Nintendo Power Magazine

Nintendo Power was a magazine devoted to promoting Nintendo's video games, consoles, and so on and so forth, as well as providing cheat codes, strategy guides, sneak peeks at upcoming releases, and anything else one might want to know about Nintendo products. The magazine debuted in summer 1988, and was first self-published by Nintendo of America, before switching to Future US in 2007.

Being a Nintendo fanboy, Chris was an avid subscriber of it starting in the 1990s. He would frequently submit letters and/or items to the magazine, plastered his room with posters from the magazine, and actually got his first Pokémon trading card in an issue. He even appeared in some issues, giving him and Sonichu their first glimpses of substantial coverage. Even though dozens of fans were featured in every issue in some form (fan art, fan mail, etc.), Chris firmly believed that making into the magazine was an honor of the highest degree, and that the people over at the magazine actually remembered who he was from the five minutes of fame he had years ago. He also seemed to believe that being featured in the magazine would be a one way ticket to getting a job with Nintendo.

In December 2012, the magazine ceased publication.

The hand-drawn magazine

Main article: Homemade Nintendo Power magazine

Chris maintained constant mail contact with the magazine. One of his letters was about a dream he had where Sega made a Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Game Boy. Not wanting such a good idea to go to waste, Chris then freaking hand-drew his own issue of Nintendo Power, with pencils, marker, and printed-out, cut-and-pasted text. This self-produced magazine detailed how Sonic arbitrarily transferred to Nintendo consoles to release a trio of Sonic games... which are direct copies of existing Mario games. Notably, it's Chris's first major attempt at slavishly recreating a commercial product by hand, as well as the first appearance of Bionic the Hedgehog.

The Animal Crossing documentary

As the years went by, Chris would get better luck with Nintendo correspondence. In the May 2004 issue, Chris, credited as "Sonichu", was highlighted for his jaw-dropping video about his daily life in Animal Crossing. Nintendo Power heaped praise upon the proto-Let's Play, focusing (unsurprisingly) more on Chris's character Sonichu and his in-game accomplishments than the lonesome manchild behind the mask or why he was called Sonichu. Nonetheless, Chris took this as a great stride forward in his quest to achieve video game superstardom without having to exert any effort or develop any kind of skill.

It seems incredible, but someone was actually paid to watch Chris's video for an hour and then write about it; one can only wonder how that person felt about Chris casually singing about his sexual frustration. Note that many of the unique achievements mentioned are actually basic functions of the game any six year old can discover.

Transcript

Sonichu’s Cwcville Documentary Simply amazing. There’s no other way to describe what we received from Sonichu of Cwcville—a full video documentary that walked us through his daily life. His opulent manor contained every manner of furniture. Cwcville’s landscape was filled to the bursting point with all the animals who’d moved to his well-tended town. And Sonichu has customized everything about his town—even many villagers have followed his bold trends, wearing the patterns he has created! (Image captions:) Sonichu has packed the museum with his fads—its bug collection is hopping. He often visits Sonichu Island to bring its high-value coconuts to town. And he uses the spare hut on the island to store his huge collection of oddities. Cwcville is brimming with Sonichu’s patterns, including the popular Poké Ball.

The Sprung letter

Chris's second (and last-known) appearance in Nintendo Power was in the March/April 2005 issue, where he sent a letter detailing how the DS pseudo-dating sim Sprung helped him (very briefly) get over his fear of girls with boyfriends.

Transcript=

DS Equals Dating Service I recently purchased a Nintendo DS and a copy of Sprung. I originally bought the game, because I needed some lessons on what to say to, or do for, a girl. To make a long story short, I developed a fear that all the pretty girls are already paired up with a boyfriend. I’ve dubbed this social phobia, Noviophobia, after the Spanish word for boyfriend. Anyway, before Sprung, I was afraid to approach most women (FYI, I’m 22-years old). I tried to silently attract a boyfriend-free girl, mostly with signs, for over one year and four months. Then Sprung provided me with general things to say and do, so I felt more confident. When I tried my new-found expressions from the dating simulator, I forgot my fear of the infinitely high boyfriend factor, and I met a couple of lady friends with whom I feel more comfortable. So thank you, Nintendo and Ubisoft, for the dating advice that this frustrated virgin needed. Christian C. Via the Internet

Gallery

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  A scrapbook image.

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  Another scrapbook image

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  Now if only the women weren't afraid of him...

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  Chris explains that he has "noviophobia" [sic].

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  Yay!

See also

• Animal Crossing Documentary
• Homemade Nintendo Power magazine
• Sprung