‘Nintendo Power’ Publishes Self-Tribute For Last Ever Cover

Nintendo Power is going out in style. The last ever cover of the venerable magazine, which is publishing its final issue in December after 24 years of entertaining Nintendo fans, is a charming tribute to Nintendo Power itself.

Twitter user mudron got his hands on the final Nintendo Power a few days before it hits newsstands in North America and immediately noticed a passing resemblance between the final and first covers of the magazine.

As the side-by-side pictures above show, the last Nintendo Power cover is a direct homage to the first, with the 2012 versions of Mario and his nemesis Bowser posed to match their 1988 predecessors. Neatly enough, all other elements on the new cover have been designed to match, from the “Poster Inside!” sign to the positioning of text to the stomped Goombas. And man, was 1988 Bowser janky or what?

The magazine is being pulled from production after Nintendo announced in August that it would not be renewing its licensing agreement with the mag’s publisher, Future Publishing.

The monthly news and strategy magazine had long become an institution amongst Nintendo gamers, having initially been published in-house by Nintendo of America. Alas, the slow death of print magazines seems to have sealed its fate.

The first Nintendo Power issue was published in July 1988 and carried a feature on the NES game Super Mario Bros. 2. At 24 years old, the magazine was easily one of the longest-running video game publications in the world and remained Nintendo’s official magazine in North America until the sad end.

Thanks for all the coverage, Nintendo Power dudes, and kudos on a rad exit.