The Decline of Nintendo Power's Player's Pulse

     I remember the old days of Nintendo Power, with the great reviews, the classic, manilla Top Secret information section, and The Adventures of Howard and Nester. But what I loved most of all was the Player's Pulse. In that section, Nintendo Power subscribers wrote in letters about NP and the NES. They wrote of games, both good and bad, of stories, and of their love for the NES. In fact, I didn't just love Player's Pulse, I bought the magazine just for Player's Pulse. Long after the NES died I kept getting NP just to read it. I still get NP, and I don't have a N64. The only reason I keep subscribing is to read Player's Pulse. I might as well throw the rest of it in the trash can. That's why I'm upset. Player's Pulse is no longer the section it once was. No longer do avid Nintendo lovers tell stories of the time that they were on the final boss and their bird reseted the game. No longer do tell the adventure of making a Mario doll from Logo blocks. No longer do they print anything intelligent. All that today's gamers discuss is how cool GoldenEye is, or how many awards Mario 64 won.

I have long wondered why the gamers of the N64 generation don't have anything to say, but they say it LOUD. At first, I thought it was that the graphics of the N64 just shocked them. Then I thought they were just praising because there were few games to praise. But the truth is that they just don't love the N64. They never have; they never will. They didn't or don't know what it MEANS to love a video game system, like how retro-gamers love the old 8-bit NES. They don't have Zelda cartoons on TV, nor do they eat Mario cereal. They don't know about the Summer of '89. Do you think that there will ever be a movie like The Wizard today? I didn't think so.

You may wonder why today's gamers don't love the N64. It's simple. They don't love it because they don't realize that the World of Nintendo is more than the game itself, it's a way of living. Ten years ago, a Nintendo player didn't just play the game. A player not only beat the game, he mastered it. He wrote stories about the Adventures of Link; he painted pictures with watercolors. He designed his own Nintendo games in his mind, he pretended he was Mario on the playground.

Today's players no nothing of this. The N64 is just a system; Mario 64 is just a game. It is a barren, isolated world. No imagination; playing is just a habit. They say that the games are great because they have nothing else to say; nothing else to think. They are the Spice Girls of video games; all talk, no substance. I want a world where the Nintendo is a shrine, not just a toy. I want a Player's Pulse with a PULSE.

It's really sad that Player's Pulse has a beat of zero, I miss it more than anyone could know. And I die another little death when postcards are the only thing I know. I wish I could talk to a N64 player about play control and fun, instead of graphics and sound. But alas,

N64 Players: They are the droners, hear them snore.