Nintendo Book Series

[Jeff]

Ever read any Nintendo books/comics/manga series growing up? If so, should Nintendo rerelease them and publish new ones for other IPs?

 

[Gorse]

Yes, I did – I read some of the Pokemon novels, and they were very, very good! They adapted certain episodes of the TV show, but, like a lot of these sorts of novels, expanded a LOT on the original plots and dialogue in very interesting ways. The one I remember most is this one, Night in the Haunted Tower, which adapted the whole Lavender Town saga and features Sabrina heavily.

I have nothing but good things to say about these – they were very well-written books, because Tracey West was an established middle-grade author when she wrote them. (She'd already written instalments in both the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.) I especially liked how she fleshed out certain details, like how the bubbles that Pokemon attack with are rock-hard, which is how they damage things. Frankly, I consider that canon.

And there were a LOT of these fucking books, too – TWENTY-EIGHT novels lasting throughout the Johto series, with a few being original stories! That's insane – she wrote her own officially-published Pokemon fanfiction! West was clearly a very successful career novelist – she published over 100 different books, which makes my head explode – and she was easily one of the leading childrens' authors of her era. (And the late 90s was a good time to be in that game!) Trace, if you're out there, I'd truly like to buy you a drink.

 

[MasterEn]

i read a couple of issues of the electric tales of pikachu. i did just recently get the full set twilight princess comics for christmas.

 

[emotion_engine]

i read the link to the past zelda manga and really liked the oc himekawa got to include. i was hype for the twilight princess manga but i read the first chapter and got annoyed about some lore thing or another and never went back to read the rest lmao. i thought i read the metroid manga, but honestly i think i just read ABOUT the manga on some fansite or another...ive seen the 4komas posted around tumblr and the like and i love how dorky they make samus. i feel like the games make her so serious when they do give her any personality and its just nice to see her being goofy and having fun.

 

[MasterEn]

i read the link to the past zelda manga and really liked the oc himekawa got to include. i was hype for the twilight princess manga but i read the first chapter and got annoyed about some lore thing or another and never went back to read the rest lmao. i thought i read the metroid manga, but honestly i think i just read ABOUT the manga on some fansite or another...ive seen the 4komas posted around tumblr and the like and i love how dorky they make samus. i feel like the games make her so serious when they do give her any personality and its just nice to see her being goofy and having fun.

i haven't read the comics in order yet, but i did get to browse a couple of issues at a bookstore, it looked like it got pretty interesting. it does do things in its own order. link meets the hero's shade seemingly for the first time at the sky dungeon. and there was a part where midna and link part ways for a while, and link reflects on his actions, since he was becoming a bit of an asshole after getting the master sword. when midna shows back up, he apologies and hugs her, and she hugs him back.

 

[fake-kun]

I looked at the Double Trouble cover once and thought, "Finally, my favorite character—Three-Headed Mario!"

 

[MasterEn]

I looked at the Double Trouble cover once and thought, "Finally, my favorite character—Three-Headed Mario!"

yeah, motion is a bit hard to convey in a drawing. i've tried that in a few short comics. you definitely need to make motion lines very visible, otherwise, you start creating creeypasta material.

 

[destinyduelist]

As a kid I read a lot of the Zelda Four Swords manga, as well as the Metroid one
But one manga I read and remember far more vividly than those is Pokemon Adventures, I believe all of these stood the test of time in my opinion but the Adventures manga is kind of Nintendo's crown jewel in terms of manga they've released I feel like

 

[Zerpina]

Just the Nintendo Power Comics/Manga they had years ago <growing up>
As i remember, they where pretty good. i Ordered the Zelda Hardback version a couple years later.

 

[MasterEn]

Just the Nintendo Power Comics/Manga they had years ago <growing up>
As i remember, they where pretty good. i Ordered the Zelda Hardback version a couple years later.
View attachment 15327View attachment 15329

didn't know that was a thing. my first nintendo power issue was about kirby 64. it came alongside a pokemon player's guide that covered all three versions.

 

[Zerpina]

didn't know that was a thing. my first nintendo power issue was about kirby 64. it came alongside a pokemon player's guide that covered all three versions.

As i recall it was a Year long "Comic" each issue had a Chapter of each. As best as i recall, been years ago.

 

[MasterEn]

As i recall it was a Year long "Comic" each issue had a Chapter of each. As best as i recall, been years ago.

that sounds cool. none of the issues that i read had anything like that. just the little pictures on the spine of each issue that form a small image when collected.

 

[Zerpina]

that sounds cool. none of the issues that i read had anything like that. just the little pictures on the spine of each issue that form a small image when collected.

