Which gaming magazines did you read?

I used to read a lot of Club nintendo. It was basically the monthly nintendo magazine in latin america. There was a lot of reviews to read (my favorite part was "pasacartas' in which you sent a question and they would answer back your question). Sometimes they would release a special edition dedicated to some nintendo characters like the Donkey kong one that I have in which they spoke about the character story and the franchise evolution. Sadly the magazine died in 2018 because they couldn't get sales on the "digital market". And also Televisa cut all the budget and that was the main reason of why the quality of the magazine became worse.
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For me it was Nintendo World, the official nintendo magazine in Brazil. It was a joy to read for it's first 5 years or so. It was like playing the games I couldn't buy in my head🥰
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While digging through old comics, I found a few crumbs of gaming magazines, time for a journey without value!

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Lord but what was that Sub-Zero design supposed to communicate, he has suspenders that double as a life preserver.

(No, I won't tell you the Ultimate Kombat Kode. I *can't*. It'll only pass from my lips as a death rattle, whispered in the ear of my slayer. Your blood for my blood, may it please the gods we curse.)

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Very normal people, goodbrained, the lot of them.

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Presumably they were all put to death to hide how terrible this port was, a grim foundation of bones and regret for the throne of lies.

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True story, I was the first person to be struck in the head by a penny thrown off the Empire State Building, and I've been in a coma since the 90's. Was the Nomad everything they promised?

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Hahahahahano no no, you don't have to tell me this one, I know this shit didn't work.

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"Prepare to be Romanced!" Sometimes, you just don't have a second idea.

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Street Fighter Alpha looks sick as fuck, y'all.

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Seriously, don't cross it.

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Eat shit, 32-bit systems, your polygons will never catch on. Godless, many-angled heathens.

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Little known fact, Ari Aster cut his teeth in print, before hot-stepping it to Hollywood.

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The kid up the street had some pictures of Tapion he'd printed out, he convinced me this was a Dragon Ball spinoff.

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You think anyone's ever called Kirby "cute" and lived to tell about it? I won't be the first to try, I'll tell you that right fucking now.

Y'all, gaming magazines were so stupid, and I miss them something fierce.
 
I used to read a lot of Club nintendo. It was basically the monthly nintendo magazine in latin america. There was a lot of reviews to read (my favorite part was "pasacartas' in which you sent a question and they would answer back your question). Sometimes they would release a special edition dedicated to some nintendo characters like the Donkey kong one that I have in which they spoke about the character story and the franchise evolution. Sadly the magazine died in 2018 because they couldn't get sales on the "digital market". And also Televisa cut all the budget and that was the main reason of why the quality of the magazine became worse.
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Lmaoo DK’s deadpanned face really caught me offgaurd.
 
Sometimes one of my classmates would bring in their copy of Game Informer during a class where nothing was happening and we would read it. We played this game where whoever had the book would get punched in the leg repeatedly until they gave up and passed the magazine on...we were dumbasses. Also, since I didn't often have internet at home, I relied on G4 a lot. The existence of shows specifically for videos games and nerd culture blew my mind as a preteen....only for G4 to be shut down a few years later. I didn't exactly catch the channel during it's 2000's golden age.
 
Here in argentina i read some local magazines like Xtreme PC, Next Level and Loaded

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Although sometimes other friends from school had others like Club Nintendo, Club Playstation (being summarized in later installments as "Club Play") and Hobby Consolas (that one was imported by magazine stores)

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I used to religiously read GMR Magazine (a Ziff Davis spin-off featuring the 1UP peeps).
It was just one of those moments back in the day, like with TV Shows where you happened to luck out and catch it when it first started and kept a following of it.

It didn't last long, but I did purchase every single one and on the mags anniversary, messaged some of the creators on Twitter and they answered/were pretty nice. I sold a lot of my game collection but I still keep each and every single one of these mags. They felt like denser, more zanier/cooler versions of EGM, so I appreciated it for that.

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This dumb thing.

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Read a lot of that and EGM in the mid-90's, pretty fun reads back then.
Diehard gamefan was my favorite. Evidently, most of the staff was in high school or middle school in agoura hills, ca at the time!

really puts it in perspective once you know that.

i only have 2 issues left. i wish i had them all!
 
Unlike a significant portion of my classmates, I did not sign-up for Nintendo Power when they were giving away Dragon Warrior for free, but waited for the next special offer of some free game guides (NES Atlus, Game Boy Players Guide, Mario Mania, and Super NES Players Guide)...though my memory says the offer was for 4 of those things I also somehow wound-up getting The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Top Secret Passwords Players Guides in the mail (maybe from re-subscription?).

I also subscribed for a time to EGM, Game Players SEGA Nintendo (and later Playstation Monthly/PSM (most of the same crew), and of course Game Informer. While I never subscrtibed to Die Hard GameFan, I did buy several issues of that magazine. I mostly shied away from GamePro - something about their print style just was unappealing to me.

