Farewell Nintendo Power or A Warm Blanket of Nostalgia

So I know that this has been written about extensively already, but this is my barely updated blog dammit, so I can do whatever I want with it...
Nintendo Power is done.  The last issue is on the shelves, finishing up a 25 year, 285 issue run. Now I can't say that I've been a lifelong reader like some, in fact, I  haven't been a reader at all for the past 12 or so years, but that doesn't mean that seeing the publication end holds no meaning to me.

You see, I WAS a subscriber, in the early-mid 90's, from Issue 27 to Issue 87, 5 years or so of the entire lifecycle of the SNES.  I got out right at the start of the N64 era, when I felt that it was now time to "grow up" and move away from those video games that were keeping me "uncool" and single.  You see, back then, being a gamer was a one-way ticket to nerd-dom, and not the "geeks will inherit the earth" nerd-dom of today where the culture is celebrated, but the "get beaten up every day for wearing glasses" nerd-dom of the 80's and 90's.  So, I left the ranks of those that received every issue to find ladies and popularity, which went nowhere, and I was sucked right back into gaming with a little game called Final Fantasy 7.
But my heart stayed with Nintendo Power, even then, my warm memories of getting an issue in the mail, sometimes still ice cold from the winter weather, other times folded by the mailman (much to my chagrin) meant more to me than buying a PSM or EGM to read about the Playstation.  There was just something about the way they focused only on the "fun" of gaming, the lack of obnoxious ads, the maps, the odd scores, I don't know... it was just more "innocent?"
I was a voracious devourer of gaming magazines, reading the same issues for hours and hours, multiple times, going back over them weeks and months (and years) later, dreaming of all the games I wanted to play, trying to come up with schemes to earn money to rent or (gasp!) actually buy some.  While GamePro and EGM showed me what was going on with the other consoles, Nintendo Power was my bible, tipping me off about obscure games that would go on to become my all time favorites (Nightshade, Shatterhand, Panic Restaurant, Shadowrun, etc.), others that did more to define how I see the world now than possibly anything else (Final Fantasy III, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid) and others that I had to move hell and high water to actually find and play (Car Battler Joe, Ninja Cop).

This was the magazine that loved the big and small, and gave you maps, tips, cheats, and coverage that no one else was doing.
Back in the day, when the 90's console wars were going on, school yard fights could break out over which was better; Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo, and Nintendo Power was often a shorthand when people wanted to talk about "brainwashing" or "biased" coverage.  But the people that did that, had no idea what they were actually talking about, only assuming that the magazine rated every game high, loved even crap, defended all things Nintendo.  I took up the mantle many a time of defending my precious magazine to the non-believer, suffering more than just the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune for my cause.
I had all of the strategy guides, give aways, trading cards, posters, etc that a subscriber received for my tenure, ordered the occasional product from their catalogue, and cherished the index that they provided for the first 50 issues, telling you where any game could be found.  But after years of loving, I sold everything on ebay.  I made the decision not to live in the past and unloaded it all.  It seemed like a clean break, a way to finally "mature" and grow up, cast off the shackles of youth and step into adulthood and despite my attempts not to, I regretted it almost immediately.
The logic minded side of me says that lugging around 60 issues of Nintendo Power for years, moving from apartment to apartment, packing and unpacking would have been hell, but the little kid inside of me misses all those precious little books.  And this is the problem with nostalgia.  You want to recapture the feeling you had back in the day, the pure joy of childhood when the only thing you had to worry about was whether or not you would watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles OR GI Joe, play Super Mario World OR Star Fox.  Decisions were not based on food/rent money, they were which fun thing will I spend my energy on.  There were no jobs, kids, mortgages, bills, health concerns, car repairs, chores, only the blissful chiptunes of the little grey box and your TV.
Dreams were currency, and I spent them all on my love of Nintendo, with the magazine being my passport to another world.
So, I bought the last issue, to celebrate the end of an era, remind myself of what I used to love, and close a chapter on something that maybe needed closing.  The world has changed since I could sit and read an issue for hours on end, call up the Nintendo hotline for help in Shadowrun, beg and plead for the Final Fantasy strategy guide.  I have kids of my own now, the internet can bring up anything you need in a few clicks, and that innocent era and time is long gone.  You can try to wrap yourself up in a warm blanket of nostalgia all you want, but life happens, time passes, and we all grow up.
So, farewell Nintendo Power, even if I wasn't the most loyal of subjects, you always had a very special place in my heart and I'll miss knowing that you're out there somewhere, making some kid dream of the endless possibilities for hours on end, miss knowing that you're providing a sense of community and connectiveness for some kid who feels alone, miss knowing that simple words and pictures are making someone happy for a short time.  But mostly, I'll miss the 12 year old me, the happiness that I had, my whole life before me, the feeling I had finally getting Final Fantasy III after so much lusting, the belief that Alien III had the best graphics of all time, the chills I had playing Super Metroid for the first time, the danger and excitement of the Mortal Kombat 2 bloody fatalities, I'll miss the myriad of choices I had, the paths I could've chosen... But I'll remain content knowing that the roads taken were influenced by the dreaming I did while looking at that little magazines pages.