Famous video game magazines

[Zebbe]

Which are the most famous video game magazines in your country? When it comes to Sega, there was only one in Sweden and it was called Sega Force. It is today known among Sega gamers in Sweden for its great humour, especially the fanboyism against Nintendo, calling their consoles "big and small grey boxes" ^^.

When Sega Force got cancelled, the "competing" SNES magazine, Super Power went multi-format and soon after changed it's name to Super PLAY. About a year ago (14 years later), that mag got canceled, but it is without doubt the most famous Swedish video game magazine, being shown in Metal Gear Solid 3, cited in international magazines for exclusive interviews etc. However, it got into a decline a few years ago when most of the original staff went to make another mag, which is known as Level today. And one may see Level as the true successor to the original spirit of Super Power/PLAY, even though it will take years before it's as well known internationally, I guess.

So what famous mags in YOUR country can you tell us about?

[M4R14NO94]

The ONLY known magazine from my country that I can remember is Club Play. A little history:

The magazine was originally a special magazine included on an issue of the editorial's Mortal Kombat magazine (which apparently was the official, Midway-licensed Argentinian version) in 1998, originally called Club PlayStation. They said that they were originally going to make it a Sega-based mag, but they "fell in love with 'the grey one'". It was the most successful Argentinian videogame mag back then (and I think it still is). They were a bit like that Sega magazine you mentioned, but they also had a section called RVM ("Recreate la Vista, Macho"/"Recreate your Sight, Dude"), in which they would put a pic of a half-naked or sexy-looking chick and add some text balloons as if they were talking to someone else (with rather humorous results). In mid-2002 they changed the name to Club Play to avoid a legal problem with Sony over the name PlayStation (that's what they said). The magazine continued to be the same, but of course they started talking about the newer Sony systems. In late 2006 they started an online bonus mag, Club Play EXTENDED, which would only be accessible to those who owned the mag. You entered the mag's site, selected "EXTENDED" and then it would ask you for a code that was in the issue. And then you could download it. They would also have some little bonuses, such as special RVM's, PSP wallpapers (the ones from Metal Slug Anthology, but with the Club Play logo slapped somewhere in the wallpaper), art galleries from some games and other stuff too. I'm not sure how the mag's right now, since the last issue I bought was way back in early 2008, but I'm sure they're still good

[gamevet]

EGM had been a huge part of gaming publications in North America. It had about a year where it didn't exist, when its publisher decided to pull the plug. It came back earlier this year, when former editors and writers decided to revive it.

[Darklordrobert]

Here in Holland, we have the Power Unlimited which started 1n 1993 and still exists today. They review games for the consoles, handhelds and the PC. The first issue had reviews of Starwing/Starfox and Super Mario Kart(which only scored a 6/10!). We have/had other multiconsole and Sega/Nintendo/Sony mags too but none of them have lasted as long the Power Unlimited.
Back in the day the Power Unlimited always gave every Mortal Kombat a 10/10. Seriously...and when the 3d fighting games appeared all the 2d games like Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown etc. were deemed obsolete....Except Mortal Kombat which still scored 10's easily.
The also hated RPG's back in the day, Final Fantasy 3(or 6) and Phantasy Star 4 got very low ratings only because they were RPG's. I believe Phantasy Star 4 only scored a 3/10 or something....
These days the Power Unlimited got somewhat better reviewers to review their games, but I really dislike their juvenile humor....And for some reason they are still biggest gaming mag here in Holland(correct me if I'm wrong).

[cleeg]

Mean Machines Sega was pretty good in the UK, they used to have Mean Machines as well, which in the early days focussed on C64 and Spectrum stuff. They have a nice review archive too, showing reviews from the day with modern reviews of the same.

http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/mean_machines_sega.php

[nissling]

being shown in Metal Gear Solid 3

Was Super Play shown in Metal Gear Solid 3? If that's so, I think I'll have to play through the game again.

