Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

“Plug into the power,” urges this small folding insert that came out of an NES game box. Back in the 1980s, before the World Wide Web, the only feasible way for gamers to get a hand with games was through magazines like Nintendo Power. This flier sums up just what we read Nintendo Power for 25 years ago: it’s the maps and the strategies that let us cheat our way through these obtusely designed titles.

This particular flier shows off a complete world map for The Legend of Zelda, naturally far too small to be of much use in this context. Also provided is an exploit of some careless coding in Blaster Master: it turns out you can pause the game after chucking a grenade at some enemies and the grenade will continue to do damage to the enemy while paused. This is even worse than the pause-button exploit when facing the Yellow Devil in Mega Man, where pausing and unpausing repeatedly allowed a successful hit to do multiple damage!

Where is that kid with the crazy hat on the front of this thing now? Boy’s got an oven dial on his head. Head below for the other side, where they speak of a magical time when Nintendo Power only published six issues a year, but gave you a free strategy guide with your $15/year subscription every other month. Click either image to enlarge.