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I miss print gaming magazines. They were so nice to have available whenever I needed to take a dump. It's just not the same with a tablet/phone.
 
Unlike a significant portion of my classmates, I did not sign-up for Nintendo Power when they were giving away Dragon Warrior for free, but waited for the next special offer of some free game guides (NES Atlus, Game Boy Players Guide, Mario Mania, and Super NES Players Guide)...though my memory says the offer was for 4 of those things I also somehow wound-up getting The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Top Secret Passwords Players Guides in the mail (maybe from re-subscription?).

I also subscribed for a time to EGM, Game Players SEGA Nintendo (and later Playstation Monthly/PSM (most of the same crew), and of course Game Informer. While I never subscrtibed to Die Hard GameFan, I did buy several issues of that magazine. I mostly shied away from GamePro - something about their print style just was unappealing to me.

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I miss print gaming magazines. They were so nice to have available whenever I needed to take a dump. It's just not the same with a tablet/phone.
That dragon warrior guide was trash, anyway. They had based it on a preproduction cart and literally every stat was incorrect to the cart i owned
 
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These four magazines (especially Expert Gamer), without exaggeration, changed my entire being and taste. I was poor as hell, so I never could afford a subscription to any of these magazines, not only that, it was like 2008-2009 (I was around 8), so many of these magazines were just gone. I didn't know a single thing about these games, or had any interest outside of the few games I had (gamecube, n64, ps2). One day, while my Ma and older brother were taking a walk in the neighborhood, they found this big box of magazines, shit had to weigh around 50ish LBS. Inside was just a massive amount of these exact magazines with some Nintendo Power and car magazines thrown in. Over the next 3 years, I would pour over every single one, marking which game I wanted to play. It lead me to emulation and now here I am, still fawning over old ass video games years later, still grinning ear to ear when a game gets a translation.
 
My gamestop membership had a free game informer subscription, so I read that front to back. I used to cut out the pictures and put them up in places bc holy moly gaming is in the REAL LIFE?!?! I read one from 2017 again recently and what a trip. I guess I know where my interest in gaming really started.
 
GamePro was my first. Never subscribed to it, but I bought issues whenever they featured games I was interested in. Tips & Tricks was the first one I actually subscribed to. I had it for a long time, but when I discovered GameFAQs, that was the end. Last but certainly not least was the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. The demo discs were the main draw, but I did read the magazine too. Got me introduced to some good games and helped avoid plenty of stinkers too. x) I was subbed until almost the end of it's life.
 
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Edge if and when I could afford it. I also liked the usual OFFICIAL magazines for PlayStation and Nintendo, which tended to fit more in that classic, patchwork, adolescent gaming mag aesthetic (which I do love) but Edge was SLEEK and SEXY and also sorta cryptic?? No author by-lines - everything was just printed as though it had been beamed straight to earth from the sentient computer aboard the mothership floating above. Plus the PRINT QUALITY was absolutely astounding - regular pages were better printed than most posters that came bundled with the other mags. I haven't read it anytime recently - though I'm sure it's still fine?? (I'm pretty sure it's still in publication)

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Nowadays I mostly just rummage through and read old issues of Crash and MSX-Fan which in my eyes are the REAL peak of gaming mags. Just look at those covers!!! (and hey! the writing is pretty solid too! >:3)
 
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Edge if and when I could afford it.
Edge was, like, a special treat here in late 2000s/early 2010s North America, because it was one of those mysterious British mags that had far, far higher-quality writing and images than any of ours did. (As a consequence, it was always about 50% more expensive.) I only ever had a few issues, but it was easily superior to 95% of American gaming magazines at the time, and far and away the best third-party one for my buying dollar.
 
Edge was, like, a special treat here in late 2000s/early 2010s North America, because it was one of those mysterious British mags that had far, far higher-quality writing and images than any of ours did. (As a consequence, it was always about 50% more expensive.) I only ever had a few issues, but it was easily superior to 95% of American gaming magazines at the time, and far and away the best third-party one for my buying dollar.
Yeah they were clearly TRYING to elevate the level of journalism and writing to something not found in the competition. And they mostly succeeded - though it wasn't without its issues; the aforementioned lack of author by-lines made it really tricky to actually follow the writers you liked. And of course they often worked hard to REALLY stand out from the crowd, with contrarian opinions and hot takes ("post the doom review! post the doom review!" my brain screams) okay okay...
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but hey! It did have that premium feel - and I think it definitely set the stage for the direction mainstream games journalism would take in the late 2000s and onwards.
 
PC gamers, man. They're a sickening lot.

It did have that premium feel - and I think it definitely set the stage for the direction mainstream games journalism would take in the late 2000s and onwards.
Absolutely. I know that a lot of people celebrate the authenticity and youthful sense of rebellion that many gaming magazines had (especially third-party ones), but I actually prefer MY rags about electronic TV toys to be a bit more classy, thank you very much. Reading Edge made me feel like reading one of those periodicals about, like, travel or architecture. (But secretly, it was just a review of Disgaea 3.)
 

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