Cover of Issue #18 (April 2003): The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Cover of Issue #20 (June 2003): Mega Man 15th Anniversary Special (collectible cover 2 of 2)

The infamous Final Fantasy VIII screenshot

GameNOW (occasionally abbreviated to GN) is a United States-based video game magazine that was published by Ziff-Davis from November 2001 to January 2004. There are 27 issues of GameNOW in total. In addition to video game consoles like PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance, GameNOW also covered games for personal computers. Image File history File links GameNOW_Issue18. ... Image File history File links GameNOW_Issue18. ... The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (or Zeruda no Densetsu: Kaze no Takuto in Japan) is the ninth game in the well-known The Legend of Zelda series of video games. ... Image File history File links GameNOW_Issue20_Cover2. ... Image File history File links GameNOW_Issue20_Cover2. ... Mega Man , Rockman), is a video game character created by Keiji Inafune and is the title character of what has been referred to as the Classic Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. ... Image File history File links Final_Fantasy_8_Pic. ... Image File history File links Final_Fantasy_8_Pic. ... Final Fantasy VIII ) is a console and computer role-playing game created by Square Co. ... A video game magazine is a magazine that talks about video games on PC, other computers or video game consoles. ... Ziff-Davis Inc. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) ) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft. ... The Nintendo GameCube (Japanese: ゲームキューブ; originally code-named Dolphin during development; abbreviated as GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the 128-bit era; the same generation as Segas Dreamcast, Sonys PlayStation 2, and Microsofts Xbox. ... GBA redirects here. ...

History

GameNOW's roots began in July 1994 when the popular magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly launched a spin-off magazine called EGM². EGM² was essentially "another EGM," only without a reviews section and a greater emphasis on import games. The magazine lasted 49 issues with the last issue coming out in July 1998. Cover for issue number 203: Too Human. ... Cover of the first issue of EGM2 (#1, July 1994): Super Street Fighter II vs. ...

Starting in August 1998, EGM² became Expert Gamer (often abbreviated to XG), and the magazine's focus shifted away from news and previews to strategy and tricks. Despite the different name, XG continued EGM²'s numbering system. XG lasted for 39 issues until October 2001 (with the last issue being XG #88). Cover of the final issue of Expert Gamer (#88, October 2001): Mario Kart: Super Circuit. ...

The next month (November 2001), XG morphed into its newest form, GameNOW. Although GameNOW maintained a healthy tricks section and occasional strategy guides, the magazine's focus shifted to in-depth previews and reviews. Skewed to a slightly younger audience than that of EGM (roughly 12 to 14-years-olds), GameNOW concentrated less on industry insider-type features and more on the actual video games, including numerous large screenshots and elaborate feature articles.

In November 2002 (issue #13), the GameNOW staff was almost completely replaced when Ziff-Davis moved its video game magazines from the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, Illinois to San Francisco, California. Of the original staff, only two writers made the move to California. Shortly after the move, the magazine underwent a massive redesign, which greatly improved the look of the magazine. Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a cultural phenomenon. ... Template:Chicagoland McCity Oak Brook is a suburb of Chicago in DuPage County, Illinois in the Elmhurst-Villa Park-Lombard-Oakbrook area. ... Nickname: The City by the Bay; Fog City Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: Country United States of America State California City-County San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Area    - City 122 km²  (47 sq mi)  - Land 121. ...

Staff

The magazine's original editorial staff consisted of the following crew:

• Editor-in-Chief - Dan Leahy
• Managing Editor - Justyn Harkin
• Associate Editors - Phil Theobald, Ethan Einhorn
• Senior Art Director - Carey Wise
• Associate Art Directors - Dave Malec, Mark Manzo (Mark would eventually become an Associate Editor)

Once the magazine was relocated to San Francisco, the staff consisted of:

• Editor-in-Chief - Tom Byron
• Managing Editor - Carrie Shepherd
• Associate Editors - Phil Theobald, Ethan Einhorn, Miguel Lopez, Sushi-X
• Senior Art Director - Andrew Burwell
• Associate Art Director - Nicole Tanner

The return of Sushi-X

GameNOW #16 (February 2003) featured the long-awaited return of the legendary EGM review ninja, Sushi-X. An expert on fighting games, an actual photo of Sushi never appeared in the magazine. Instead, he was always shown as a pixelized, 16-bit era sprite. Even in this form, he still featured his trademark red keikogi, katana, and sai. EGMs resident review ninja: Sushi-X Sushi-X was a popular character played by many Electronic Gaming Monthly and GameNOW editors. ... Keikogi (稽古着 or 稽古衣) is a Japanese word which means uniform for training (keiko means practice, gi means dress or clothes), another posibility is to use the word Dogi which means the uniform you wear on the path that you have been chosen, if you put the name of the sport itself... Diagram showing the parts of a katana Katana (刀) is the word for sword in the Japanese language. ... Two sai For other meanings of the word sai, see Sai (disambiguation). ...