Heres one of the later chapters of it, i Couldn't tell you now which issue that is,
https://retro-video-gaming.com/tag/nintendo-power/
There may have been a Super Mario world one to. Seem's like there was. but again that's been 20+ years ago. i know for sure the Zelda and Metroid one came out, just before A link to the Past was Released. kinda a Promo for it, might have been right at the Release something like that.

Again, 20+ years ago. Hell probably closer to 30, now that i think about it
God i feel Old...

 

[MasterEn]

if i remember correctly, the internet archive has a full collection of the nintendo power magazines. i'll be bumping up that collection on my to do list. thanks for telling me about this. it'll be interesting to see what early attempts at making stories for these series was like.

 

[Taukyrie]

I've read a couple of the Kirby and Zelda mangas. The Kirby mangas kind of vary in quality but I thought a lot of the Zelda mangas were really good.

I've also read some translations of the Kirby Light Novels as well. The quality of those also tend to vary, but it's fun because Mie Takase has done the light novel adaption of Persona 2, I think. (I'm actually supposed to continue translating some of them, but I am notoriously lazy lmao)

 

[Zerpina]

if i remember correctly, the internet archive has a full collection of the nintendo power magazines. i'll be bumping up that collection on my to do list. thanks for telling me about this. it'll be interesting to see what early attempts at making stories for these series was like.

Welcome. i Remember them being Really well done. Again Long time so they maybe Trash. But They where, as i said based on ALTTP and super Metroid, and Super Mario world. pretty sure they where Done in-house by Nintendo Artist to. But i could be misremembering on the artist part.

 

[emotion_engine]

Just the Nintendo Power Comics/Manga they had years ago <growing up>
As i remember, they where pretty good. i Ordered the Zelda Hardback version a couple years later.
View attachment 15327View attachment 15329

dang an american-style metroid comic sounds pretty fun. i like the cutaway of her suit there.

 

[spectresfrommercury]

yeah mainly their manga like the zelda ones case in point

 

[MasterEn]

dang an american-style metroid comic sounds pretty fun. i like the cutaway of her suit there.

i found a full collection of one of the metroid comic from the snes era of nntendo power:

https://metroiddatabase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Super_Metroid_Nintendo_Power_Comic.pdf

 

[Yukyon]

The Zelda mangas by Akira Himekawa are great, especially twilight princes, oracle of seasons and ocarina of time.
Aside from that there was a metroid manga that was a 4-koma, it was ok
(Metroid: shounen ou)

 

[FushigiKoppa]

I read the Blaster Master 'Worlds of Power' and honestly had a fun time with the little novel. A few years after that, Blaster Master Zero was announced, and I was extra excited to learn its plot would involve several story elements from the worlds of power book, as well as the original famicom 'metafight' game.

And same thing happened with Metroid. Where I read the metroid manga a few years before Metroid Dread released, then learned that dread adapts several key plot elements from that manga.

 

[Ikagura]

I liked reading Cagiva's Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past mangas, he made the first in two volumes then ALTTP as a prequel in 3. I love Ishinomori's style in his comic and Akira Himekawa's interpretation of the story with that girl but I think Cagiva gave it more content and characters, almost a Dragon Quest-like journey.

Ran Maru adapted Zelda 1 and Adventure of Link but both extrapolated quite a lot of the story since these game barely had any but I appreciated them (they were more violent though).

I'm genuinely surprised that ALTTP got the most interpretation as a game (maybe because it was the first big Zelda to have a complete story).

I've even forgotten that Junko Taguchi also made one.

 

[ATenderLad]

Not to keep banging on about the Link to the Past comic, but my cousins were getting Nintendo Power at the time and I loved reading them. I think I don't even actually like Legend of Zelda games *that* much, but reading those when I was young got me invested.

 

[Ikagura]

I liked how Akira Himekawa managed to keep the spirit while having some creative liberties. OoT's manga added nice stuff and the more lighthearted ones like Phantom Hourglass still had some stakes.

I deeply regret they never gave a shot at Wind Waker, Spirit Tracks nor Link's Awakening. At least their Twilight Princess one is top notch despite the slow start.

Zelda 1&2 are too simple to make a proper story without making something original I think.

It's not really legal but historyofhyrule dot com has these older mangas in scans. Only A.H. are not available because they're still sold in stores.


PS: I'll read The Oath of Lilto soon because it's one of the very rare original story manga (it's set after ALTTP) and it's drawn by someone who animated DBZ' anime so it has a slight Toriyama style.

 

[starseeker300]

Nothing as fancy as the others here, but I was an avid reader of pokemon adventures, as well as ginji's rescue team and diamond and pearl adventure

Post automatically merged: Jan 26, 2025

Post automatically merged: Jan 26, 2025