This week I'm recapping the last issue of Nintendo Fun Club News. From here on, we enter the realm of Nintendo Power. It's just a shame that Fun Club News goes out with a whimper.

Game Reviewed:

Wizards & Warriors

Addendum: In this video, when talking about LJN, I bring up the "rainbow of crap" reputation that the label has - at this time LJN wasn't a label yet (ala Konami and Ultra). It wouldn't become a label of Acclaim until 1989, when Acclaim bought them out. Mia culpa.

This week the Nintendo Power Recaps reach issue #6 of the Nintendo Fun Club News.

But, really, I was very surprised to find only one game featured in this issue of the magazine - hence the fudging and reviewing NES Golf. Hopefully I won't have to do this in the future. (*knocks on wood*)

This week, due to an error on my part from the last installment, I'm covering two issues of Nintendo Fun Club News - Issues #4 & #5

Games Reviewed:

• RC Pro-Am
• Ice Hockey
• The Goonies II

Also, in this episode I think I've finally improved somewhat in terms of my transitions, so that the video flows better, instead of just having jarring cut into jarring cut into jarring cut. Let me know what you think and if there's any advice on how to improve my editing, let me know.

Time for part 2, featuring Benkei.

I had to edit a chunk out of the middle, due to not realizing that the recording wasn't actually paused when I stepped up to deal with some schtuff. I would say that this won't happen again, except that I'll probably run into this situation at least once in the future.

It's been a while since I last tried to do a Let's Play, so I'm going to give it another go, with a let's play for Genji: Days of the Blade.

So, the way I'm doing this is I've recorded gameplay for the first 2 and a half levels using AverMedia's set-top box, and I'm recording commentary after the fact - so I can't be too responsive to gameplay requests, I'm afraid.

I'm continuing with the Nintendo Power Retrospective with Fun Club News Issue #3, covering Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!, Rad Racer, Kid Icarus, and Metroid.

No game audio this time - for some reason the audio didn't get captured. I'll have to look into that to figure out why. Also, boy did the Fun Club News have a lot of ads.

This week I'm taking a look at Nintendo Fun Club News issue 2, with thoughts on Legend of Zelda, Pro Wrestling, Slalom and Volleyball.

I managed to include some game audio this time, focusing on the opening music. This is partly as a nod to Chrontendo, a really good web series that you should be watching, and partly because we've got Legend of Zelda, with its opening music.

While Legend of Zelda is on the cover of the next issue of the Fun Club, I'm going to hold off on revisiting it until the first issue of Nintendo Power, where it comes up again - then I'll discuss the Second Quest.

This week I start with the retro video gaming, as I make my way through Nintendo Power, one issue (or so) at a time, starting with the first issue of the Nintendo Fun Club News, and a little background about how Nintendo Power came to be.

Wil Wheaton's Blog Entry about the tournament

Other little notes: I forgot to discuss the music in Super Mario Bros that was an absolute oversight on my part. It isn't helped by the fact that I forgot to record game audio when did the gameplay capture. Other than that, Excitebike and Hogan's Alley have essentially no music to speak of, save for some little bits at the title screen.

It's time for another book review this time, or rather a review of a book that inspired a computer game - Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy (feat. Larry Bond)

EDIT: Something I didn't mention in the review - the Red Storm Rising Computer game was the first computer game to be published by Red Storm Studios, who would later go on to create the Rainbow Six series, among other Clancy tie-in games, until they were bought out by Ubisoft.

Also, why isn't there a franchise page for the Harpoon series on the wiki? I should probably get on that.

This week I'm taking a look at Arthur C. Clarke's classic SF novel, Rendezvous With Rama (which in turn inspired the game for the Apple II & Commodore 64, among other systems).

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Their web page is http://gamersagainstbigotry.org/

The campaign ends on August 1st, 2012 - so donate now!

Now, I haven't played the Rendezvous With Rama PC games. However, I am interested in giving them a try in the future. If you've played them and have read the novel - please let me know how they compare. Thanks!