Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Mag Watch - NOM Issue 146

Nintendo Official Magazine #146 November 2004

This is a fantastic issue of NOM this month because it not only features my favourite game of the moment, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on the front cover, but it also has an 8 page review of the game inside. I have to take issue with a few of their comments though. "Let's be honest, RPG's are rubbish" it begins. This guy goes on to spout such drivel that only goes to demonstrate that he hasn't played many, or at least not recently. Still, he did love PM, so I'll let him off.

Also, continuing their 3 part Mario special are reviews of Mario VS Donkey Kong and Super Mario Ball. I agreed with their criticism of Mario Ball, but I haven't played MVSDK long to enough to form a solid opinion about it.

Further into the mag, there's some launch details about the Nintendo DS, and an actual-size picture of it, which is interesting to see. Previews of note include Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Mario Tennis, while in the reviews section are Def Jam Fight for New York, Donkey Konga and little top-down racing game called Racing Gears Advance for the GBA which looks fantastic. It truely is the season for Nintendo fans to be jolly!

Rounding off the mag are a couple of very interesting previews of Resident Evil 4 and Yoshi's Universal Gravitation (which features a tilt sensor in the cartridge, a bit like Kirby's Tilt & Tumble a few years ago). Finally, there's the promise of a cover DVD next month, which I think is a great idea. While I will miss the free gifts that usually come with each issue, I must admit they were rarely of any real use, and a DVD full of clips of new games is better value overall.

As soon as I've finished reading it I will do another Mag Watch feature on the latest Games(tm) and then it will be time for Edge once again!

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