game and talking about what it was, this is what the reviews should have been imo as they did a Virtual Console review round up as well with Final Fight one being look at his muscles.

A trailer section in 2007 would have been handy, though. And I guess some Excite Truck comp was happening, hence the lap from a reader.

NGTV started OK - the first issue I got was ish 3, and it came with a Virtual Console wishlist, that was very well presented and curated by that there Greener. But I think things clearly ran out of budgetary power very quickly, and they never got as far as a web presence - a bit of a shame

The time it would have taken to record and make those DVDs from all sorts of folks and the cost of producing them likely made it an easy decision to discontinue them after a year-and-a-bit. As I type this I vaguely remember reading one of the magazine staffers say that the DVDs didn't drive sales, it didn't make a difference if NGamer Magazine came with a DVD or not.

A handful of them are on YouTube btw, here's the DVD that came with Issue 2:

Ninty Media are having a clearance sale of all their old issues – Switch Player is down from £3.49 per back issue to 99p, and Ninty Fresh is £2 a magazine instead of £6.99.

https://www.nintymedia.net/collections/all?page=1

I ordered three random issues of Switch Player as well as the three most recent issues of Ninty Fresh for delivery, and I’m fairly impressed with what I’ve read. They’re higher quality than I was expected, they seem like a very decent substitute for the Nintendo magazines that disappeared over ten (!) years ago. I think they’re well worth the reduced price. Has anybody else bought Switch Player or Ninty Fresh recently, or are thinking about it?

Not for a while, no. I was on board both trains at launch but fell off. Switch Player's general tone was too straight-laced, and their focus was disproportionately on reviews: the part a magazine is worst for, since if you want a verdict on a game you'll be going to the Internet for those. You're here for the quality of the writing, and Switch Player's cast of thousands didn't seem to have that, or a sense of community amongst the staff. Ninty Fresh meanwhile nailed those things in the first couple of issues, but as time went on became more like Switch Player in tone and writing quality. It was released and marketed as the more irreverent NGamer-ish cousin: why the editors thought its audience might want something closer to Switch Player, when they could just buy Switch Player, baffles me. Maybe they just didn't have the budget to keep hiring the good writers? Sad if so.

Anyway I can't bring myself to get back on board now, not unless somebody can sell the more recent issues of Ninty Fresh to me. How did you find the writing of those three issues Cappa? More funny or more factual?

I thought the quality of the writing was about level with what we generally post here. That’s all right by me, it’s an independent fanzine that’s made by proud enthusiasts and Kickstarted each month. I don’t think they’ll have much of a budget for writers, I’d be surprised if it’s anything other than an unpaid passion project for most folk involved. By looks and feel I’d be sure that most of the Kickstarter money raised goes on the printing and postage.

The writing seems quite straight-laced and factual, but I’m fine with that too. The obvious alternative to that style is that it tries too hard to be funny, and that’s what really switched me off of NGamer back in it’s day. for every ‘WORTH £7!’ there was a ghost of Charleton Heston and ten instances where Nick Ellis would crowbar in funny-to-him-alone chat about Plymouth Argyle. Stuff like N64 Pro, Cube Magazine and N.Revolution (remember that?) used to do that all the time too, and it was riddy patter. I think Switch Player and Ninty Fresh are better off body-swerving that overcompensating tone, sticking to what (they feel) they best know and just trying to be the best thing it can be with a nostalgic twist.

Funnily enough, the reviews are always what I turn to first in a magazine. That’s whether that was when I first started getting Gamesmaster and CVG in 1997, to when I bought every NGC/NGamer/Nintendo Gamer from 2006-2012, to flicking through Retro Gamer on the WH Smith shelf and to now, when I had Switch Player and Ninty Fresh delivered. I think they’re the best part of a magazine!

I think that's settled it for me, thanks for the comprehensive response Cappa.  While jokes falling flat is never good, I'd definitely rather a publication that tried to be funny and fell short occasionally than going down the "straight-laced and factual" route that I can find anywhere online.  (Trying to be funny and falling short every time is obviously the worst, as is a sense of humour that doesn't gel with you.  That's what e.g. Cube felt like to me.)  I'd also prefer something a bit jankier production-wise where more of the money goes on writing.  

The bottom line is, we obviously have different things we look for in a magazine, and I'm glad they're both for you - but even apart from neither being for me, I'm not sure why we need the two publications which are essentially the same thing in both subject matter and tone.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

for every ‘WORTH £7!’ there was a ghost of Charleton Heston

Whereas to this day I bring up Charlton Heston as the peak of comedy!

Could it be that the real difference between N64/ NGC and NGamer is that you weren't 12 any more?

[quote="Buskalilly"]

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Could it be that the real difference between N64/ NGC and NGamer is that you weren't 12 any more?

I don’t think so, I think N64/NGC/NGamer went through peaks and throughs right the way throughout it’s run. N64 Magazine and NGC Magazine are mostly worthwhile re-reading, they're usually fun to revisit.

I thought NGamer specifically was excellent in it’s first year-and-a-half (when I was seventeen/eighteen years old), but I thought it was badly affected by staff turnover. With a smaller budget too, that resulted in some properly weird editorial decisions, lots of rubbish Early Learning Centre-esque art design and an inorganic-feeling sense of ‘humour’ in its Ghost of Charlton Heston days. Even in 2008/2009 I felt that NGamer Magazine was poor - it had lost its enthusiasm by the time that the publisher was ordering them to feature a LEGO or Rabbids game on the cover every two months.

I think I'd have to agree with the above - I missed the first 2 issues at the time, but had a chortle much more recently at the scan of issue 1 under the Green stewardship.

You may have seen I bought some old Nintendo Magazines and the first issue is

Animal Crossing GameCube

AC certainly worth its 90 score even after importing it as these mags told me it wasn't coming to the UK.

Spider-Man 2 only an 80 seems mad.

I do have Pikachu cut out still in the mag.