I've found the AVGN review of Nintendo Power to be accurate about my criticisms of NP. I mean, I loved the magazine, but I found things to nitpick here and there. Which is why the biggest laugh for me was when the Nerd was having trouble getting the posters out of the magazines without destroying them. When he mentioned that they eventually started stapling in the posters right at the middle... yep, I remember that. I just stopped taking out the posters at the time because obviously Nintendo doesn't want me hanging them on my wall.
When I was looking through the old magazines though, there was a distinctly different tone to it. Nintendo seemed to actually care. This is why I loved the magazine to begin with, then somewhere along the way they lost it. Notes I've made on certain issues:
Vol 45: Has an article about some great NES games that may have been overlooked, as well as the importance of getting to know a game well instead of going off box art and licenses alone (although back in the day, I don't think there's much else you could have done. Maybe rent the game). I remember this article because they slammed the Simpsons game "Bart and the Space Mutants" for having bad controls.
Vol 48: Nintendo previews the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie. If you actually read the article, NP explicitly mentions that it won't be much like the games (it's obvious to us now, but as kids we knew no different and had to have it spelled out) and has an interesting quote about how the guys that did the movie version of Yoshi weren't familiar with Yoshi from the games. How can you do a Yoshi without knowing who he is? NP also mentions the goombas will look totally different.
Vol 49: Nintendo addresses "blast processing", basically saying that it's a marketing term and nothing that they couldn't do themselves. They actually say "It's not the technology, but what you do with it that counts", when they were comparing how many fun games were out with the Super FX chip vs. CD-ROM.
Vol 54: In Player's Pulse this month, they were showing mails from people unhappy with the games that have been coming out. Greg complains about all the objects in Star Fox blending with each other. Jeromy similarly complains about the shortcomings of the Super FX chip at the time. "That's all I have to say except that I wouldn't plan on making any more games using the Super FX chip until you have enough technology to enhance the graphics of the game." NP's little box for what mails to send in next month says "Have you ever purchased a game only to find out that it wasn't even close what you had expected? If so, what game was it? We really want to know. We also want to know if yours truly, Nintendo Power, has ever steered you wrong." Oh man, after seeing AVGN's reviews of trashy NES games, I'd like to see some of those mails that came in. And I agree with the Super FX chip mail seeing as how "Star Fox" is the one game I ever got seizures from. It was a good game, but back in the day graphics is what we cared about most (either that or sequels).
Vol 54: This is my favorite quote ever from Nintendo. I think it's on page 87.
"If you had passed on the NES because you heard in early 1991 that the Super NES was on its way, you would have missed out on Super Mario Bros. 3, the biggest selling game of all time. In a dynamic industry like this, there will always be tempting new products on the horizon. Just think what you would miss if you were always waiting for the next great thing to come along: You'd end up waiting, period."
Vol 56: Nintendo mentions great games that are in Japan but not localized (and probably never will). One of them is Mother. Yup, "EarthBound Zero". Nintendo's comment to go along with it is that RPGs weren't popular in America at the time (Dragon Warrior didn't sell anywhere as well in the USA as it did Japan). So I guess it just wouldn't have made business sense to bring it over here.
I forget what issue it was, but there was a game that was so bad that in the Now Playing section, Nintendo publicly admitted it was a bad game just in their tone. There was no playful short summary of it, just that it was frustrating, and the included critic reviews brought it down even more. I think it was a Game Boy game.