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''Official Nintendo Magazine'', or '''''ONM''''' is published by 2006 , after much speculation due to a recent change over from previous publisher EMAP . The magazine is the oldest running games magazine in the UK, and when launched was called '''''Nintendo Magazine System''''', reflecting the NES , which was hugely popular back in the early '90s. This name would later be dropped to reflect Nintendo's move away from the NES and SNES naming system toward the N64 console. Official Nintendo Magazine magazine was published by , also published by Future. NEW WAYS TO READ... The new Official Nintendo Magazine heralded a big change for the magazine. Designed with a fresh contemporary look and feel to it. Apparently offering premium production values, the all-new Official Nintendo Magazine promises to appeal to a broader range of Nintendo gamers. The magazine will attempt to provide something for everyone, from long-term hardcore fans, through to those who have recently picked up a Nintendo console for the very first time. Driving Future's vision for Official Nintendo Magazine is company veteran, Group Senior Editor Steve Jarratt , who was launch editor for respected games title, Edge . The magazine will be edited by Lee Nutter, formerly of PSW. Also on the magazine's team will be Associate Editor, Chandra Nair (formerly of CUBE magazine), Magaret Robertson and old-school NGC staff Jes Bickham, Mark Green and Tim Weaver. CONTENTS ''This section contains a list of the current features which appear in ONM every issue. Please note that because of the youth of the magazine, despite some various patterns showing up in terms of monthly content, things can still be subjective to change.'' "Welcome" - This page welcomes the reader and is also home to all the contact information for ONM. The page is also home to an A-Z of the games reviewed or previewed in the particular issue, and has a brief summary of the four ONM editors. "Contents Page" - This page is home to displaying what is in the magazine. "Global" - This section is home to "breaking news from the world of Nintendo". The section houses the following sub-sections, as well as a main feature possibly about the latest console or a piece of breaking news. However, this section of the magazine does not seem to run the same features every issue, and not in the same order, so here is a breakdown of what may be included within "Global".
"Next Month" - A look at next month's issue of ONM. "Behind the Scenes" - The team talk to important game devlopers, and find out some hidden secrets that developers have been slightly silent about. "Previews" - Previews are split up into two sections:
A 'How's It Shaping Up?' box summarizes the editor's views on the previewed game. "Feature" - Perhaps the main core of the magazine, the feature may or may not be the cover story and may take up a substantial amount of magazine space, posisbly up to 12 pages long. There may be multiple 'Features' within one issue. "Reviews" - The latest games are reviewed here. A box at the beginning of each reviews heralds such information as the game's publisher, format, developer, release date, price and whether or not it has multiplayer or is Wi-Fi enabled. At the end of the review a series of bullet points summarise the good and bad parts of the game (using + and - symbols respectivly instead of Mario and Wario heads as in NOM), and the game receives a percentage. Games that reach over 90% receive an ONM gold award, which can be used to advertise games if the developers wish to. Once again pixellated images are used to highlight the game's genre. "Game Guide" - This section is host to a number of game guides, featuring hints and tips for the featured games. Issue 1 featured the first parts of , Mario Kart DS , Mario Smash Football and Battalion Wars guides. "Directory" - Essentially ending the magazine, this section features:
"The A-Z of Nintendo" - A scetion on the last page featuring game-related names beginning with the letter of the month. THE OLD CONTENTS OF NOM ''Here is a list of the contents which last filled the pages of ONM's predecessor. Note that these features are technically out of date, and may not return in the same form.'' "Welcome Page" - this page welcomed the reader and is also home to all the contact information for NOM. "DK's Big Bananas" - This page often showed a collection of things from the Nintendo world or the latest wacky and interesting things. For example, in Issue 150, DK's Big Bananas showed every single issue cover of NOM from 1992 to 2005. In Issue 153 Pepsi bottle caps from a Japanese competition were shown. DK's Big Bananas was introduced in Issue 153 with a map of the Poke-Park and finished on Issue 162, with an "end of an era" feature. "Contents Page" - This page was home to displaying what's in the magazine. It also home to ''''10 things we didn't know last month'''' which acted as a quick display case for the rest of the magazine. "Special Preview/Review"''' - this can be seen as the main story of the issue. It is often referred to as the cover story on the contents page and is usually a 5-10 page review/preview about the best game this month.