Sushi's reviews differed from the other editor's reviews in that they were written with more flowery prose and were peppered with references to his ninja training and his quest for enlightenment.

Magazine departments

Like most magazines, GameNOW features many recurring sections. These included:

Regular sections

• Rants & Raves - GameNOW's letters section was popular among its readers for its humorous and sarcastic tone. GameNOW wasn't afraid to poke fun at its readers, and many readers would write in hoping to be "zinged" in the pages of the magazine. Rants & Raves was home to several inside jokes among GameNOW's readership, including the frequent use of a particular screenshot from the PlayStation game Final Fantasy VIII.
• GameNOW Gallery - A two-page spread that focused on showing large screenshots and character artwork from upcoming games. This section is notable for featuring a spread highlighting Rare's original character designs for Joanna Dark in Perfect Dark Zero (issue #15, January 2003) and a spread showing several screenshots from the unreleased GBA game Shantae Advance (issue #25, November 2003).
• Hot 10 - A previews section that counted down the top ten best games coming out each month.
• Now Playing - GameNOW's review section. The magazine's review scale was much like a school's report card, with grades ranging from A+ to F. As you might expect, a C grade denoted that the game was average.
• The A+ Club - A section that called special attention to all the games that received GameNOW's highest review score, an A+.
• The F Troupe - The polar opposite of The A+ Club. This section called out every game that received GameNOW's lowest score, an F. The F Troupe's mascot was Poo, an anthropomorphic piece of cartoon poop that the GameNOW editors created in the PlayStation 2 game Magic Pengel.
• Tricks Now - A multi-page section near the back of the magazine that contained cheat codes for the latest games.
• Animal Crossing Bulletin Board - A small feature than ran within the Tricks Now section from issue #14 (December 2002) to issue #25 (November 2003). It featured strategies for the GameCube game Animal Crossing and original patterns that you could recreate with the game's pattern designer. Among the custom patterns were the GameNOW logo and a recreation of GameNOW's legendary Final Fantasy VIII screenshot.

Final Fantasy VIII ) is a console and computer role-playing game created by Square Co. ... Rare, Ltd. ... Joanna Dark is the female protagonist of the Perfect Dark video game franchise developed by Rare. ... Perfect Dark Zero is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft exclusively for the Xbox 360 video game console. ... Shantae is a game created by Matt Bozon for the Game Boy Color. ... Magic Pengel (also known as Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color as its full title and as Rakugaki Kingdom in Japan), is a PS2 game, published by Agetec and released in June 2003. ... Animal Crossing, known as Animal Forest or Dōbutsu no Mori ) in Japan, is a life simulation video game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. ...

Fan Club

When GameNOW began, Fan Club was the name of the letters section that ran in the back of the magazine. Starting with issue #4 (February 2002), the Fan Club section was expanded to include regular (and often humorous) mini-features in addition to the reader mail.

In issue #14 (December 2002), the letters section was moved to the front of the magazine and renamed Rants & Raves. The mini-features were retained in the now expanded Fan Club section in the back of the magazine.

Among the regular mini-features were:

• Top Ten - Although these top ten lists were often played straight by counting down the top ten games in a specific series or genre, there were occasional lists that were made for laughs.
• Crap from the Past - Poked fun at terrible older video games.
• Hot or Not - A lighthearted look at what the editors were into that month.
• Gamerdex - Inspired by the Pokédex from Nintendo's Pokémon series, this section highlighted a different type of gamer, including an illustration of the gamer.
• Gaming Evolution - Took a video game character or series and traced its evolution from its humble beginnings to its current success. The section also made note of the subject's most embarrassing moments.
• Fan Letter Art - Envelope art sent in by the GameNOW readers.
• $10 Treasures - Discussed discount games available for the PlayStation.
• Giuseppe Contelli's What If? - A spotlight for long-time EGM², Expert Gamer, and GameNOW reader Giuseppe Contelli's nonsensical "What If" scenarios. A prime example: What if Bullet Bill did attract Joanna Dark and she reads the inscription, "I am in love with yours" on him?
• Cool Job - A short interview with video game industry insiders where they explained what their job involved and how they got it. A notable interview subject was Charles Martinet, Nintendo's voice of Mario.
• Super Lucky Love Love Japan - A section that highlighted import games, anime-based games, and anime. This section is an evolved version of the old feature, Super Lucky Imports.
• Game Critter Super-Squad! - A comic strip by cartoonist Jeremy "Norm" Scott, the creator of Hsu and Chan (of which GCSS was a spin-off).

