N64 Magazine
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''NGC Magazine'' (''N64 Magazine'' until October 2001 (issue 59)) was a British magazine specialising in
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
video game consoles and software. It was first printed in 1997 and ran until 2006. It was the successor to ''
Super Play ''Super Play'' was a British Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) magazine which ran from 1 October 1992 to September 1996. Overview ''Super Play'' covered in great detail the role-playing video game genre. Many of these games were nev ...
'', a magazine that ended in September 1996. Many of the staff and the style of that publication persisted at ''N64 Magazine''. In November 2000, ''N64 Magazine'' merged with ''Nintendo World'', a magazine that was published by the same company,
Future plc Future plc is a British publishing company. It was started in 1985 by Chris Anderson (entrepreneur), Chris Anderson. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History 1985–2012 The company was ...
. ''NGC Magazine'' ceased publication in 2006. Its successor, '' NGamer'', was renamed ''Nintendo Gamer'' in January 2012, until publishing its final issue the following September. ''NGC Magazine'' was at the time of its closure one of the longest-running gaming magazines in the UK. It was on many occasions first for news (including the 'denied by official source' rumors such as the existence of '' Resident Evil Deadly Silence'' and the implication of the Wii controller and the delay of '' Zelda: Twilight Princess'' – both later being proved true in parts), due in part to having no official connection to
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
and therefore no restrictions on what it could report (save legal ones).


Staff

The staff of ''NGC Magazine'' varied over the years. Memorable staff members included Jonathan Davies, James Ashton, Jes Bickham, Dan Geary, Tim Weaver, Wil Overton, Mark 'Greener' Green, Martin 'Kittsy' Kitts, Andrea Ball, Dr Mark Cousens, Zy Nicholson, Geraint Evans, Justin Webb, Miriam 'Mim' McDonald, Steve Jalim and Paul 'Shedwards' Edwards. The magazine took usual light-hearted digs at each of its own staff; Jes was regularly lampooned due to his bald head; Mark Green had an evil alter-ego named Dark Mark; Andrea Ball was apparently permanently covered in grease and fake tan, and also had a reputation for carrying a constantly trademarked "Big Stick™"; Dr Mark Cousens was mocked for his apparent lack of a
Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...
console; Tim Weaver was famed for his patented Emotionless Stare; and James Ashton was ridiculed mercilessly in the magazine's pages for continually failing to pass his driving test. To this very day, he drives his Ferraris on a provisional license. Geraint was often also the subject of jokes, due to his Welsh origins, with regular pokes at him and his culture and lifestyle.


Thematic humour

The many popular, satirical, running gags revolved around: *Nintendo executive and design staff –
Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...
(most commonly referred to by ''NGC'' as 'Shigsy'),
Hiroshi Yamauchi Hiroshi Yamauchi (; 7 November 192719 September 2013) was a Japanese businessman and the third president of Nintendo, joining the company on 25 April 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being succeeded by Satoru Iwata. During his 53-year t ...
( NCL's former President, who the magazine regularly called absolutely terrifying),
Satoru Iwata Satoru Iwata (; December6, 1959July11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer and producer. Beginning in 2002, he was the fourth president of Nintendo, as well as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo of America from ...
, David Gosen (former CEO of
Nintendo of Europe is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...
 – the magazine claimed he was a homicidal robot named "Go-Sen" who would always say "This year is a good year to buy a nsert Nintendo product or calendar), and
Reggie Fils-Aimé Reginald Fils-Aimé ( ; born March 25, 1961) is an American businessman best known for being the President (corporate title), president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American branch of the Japanese video game co ...
(referred to as a frightening man ogre who could crush you with his bare hands – in one issue a cut-out cat mask adorned with Reggie's face was included in the magazine to frighten other cats). *Having the readers send in weird things to win stuff: Luigi papier-mache statues, photos of people dressed up as game characters, and pieces of alternative wisdom known as 'Sense Talks'. One famous competition asked readers to send in " tat" of their own in exchange for over £1000s worth of tat from the N64 offices. Among the N64 tat was a life-sized cardboard cut-out of
Turok Turok () is a fictional character who first appeared in American comic books published by Western Publishing through licensee Dell Comics. He first appeared in ''Four Color Comics'' #596 (October/November 1954). After a second ''Four Color'' app ...
, star of several N64 games, along with two
wigs A wig is a head covering made from human or animal hair, or a synthetic imitation thereof. The word is short for "periwig". Wigs may be worn to disguise baldness, to alter the wearer's appearance, or as part of certain professional uniforms. H ...
that apparently belonged to Jes Bickham: the caption read "Make no mistake: when you see Jes striding down the street in his size threes wearing these hairpieces, you know he means business". This competition was repeated when ''NGC'' later reached its final issue. *Random nonsense on popular love/hate-relationship characters:
Toad Toad (also known as a hoptoad) is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. In popular culture (folk taxonomy ...
,
Luigi Luigi (; ) is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Part of Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, he is a kind-hearted, cowardly Italian plumber, and the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario. Like ...
,
Sonic Sonic or Sonics may refer to: Companies *Sonic Drive-In, an American drive-in, fast-food restaurant chain * Sonic (ISP), an Internet provider CLEC, serving more than 100 California communities * Sonic Foundry, a computer software company whic ...
, Tingle,
Diddy Kong is a series of video games published by Nintendo since 1981 and created by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and Mario have both had the roles of protagonist and antagonist in the series. Other characters ha ...
, Krystal,
Lex Luthor Alexander "Lex" Joseph Luthor () is a supervillain in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the character first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #23 (published on February 22, 1940, with a cover d ...
,
Yoshi Yoshi is a fictional dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. Yoshi debuted in '' Super Mario World'' (1990) on the SNES as Mario and Luigi's sidekick. Throughout the mainline '' Super Mario'' series, Yoshi typically serves ...
,
Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Lofts, a building in Houston, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby Ho ...
,
Jango Fett Jango Fett is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, created by George Lucas. He first appeared as the secondary antagonist of the 2002 film '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'', played by Temuera Morrison. The ch ...
, and Jar Jar Binks. *'Bonus Letters' (nonsensical sentences picked out of letters which are not entirely printed). This could also include the titles at the top of fully printed letters, which took certain amusing words from the body of the letter and printed them in large, bold text to draw the reader's attention. This tradition, and the one above, have been continued in ''NGC''s successor '' Nintendo Gamer'' (formerly ''NGamer''). *Made-up and ridiculous words such as "blork", "grackler", "interweb", and "wah!". "Grackler" is particularly infamous; in response to a competition in issue 16 ("send us something you think will scare us witless"), a ghost story was received, part of which read ''"one nit when i was sleppin a grackler cam"'' (sic). The entire sentence (and later, the word "grackler" alone) became part of N64 tradition, and it was eventually decided that the term should be used as a noun when referring to an exceptionally ugly person. For example, when the
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
game '' FIFA 99'' was reviewed, a picture reference was made to the extremely horrible texture-mapping on the players' faces, with the caption "Grackle Vision, Gr-Grackle Vision, Grackle-Grackle Vision," in reference to the popular UK children's TV show ''
ChuckleVision ''ChuckleVision'' is a British children's comedy television series created by Martin Hughes and the Chuckle Brothers for the BBC. It starred Barry and Paul Elliott as the Chuckle Brothers and occasionally their older brothers, Jimmy, and Bria ...
''. "Wah!" is based on
Wario is a character in Nintendo's Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise that was designed as an Archenemy, archnemesis to Mario. Wario first appeared as the main antagonist and final Boss (video games), boss in the 1992 Game Boy game ''Super Mar ...
's exclamation upon being hit by a shell in '' Mario Kart 64''.