"The World of Nintendo" - these pages were full of current Nintendo news including:
"Big in Japan" - This section comprises of Japanese game releases, posters, events, Japanese give-aways and the Japanese Nintendo top-ten chart. There were also short reviews of seemingly Japan-only games, example: The Tower SP. "Previews" - Previews gave the reader a look at upcoming games and includes an information box containing the developer of the game, previous games, mulitplayer options, publisher, release date and review date. There was also a predicted score and a small summary of the writer's views. Finally, there is a "Phial of Completion" which gave the reader an idea of how far away from completion the game was. Features - These appear throughout the magazine in different place and are mostly articles on the history of Nintendo. Other features can be articles such as career advice for the Games Industry or interviews. "Reviews" - At the beginning of the reviews setion there was an explanation of NOM's scoring system and who the reviewers are. Also at the beginning of the reviews there was an information box named "Game Info", showing when the game was out, the price, publisher and multiplayer options. After the write-up the game was given a percentage score based upon the game's graphics, sound, gameplay and value. The better or more interesting games were given more magazine space, while the rest of the reviews were found in a "Mini-Reviews" section. "Mario's World" - Introduced in Issue 135 It included:
"Next Month" - An overview of what the next issue would contain, as well as details on the free gift and a release date. Classic game page - The last page of the magazine was a nostalgic look back at a classic Nintendo game. In Issue 162 (the final issue under EMAP) it was a screen shot of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong Game Boy Advance 'game over' screen with restart and quit visual buttons. THE 'OFFICIAL NINTENDO MAGAZINE' TEAM (FUTURE) The ONM team consists of:
Previous 'Nintendo Official Magazine' Staff (EMAP):
People who have worked with the magazine over the years:
FREE GIFTS Every issue will include a "free gift" or Premium . Examples of the more memorable gifts before the Future takeover include, among others:
The first free gift of ONM was a set of vinyl stickers, with which purchasers could customise their DSs. IMPORTANT DATES IN THE HISTORY OF ONM The roots of ONM lie deep within UK's game publishing history: ''Mean Machines'', a long standing and well respected UK games magazine, announced it would split into two distinct magazines, focusing on the two major games giants of the day; Sega and Nintendo . The Sega based magazine retained the original titlem simply calling itself ''Mean Machines Sega'', whilst the Nintendo version of Mean Machines gained the title of ''Nintendo Magazine System''. Note: This list is based on a list published in Nintendo Official Magazine, Issue 150.
NINTENDO MAGAZINE SYSTEM: AUSTRALIA The Australian branch of ONM (then named the Nintendo Magazine System) was originally published by Trielle Corporation as a 68-page magazine, with a cover price of $4.95. The first issue appeared in April 1993, and featured Super Mario Land 2 on the cover. It was an Australia's official Nintendo magazine, and was very critical to poorly made videogame software, with scores for such games often in the low thirties. The magazine often included news and articles not relating to Nintendo products, from information on the idea of virtual reality, to the highest selling coin-operated arcade games at the time. The mail section held feedback from the editors, who at one time, for example, cited multiple reasons why upcoming consoles such as the 3D0 where superior to the SNES . The cheat section included GameShark and Action Replay codes, something Nintendo, at the time, was heavily against. The first 100 subsribers of Nintendo Magazine System recieved a free bonus Snake Rattle 'n' Roll game for the NES, and later in Issue 4 all subscribers could, for a reduced cost of $30, buy a copy of Probotector, the PAL version of Contra . Starting with Issue 34 in January 1996, Catalyst Publishing took control of the magazine, but retained the issue numbering. The most noticeable change was the lack of advertisements in the magazine, with almost every issue only having two in the last page and back cover. Less noticeable was the polar opposite swing in attitude towards any unliscenced third party periphiral for Nintendo consoles, being cited in the mail section as "bad" and having the ability to void the warranty on such machines. At Issue 54 the cover price increased to $5.95 with the page count increased to 84 (this later increased again at Issue 69 to 100 pages). Perhaps to boost sales, or to simply cash in on the craze of Southpark, Issue 82 featured four different covers, with the choice of Stan, Cartman, Kyle or Kenny. The magazine at this time created a minor controversey when it awarded the N64 game a perfect score of 10 in Issue 68, another being when the cover price was increased in the June 2000 issue to $6.95 and having the "This product includes G.S.T " text next to the price, which at the time was set to come in at the first of July in Australia. Ironically after being forced to apologise in the next issue (the July issue) by the ACCC about the printing error, by making a fullpage notice and stating it was nothing more than a cover price increase, the issue of the magazine in question retained its release date of June 28, making it the second issue to break the law. Surprisingly the price of the magazine did not increase by ten percent to $7.70 due to the general service tax but stayed at $6.95. The last issue of the Australian Nintendo magazine system was Issue 89, the August 2000 issue, which featured Lara Croft on the cover. The cancellation was abrupt, ending without any announcements in previous issues that had hinted toward this. Issue 90 was to have as the feature review. SEE ALSO
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