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂 or ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ... The official Pokémon logo. ... Monty Mole with a Bullet Bill and Bob-omb from Super Mario Sunshine Bullet Bill is an enemy character from the Mario video game series. ... Charles Martinet Charles Martinet (born September 17, 1955, in San Jose, California) is an American voice actor, best known for providing the voice of Mario, the star of Nintendos flagship franchise. ... Mario ) is a video game character created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and is the official mascot of Nintendo. ... Anime ) (IPA pronunciation: in Japanese, but typically or in English) is an abbreviation of the word animation. Outside Japan, the term most popularly refers to animation originating in Japan. ... Jimmy and Gila Mobster in the second Game Critter Super-Squad! comic strip from GameNOW issue #20. ... Jeremy Norm Scott is the creator of the comic strip Hsu and Chan that appears the video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly. ... Hsu and Chan is a comic created by Norm Scott that appears in the video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly. ...

List of issues

The following is a list of all the GameNOW issues including what was on the cover:

• Issue #1, November 2001 - Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube)
• Issue #2, December 2001 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube)
• Issue #3, January 2002 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color)
• Issue #4, February 2002 - Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube)
• Issue #5, March 2002 - Pac-Man World 2 (PlayStation 2)
• Issue #6, April 2002 - Tekken 4 (PlayStation 2)
• Issue #7, May 2002 - Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku/Dragon Ball Z: Collectible Card Game (Game Boy Advance)
• Issue #8, June 2002 - NFL 2K3 (PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube)
• Issue #9, July 2002 - WWE WrestleMania X8 (GameCube)
• Issue #10, August 2002 - Fall's Big Games Issue 2002
• Issue #11, September 2002 - Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube)
• Issue #12, October 2002 - Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (PlayStation 2)
• Issue #13, November 2002 - Star Fox Adventures (GameCube)
• Issue #14, December 2002 - 007: Nightfire (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube)
• Issue #15, January 2003 - The Two Towers (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube)
• Issue #16, February 2003 - Dragon Ball Z: Budokai (PlayStation 2)
• Issue #17, March 2003 - Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses (PlayStation 2)
• Issue #18, April 2003 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube)
• Issue #19, May 2003 - Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (PlayStation 2)
• Issue #20, June 2003 - Mega Man 15th Anniversary Special

Note: This issue shipped with two different covers — one features Mega Man's original design and one featuring the Mega Man Battle Network version of the character

• Issue #21, July 2003 - Hulk (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube)
• Issue #22, August 2003 - 50 Hot Games of Fall 2003
• Issue #23, September 2003 - Soul Calibur II (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube)
• Issue #24, October 2003 - Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (GameCube)
• Issue #25, November 2003 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube)

Note: This issue shipped with four different covers — one for each of the four Ninja Turtles

• Issue #26, December 2003 - Final Fantasy Blowout
• Issue #27, January 2004 - Yu Yu Hakusho: Spirit Detective (Game Boy Advance)

Super Mario Sunshine is a 3-D platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. ... Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 is a video game in the Tony Hawks Series . ... Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone in the United States) is the name of five distinct video games. ... Super Smash Bros. ... Pac-Man World 2 is a video game by Namco for Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and PC released in 2002 . ... Tekken 4 is the fifth installment in the Tekken video game franchise, and was the second in the Tekken series for the PlayStation 2. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... WWE WrestleMania X8 is a video game released on the Nintendo GameCube. ... Super Mario Sunshine is a 3-D platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. ... Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is a platform game by Sucker Punch Productions, released on the Sony PlayStation 2 in 2002. ... Star Fox Adventures is a Nintendo GameCube game in the Star Fox series released on September 23, 2002 in North America, September 27, 2002 in Japan, and September 30, 2002 in Europe. ... Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses, known in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! True Duel Monsters 2: Succeeded Memories (遊戯王 真デュエルモンスターズ２), a video game for PlayStation 2 in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series, is loosely based on the real-world English Wars of the Roses. ... The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (or Zeruda no Densetsu: Kaze no Takuto in Japan) is the ninth game in the well-known The Legend of Zelda series of video games. ... Mega Man , Rockman), is a video game character created by Keiji Inafune and is the title character of what has been referred to as the Classic Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. ... This article is about the game Mega Man Battle Network, first game in the MegaMan Battle Network. ... Hulk is one of the video games. ... Soul Calibur II is the sequel to Soul Calibur and the third game in the Soul fighting game series. ... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a video game of the action-adventure genre released in 2003 by Konami. ... Final Fantasy ) is a series of computer and console role-playing games produced by Square Enix (originally Square Co. ...

