250 Reasons to Love Nintendo

Nintendo Power magazine, which launched in 1988, has just published its 250th issue. A kind geek posted some teaser scans of the issue, which features “250 Reasons to Love Nintendo.” Among these, there are classic quotes, favorite heroes, favorite villains, things we love to hate, etc.

I agree with a lot of these lists, and have come away with a fuzzy nostalgic feeling. I almost feel like making the crotchety declaration that kids today are missing out because they aren’t experiencing unidentifiable pixelated creatures saying things like “A WINNER IS YOU” and “THIS STORY IS HAPPY END” and of course “I AM ERROR.”

Kudos for including Phoenix Wright on the list of heroes, because lawyers don’t get nearly enough video game cred. And of course there’s a (well-deserved) pattern in heroes, villains, and damsels-in-distress, with these pairs in the #1/#2 spots in each: Mario/Link, Ganon/Bowser, Peach/Zelda. Even if the video game world isn’t all about Nintendo like it was when I was a kid, I bet there are still a lot of people who have bought Nintendo consoles just to play Mario and/or Zelda.

And my biggest wholehearted agreement with these lists: The wallmonsters in Zelda were evil, evil things. Oh, the frustration of having to play through most of a dungeon again!