Between 2002 and 2009, I was a big fan of Super Play and that's the main reason why I care about older games today. I won't forget some guys who wrote in the magazine such as Tommy Rydling.

I also remember Nintendo Magasinet and Club Nintendo. The old Nintendo Magasinet was a Swedish version of Nintendo Power but it felt weaker in many ways. Club Nintendo was quite popular in some years but in 2004 (I think) they changed alot. Instead of releasing four to six issues per year (about 70 pages per issue), they started to release ten issues per year but it was rarely more then 20 pages long which made it feel very cheap and now, they're gone.

[The Jackal]

Games Master would definatly fit the bill. Back in the mid-to-late ninties, it was a great read. Shame it went to pot in the early 2000s.

[doomguy]

Sega Saturn Magazine was the greatest gaming magazine ever to me, it was strangely impartial for a specific console magazine and actually told you if a game was crap, they didn't only review either Sega or Saturn games. The writers also had a laugh or joke and didn't mind insulting the people that write in with stupid questions which is always nice.

[The Coop]

In the U.S., Electronic Gaming Monthly was one of the biggest names out there. Their sister mags (Mega Play, EGM 2, Super NES Buyer's Guide) were pretty widely known as well, but they didn't live as long. GamePro, for as shitty a magazine as it was and still is, was everywhere as well, and GameFan and Next Generation were pretty popular and visible too until they both died off in 2000. And of course, Nintendo Power was there.

There were others like Game Players, Tips and Tricks, VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, and Game Informer (which is still around somehow), but the ones in the first paragraph seemed to have greater exposure.

[QuickSciFi]

I have fond memories of Gamepro in the 90s. Then from late-late 90s to early-early 2000s I have fond memories of the Dreamcast Magazine (Free playable, and collectible, demos with every issue baby!!!! )

[Thierry Henry]

Here in South Africa I'd say our most popular gaming related mag would probably be 'NAG'. That stands for 'New Age Gaming'.
The mag has been around since June of '98 and covers console as well as PC gaming, and has a bunch of other features as well.
Every edition also includes a free DVD which is usually filled with PC demos, videos, trailers, soundtracks, etc etc.

Here's a pic of last months issue.

[Pulstar]

http://www.outofprintarchive.com/art...rint/emap.html

There's no question about it, EMAP published the best English-language magazines in the 1990s. Future Publishing came in second. Magazines from mainland europe were usually too dull to read, but who wouldn't want to look at pics of the latest games when magazines were the number one source for info?

[M4R14NO94]

Another popular VG mag over here is Loaded (not related to the 1995 game of the same name... or the UK mag also with the same name). I'm not sure when was it that they started, but they're the only active multi-platform Argentinian mag still active as far as I know. A friend of mine had some issues from 2006, 2007 and 2008. I still have one that I bought back in 2008 (an issue with MGS4 on the cover, I mostly bought it for their article on gaming peripherals of the past. Which also had the Virtual Boy). It's an awesome magazine, and they really know what they're talking about. What's funny is that on the issue I have they review the two games that came with my 360 (Kung Fu Panda and LEGO Indiana Jones)

Another known gaming mag from my country is PC Juegos, which is actually the official Argentinian version of PC Games, but I'm not sure if it's still on business. I still have an issue of it laying around somewhere, it's an issue from mid-1999. I also still have the CD that came with it, and thanks to it I discovered awesome titles like Driver, System Shock 2, ShadowMan, Freespace 2, GP500 and, to a certain extent, Mortyr. I also remember ripping the music that played on the CD's menu (or, more specifically, during the ads about the magazine and PC World or however the heck that was called that played when you selected something). Good times

[Zebbe]

Nissling: I read it on Wikipedia, a source even more reliable than the RRoD console!

combofriend: It looked like they had lots of exclusive interviews as the years passed by, but in the beginning it seems like most of their content came from British Super Play (Final Fantasy Forum for example).