April Fool's

It's a tradition among Ziff-Davis' video game magazines (particularly Electronic Gaming Monthly), to plant an April's Fools joke in the April issue. During its brief history, GameNOW only had one April Fool's joke, but it was a doozy.

In issue #6 (April 2002), on page 42, there was a one-page preview for an Xbox game called Metal Gear Solid X. Before Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance was announced for either PlayStation 2 or Xbox, GameNOW ran this preview for the fake game. MGSX was said to be an Xbox port of the PlayStation 2 game, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The biggest selling point of this game was that if you played through the game once, you unlocked a bonus mode that let you play through the game again as the series' main hero, Solid Snake, instead of MGS2's hero, Raiden. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is a stealth-based game developed by Konami for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC and first released in 2002. ... Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (commonly abbreviated MGS2) is a stealth-based game that was developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. ... Solid Snake ) is the protagonist of the Metal Gear video game series. ...

Additionally, extra features in the Solid Snake mode included the return of Nastasha Romanenko (from the original Metal Gear Solid), a boss fight against Revolver Ocelot, the chance to assist Raiden in battles from the first play-through (this time from Snake's point of view), and access to previously locked areas of Big Shell. Metal Gear Solid ) (commonly abbreviated to MGS) is a stealth-based game directed by Hideo Kojima. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with List of recurring Metal Gear characters. ...

The preview featured seven very convincing (yet phony) screenshots of the new features. It is interesting to note that the two screenshots that show Snake wandering through a red office building were actually photographs of the GameNOW offices that had their colors altered and the Metal Gear characters inserted into them. Also, in the first-person screenshot that shows Snake in a helicopter shooting down at a Harrier jet, the hand that you see holding the gun belongs to Mike Vallas, the man who created the fake screens. The Boeing/BAE Systems AV-8B Harrier II is a family of second-generation vertical/short takeoff and landing or V/STOL jet mullti-role aircraft of the late 20th century. ...

A few European websites took scans of the preview and posted them as news.

Trivia

• The back cover of GameNOW #1 features one of the only appearances of a specific ad for Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader for GameCube. The ad features a glass cube containing a crashed TIE interceptor inside it. The glass on one side of the cube is cracked and purple smoke is pouring out of the crashed (and flaming) ship. LucasArts, the company that created the game, had placed the ad shortly before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In light of the attacks, the company felt that it was in the best taste to withdraw the ad. However, the first issue of GameNOW had already been printed by the time of the attacks and before LucasArts could withdraw the ad, making GameNOW #1 one of the only places to see this ad in print (it also appeared in a concurrent issue of Tips & Tricks magazine).
• Super Mario Sunshine was the cover story on GameNOW #1 despite the only content relating to the game in that issue being a small news article announcing the title (which wouldn't be released until roughly a year later). The reason for this is that when GameNOW was in the planning stages, a mock-up cover for issue #1 was created with a big picture of Mario as the primary piece of cover art (along with a blurb mentioning the GameCube game Super Smash Bros. Melee). The Ziff-Davis execs liked the mock-up cover so much that they insisted that it become the actual cover for the first issue. A quick news story (and cover blurb) had to be written up to make the cover relevant to the rest of the issue.
• GameNOW's original layout and design was strikingly similar to the British Nintendo magazine N64 Magazine (which was eventually renamed NGC). Even the four multi-colored spots below GameNOW's logo were "heavily inspired" by N64 Magazine's logo. GameNOW's design moved away from the look of N64 Magazine after GameNOW's redesign in February 2003 (issue #16).
• If you line up issues #16-27 (the last year's worth of issues), you'll see a familiar sight on the spines — the recurring Final Fantasy VIII screenshot that had become an in-joke among GameNOW readers (originally started in Expert Gamer).
• The final issue of GameNOW was a special 3D issue. By using the ChromaDepth 3D glasses that came with the issue, certain images seemed to pop off of the page. Even the Game Critter Super-Squad! comic was colored in such a way to take advantage of the 3D effect.
• The back of GameNOW was the first media to mention the existance of WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne.

The TIE Interceptor, or T/I, a fictional starfighter in the Star Wars universe, is an improved version of the TIE fighter, that is identifiable by its bent-wing and arrow-shaped side wing panels, as distinct from the hexagonal ones on its predecessor craft. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The date that commonly refers to the attacks on United States citizens on September 11, 2001 (see the September 11, 2001 Attacks). ... Super Mario Sunshine is a 3-D platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. ... Super Smash Bros. ... N64 Magazine was a British magazine specialising in the Nintendo 64 console. ...

External links

• Ziff-Davis' official website
• The GameNOW message boards on 1up.com