The cover features a clay scene depicting Super Mario USA, which is featured in the issue with a 20-page special.
The first thing you see when you open the magazine is an ad for the Nintendo Power Line (206-885-7529).
Super Mario Bros. 2
The guide begins by explaining the controls and basic mechanics, followed by lists of items and enemies. These are followed by annotated maps of each level of worlds 1 and 2.
Zelda: The Second Quest Begins
This guide shows the locations of each dungeon and gives a map and strategy guide for each. For the first six levels, the maps consist of screenshots of each room, but the last three just show the layout of the rooms, probably because they are so big.
The guide ends with a teaser for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It claims "You will be traveling in a far more vast Overworld.", but I am a bit skeptical of that. A quick search didn't reveal any solid numbers about how many tiles the Zelda 2 overworld is, but I'd be surprised if it were far more vast.
Baseball Round Up
A comparison of three NES baseball games.
- Bases Loaded
- Major League Baseball
- R.B.I. Baseball
Counselors' Corner
Tips from the pros for beating tough games. In this issue:
- Ghosts'n Goblins: "In Ghosts 'N Goblins, is there a Stage Select? Also, how do I beat the Red Devil?"
- Ring King: "While I'm playing Ring King, sometimes the letter P appears in the ring. What does it mean?"
- Metroid: "In Metroid, I have a hard time finding the Power-up items. I usually get wiped out before I find them. Can you help?"
- Super Mario Bros.: "Are there really unlimited 1-UPs? Plus, can you tell me how to get the fireworks and what they mean?"
- Explains the famous 3-1 trick. They suggest getting only around 100 lives, because "If you get too greedy, the program has a built-in 'Game Over.'" That's a novel way of saying 'bug', I think.
- Suggests ending the with timer on a 6 to get the most points from the fireworks. Of course, speedrunners will waste time to avoid getting fireworks.
- Kid Icarus: "No matter what I do, I cannot beat Hewdraw. Please give me some advice."
- Rygar: "I figured out how to get Pegasus' flute, but now I don't know what to do with it!"
- Castlevania: "No matter how many times I try, I can't seem to beat the five boss characters. Can you give me some pointers?"
- Ikari Warriors: "Is there a secret built-in Continue or Stage Select for this game?"
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!: "I've had several bouts with Tyson, however, I have never beaten him. Please help, I want to win the Dream Bout!"
Welcome to Classified Information, the place where programmers and pros reveal top-secret program quirks and ultra techniques.
- Ice Hockey
- Contra
- Gun.Smoke
- Rad Racer
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
- Arkanoid
- Ring King
- Ninja Kid
- Zanac
Double Dragon
An overview of the game, including maps.
Gauntlet
Maps of the first three rooms. Not much of a feature!
Contra
Maps of Zones 1 and 3.
NES Game Shows
Basically just a two-page ad for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!.
Video Shorts
A listing of new games, including those to be released before the next issue, with descriptions and screenshots.
- Legendary Wings
- Iron Tank
- Gun.Smoke
- Rambo
- Dragon Power
- Metal Gear
- Bionic Commando
- City Connection
- Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
- Star Force
- Freedom Force
Pak Watch
Upcoming games.
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Chesterfield
- Terra Cresta
- Golgo 13
- 1943
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: "The latest word on Zelda II is that it will definitely be available in stores by October."
- Jackal
- Blaster Master
- Empire City 1931
- Simon's Quest
- World Games
- Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf
- Platoon
- Life Force
- Robocop
- Xenophobe
- Marble Madness
- California Games
NES Journal
- World News
- Dragon Quest 3 is popular in Japan. Enix says: "We expect total sales of 5 million!"
- Describes an arcade tank game, Vindicators.
- "Celebrity profile! Kirk and Candace Cameron"
- Books
- The Official Nintendo Player's Guide
- Zelda Tips & Tactics
- Events
- Devin "Devil" White of Minneapolis, MN won the top prize of $5000 in Konami's Top Gun Video Game Shoot Out Contest.
- Movie
- Vibes
- Pee-Wee's Big Top
- Eight Men Out
- Mail Box
- June Mayfield of Dallas, TX describes how both she and her grandson (ages 55 and 7, respectively) enjoy playing NES games.
- Jason Nute of Beaverton, OR, on Metroid: "You must go back and read the instructions to get more clues. If you don't want to get lost in this planet, you must make maps." How times have changed!
NES Achievers
A high score listing. How to get on it? Take a photo of your screen with a 35mm camera, of course.
Scores for:
- 1942
- Arkanoid
- Balloon Fight
- Castlevania
- Commando
- Contra
- Donkey Kong
- Duck Hunt
- Excitebike
- Golf
- Gradius
- Hogan's Alley
- Jaws
- Karate Champ
- Karate Kid
- Kung Fu
- Lode Runner
- Mega Man
- Pinball
- Rush 'n Attack
- Solomon's Key
- Super Mario Bros.
- A table of identical scores of 9,999,950, headed by Cliff Bleszinski (misspelled as "Cliff Blezinski")
- Top Gun
- Wild Gunman
- Wrecking Crew
- Zanac
Video Spotlight
People brag about their game-playing prowess. This is in response to a request in the Feb-March 1988 issue of the Nintendo Fun Club News.
One, Trey Sullivan of Raymore, MO claims that in Super Mario Bros. his "fastest game without warping and saving the Princess was 10 minutes and 23 seconds". Quite a feat, considering that the current world record for that is about 19 minutes.
Top 30
The top 30 NES games, combined from polls of 'players', 'pros', and 'dealers'. Not sure exactly who they sampled or how.
Heading the list:
- The Legend of Zelda
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
- Metroid
- Super Mario Bros.
- Kid Icarus
- R.C. Pro-Am
- Ice Hockey
- Rad Racer
- Top Gun
- Double Dribble