Jump to content
N-Europe

New NOM

Nintenchris

By Nintenchris
in General Gaming Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 177
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Helmsly Enthusiast

Helmsly

Posted
Posted

I hate the look of it. It reminds me of when NOM tried to go for a ‘mature’ look a few years back and all issues where plain white and had a soulless boring feel to it, which is the total opposite of what Nintendo is about.

 

Why do people think a bit of colour = immature?

 

 

All that said the new team making the mag sounds excellent so I'm sure the content will be good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Locky Newbie

Locky

Posted
Posted

Here's some more info about the mag posted on GAF by Twilight Rockstar:

 

Right… *takes deeeeeeeeeep breath*

This has all got a bit out of hand because of some silly press written by a marketing department, and with meer days until it goes on sale I don't see the problem with telling you about the mag in a bit more detail.

 

Firstly, here's what we have:

1. The presentation: the mag itself has a really nice matte laminated cover with spot varnish effects. It comes in an open-topped card wallet with the Revolution on the front. I know what a lot of you are thinking - why the f*** is he telling us this? I've read games mags for years, since Super Play actually, and we really wanted to give people something special. . . something that's a bit like a collector's edition every issue. I think it's really important to have that basic quality to the mag, otherwise why even bother with it over and above the internet?

 

2. The gift: I'm sure you can see from the images that there's a sheet of DS decals included with the mag. It looks like a sheet of stickers, I know, but trust me - they're really good. High quality vinyl decals. The one you can't see on the image is the one I have on my DS right now and it looks great. They're pretty expensive to make, which is why previous mags could never covermount them, but, you know, first issue an' all.

 

3. The subs offer: well obviously you save money but the big thing for us is that you get a free game when you take out a £9.99 subscription. All subscribers get to choose from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Donkey Konga + bongos or Pikmin 2. I've never seen a subs deal that good.

 

Now honestly, I might be a little bit biased here, but I think the decals are worth paying out £3.99 for on their own. But obviously there's the littlle mag as well lol

 

4. The approach: it's tough being on an official mag, it really is. You get told so much by Nintendo themselves but moreso from other publishers, but of course you can't print most of it right there and then. It does mean that over the next six months there will be some MASSIVE exclusives and that's no exageration. Let's just say that Nintendo fans are in for a treat.

The games industry has gone down this road where the big websites get everything first but from where I'm sitting it doesn't need to be like that. I promise you we'll have stuff worth your attention before other people. That said, sometimes NCL will surprise everyone and the timing just won't be in place for us to get there first. They like to do that ;)

 

5. This issue:

12-page feature about Nintendo and New Ways To Play (Nintendo new tagline). There's the whole hands-on with the Revolution bit (and no, there aren't a ton of people who have gone hands on, there were only a few from selected publications around the world) as well as some brand new pics of the Revolution and the Freehand from all angles.

 

DS Lite: pictures of the new handheld with various comparisons. There's so much stuff we wish we could tell you… but we can't. Again, this is the case with a lot of features in the mag: it's mid-Feb… it's just too early to be letting some info out into the public domain. In my best Japanese developer response: "please look forward to our coverage when it arrives."

 

Capcom Dev Feature: let's get one thing straight here. You're not going to see any in-game pics of Revolution stuff before E3. It just ain't gonna happen. Obviously there's a load of stuff in development but why would Nintendo let people see examples of what makes Revolution so different at this stage? There are BIG things still to be announced and you're DEFINITELY not going to see screens until those aspects are announced. Again, in my best Japanese developer response: "please look forward to more informations at GDC and E3".

Still, we have some great interviews with four Capcom producers, who talk about what they'd like to on Revolution, Smash Bros Revolution and other things. We also have a load of great sketches from the relevant games that Capcom have let us use. It's a really interesting read for any Capcom/Nintendo fans. Plus you get to see a pic of Mikami-san boxing and Nakai-san trying to look hard, which always make me laugh.

 

Other stuff: 32 pages of previews, a sh*tload of reviews, challenges, tips, loads of compos, retro etc etc… I think it's extremely good value for money.

 

Online: I know a lot of people want a definitive UK website but we're not quite ready to give tyou that yeat. We will be building it up over the next few months and it'll be fully in place in time for E3. It's a lot of work though, hence the reason why it's going to take so long to get it all sorted.

 

Overall: I think it's a really good first issue and a great indication of what's to come. We've got a whole load of very talented writers working with us, some awesome designers, access to literally every important person at Nintendo events (one-on-one, not roundtable like everyone else) and one of the very lucky publications who gets hands-on time with Nintendo pre-preview code. Only official mags get that.

 

That Grasshopper thing: man, SUDA51 is really something! We couldn't fit it in so it has to go in issue 2, which could work out better as we may be able to print everything he said (again, it's down to timing). Among other things he talks about what Mikami-san is like to work with, his Revolution stuff, how it came about that he started on killer7, his obsession with 80's electro… oh, and his predictions for the World Cup!