Wil "FuSoYa™" Overton

Wil Overton Wil Overton is a British artist, specialising in manga styles. Career He has worked for a number of notable British video games magazines, including Super Play and N64 Magazine. He then worked at Rare and was an illustrator for NGamer maga ...
was the magazine's chief artist (until issue 42) and was held in a somewhat reverential light by the magazine's readers; this could possibly have been brought about because some of the magazine's readers had followed him from ''
Super Play ''Super Play'' was a British Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) magazine which ran from 1 October 1992 to September 1996. Overview ''Super Play'' covered in great detail the role-playing video game genre. Many of these games were nev ...
'' magazine and felt a sense of loyalty to him, but the N64 staff themselves would more than likely say it was because Overton ensnared them all in the tangled mass of electrical wiring masquerading as hair that he keeps atop his head. Overton came in for much more than his fair share of insults and jokes, but he was a vital part of the reason that ''N64 Magazine'' stood out so much on the shelves: his
manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
-styled cover art was different from anything on other magazines, and his years of experience, love for RPGs and generally somewhat eccentric nature were comforting for many hardcore gamers. As a measure of this eccentricity, he was also known by the pseudonym "FuSoYa™". FuSoYa was a wizard character from the game ''
Final Fantasy IV titled ''Final Fantasy II'' in its initial North American release, is a 1991 role-playing video game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The fourth main installment of the ''Final ...
''. Overton, a devotee of ''
Final Fantasy is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...
'', added a ™ symbol to the character's name, and a legend was born: FuSoYa™, his "beardy, RPG-loving alter-ego", as ''N64 Magazine'' described him. FuSoYa™ appeared sporadically, sometimes to promote a competition, other times in response to queries in the magazine's letters section; his monstrous visage (actually Overton in a cheap wizard outfit and very unconvincing fake beard) was a comforting sight to many. Overton eventually moved to Rare, where he worked as an artist for several years. He later returned to do some character design artwork for '' NGamer'', including the cover of the final ever issue.


Regular features

''NGC''s recurring features included: *End64/GC: A random page signifying the end of the magazine. Typically featured abstract Nintendo-related subjects. Examples included a fake magazine article of Lara Croft Vs Joanna Dark, a Nintendo Internet forum with fanboyish morons, and a newspaper
obituary An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...
for the
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
. *I'm the Best: A league for readers competing against each other in N64 challenges. *Grintendo: A small joke section whereupon a reader's (usually abysmal) joke is put to test against the Team, movie stars, and
Pikmin is a real-time strategy and puzzle video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, and published by Nintendo. The games focus on directing a horde of plant-like creatures called Pikmin to collect items by destroying obstacles, avoiding hazards, ...
.


References


External links

* Archived ''NGC Magazine'' issues on the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Archived ''N64 Magazine'' issues
on the Internet Archive {{Future plc Future plc 1997 establishments in the United Kingdom 2006 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1997 Magazines disestablished in 2006 Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Video game magazines published in the United Kingdom Mass media in Bath, Somerset Magazines about Nintendo Nintendo 64 GameCube Defunct video game magazines published in the United Kingdom