 

Honestly, we're working really hard to try and bring you something really good, so it's a shame that the press release is a little misleading. Anyway, I hope you like it. As always if there's stuff you don't like PLEASE give contructive criticism. Slagging off stuff is useful to no-one. Laters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chrisr_ngc Newbie

Chrisr_ngc

Posted
Posted

Ouch. The latest issue of NGC has really taken a hit in production costs. It's now made of cheap, thin paper and held together with two staples. Half of the staff have migrated to the new NOM too. I can't see it continuing, the new official magazine has sucked up all it's cash.

 

I do have high hopes for NOM now though. It descended into completely moronity over tte last few years but now they've got a bunch of respected writers in there (Jes, Tim and Mark "Greener" Green, woohoo) I'm expecting big things. If the writing style follows that of NGC it'll go down well with me.

 

Seeing as I work in WH Smith the new issue may come in with the deliveries tommorow, if it does I may have to infiltrate the stock room (which won't be hard, at all).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sabre Newbie

Sabre

Posted
Posted

Yeah, it's a real shame NGC as i've been a fan since 1998.

It really has gone downhill at the expense of the new NOM with this latest issue, NGC looks more like a 'comic' now, is it even worth £3.99, it has 11 pages of posters - what's with that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mike Newbie

Mike

Posted
Posted

That's a shame about NGC. I expect I'll still pick up a copy later in the week, though, to see if it's worth getting any more.

 

The way things are going with Nintendo magazines at the moment, I'd be very surprised if a rival magazine company didn't launch a new one by the end of the year, perhaps to coincide with the Revolution launch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
|Laguna| Newbie

|Laguna|

Posted
Posted

Seeing as NGC is on the way out I thought there'd be little point for a new thread.

 

Reviews:

 

Resident Evil DS 79%

Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble GC 61%

Wario Ware Twisted 87%

Metroid Pinball DS 82%

Pocket Dogs GBA 26%

Namco Museum GC 70%

Crazy Frog GBA 18%

Hudson Collection GBA 55%

Yu-Gi-Oh GBA 60%

Sega Casino DS 50%

Pacman World 3 GC 64%

 

News:

 

DS Lite + Revolution stuff we all know

 

Features

 

Reader Awards

Japanese Gaming Lexicon

Usual retro stuff.

 

A dire set of reviews, and I disagree with the Twisted score, one of the best GBA games.

 

 

 

On another note, this just occured to me, could we see the closing of the magazine and it being replaced by the website they've been hinting about, there was an ad with all fancy artwork saying "coming soon, your new favourite gaming website"

Link to comment
Share on other sites
knightendo Newbie

knightendo

Posted
Posted

posted this in another thread but this seems the proper place for it now:

 

that does sound bad, but i don't think it'll be cancelled... maybe it's own budget has been cut at the moment in order to go towards its own rebranding, rather than pay for another magazine (after all nintendo will be supplying cash towards ONM as well). remember NGC used to be N64 Magazine, and before that it was Super Play. In a few months, after E3 we may see NGC resurrected once again :D

 

[just a quick edit: i don't think future publishing would be foolish enough to cancel one nintendo magazine just to make room for another, would kinda defeat the purpose, and there'll always be those wanting an unofficial mag too. with the GCN market dying on us now NGC's figures have probably dropped, much like they probably did at the end of the N64 Mag and Super Play days. Super Play was actually cancelled outright but the team reformed for N64 Mag. i think the same will happen here and this woulda happened regardless of the new ONM. what you guys think...?]

Link to comment
Share on other sites
|Laguna| Newbie

|Laguna|

Posted
Posted
On the subject of NGC, it has definately been going downhill lately, and the team keeps on changing far too much. I'm not too sad that my subscription runs out in a couple of months, and I'm not going to renew it.

 

Yeah, they haven't had a steady edito in ages. They keep changing, I heard that the current NGC editor (Tom East, nice guy, sent me a back issue for free :)) has moved over to ONM

Link to comment
Share on other sites
|Laguna| Newbie

|Laguna|

Posted
Posted
Yeah, that's why it got 87%. That's a good score, laddie. Anything over 85% is pretty much guaranteed to be fantastic.

 

Aye, I agree, but when put it into context that they gave the original WarioWare and Touched 100%, well 5/5, stupid NGC muddling their review system, I just think that Twisted is significantly better. But alas, thinking about it now I guess the first one was bound to get higher marks as it was such an orginal innovative game at the time and nobody really knew how great WarioWare.

 

Basically, I'm saying that in comparison to other scores NGC gives games, 87 for Twisted is a little bit lacking.

 

Wow, went into too much detailed thought there, just a review and opinion I guess and I agree +85 is a grade A in my opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...