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"NOM vs Cube"

We’ve had so may console wars people thinking “Hmmm, I will post about the GameCube vs the X-Box, that will be good.” But I’m looking at something different. What about wars about the magazines that talk about console wars? Which Ninty magazine is best? The newly born, unofficial magazine, Cube, or the official magazine, that’s been around for ages? When you think about, official magazines should be the better ones, but sadly, this isn’t always true. If anyone gets either of these magazines, please tell me if you think I’m right or not. I’m going to review each magazine in sections and at the end give it a score out of 10.

SCREENSHOTS
Cube: Cube is probably one of the best magazines I’ve seen for screenshots. They try to cram as many screenshots as they can onto one page/column. You’ll see more screenshots in previews than any other magazines, it will really give you an image of what the game is like, even with games that not much is known about it like Animal leader. The other games like Rogue Leader has about 3 whole pages full of screenshots. Also Cube have a strict policy not make a preview from a couple of dodgy screenshots.
10/10
NOM: NOM has an average amount of screenshots, not loads, not hardly any. For some previews there is only 1 screenshot, which doesn’t really give you much of a picture of the games. Yet the magazine still does give you enough screenshots. In short, there is a reasonable amount, but there could be more if they tried.
8/10

RUMOURS
Cube: This is one of Cubes faults, there is a great lack in rumours in the magazine. Most of the magazine is facts. Now don’t get me wrong, facts are useful things, but rumours are even better. A game you’ve been wanting to see for ages comes up as a rumour and it’s more exciting than a fact. But Cube really does lack this.
2/10
NOM: NOM is very good with rumours, any little thing they hear will go in their magazine. Whether it’s rumoured release dates or the release of Q in the UK, you can guarantee that NOM will have it their magazine. It even has a section about rumours titled “Fast News”. Now I know when you see the word “News” you’ll think they aren’t rumours, but most of them are. A small minority is news, but the rest of it is rumours, whether true or not.
9/10

PREVIEWS
Cube: Cubes previews are quite weak. Okay so they do have a huge amount of screenshots to get your juices going, but the actual text is very short and doesn’t go in to much depth and detail, but this is only some of their previews, sorry if I gave you the wrong idea at first, but some of their previews are massive and give you more than you want to know. So a very mixed quality in previews.
7/10
NOM: NOM seem to have a strict rule in writing previews and that is, they write 4 or 5 paragraphs about a game and then say, no matter what game it is, “This game is going to be brilliant, no matter what!” They do get a couple of screenshots in there, but not as much as you would want. For instance, in a Scorpion King preview there was only two screenshots, not enough for the gamers out there that want to see what the game is like!
3/10

REVIEWS
Cube: Cubes reviews really show that their magazine is worth buying every month. As well as having a huge amount of screenshots to quench your insatiable thirst for in game shots, maybe even more than you would want to. You get loads of information and the basic jist of the game, if you want a magazine for top quality reviews, this is the magazine for you.
10/10
NOM: NOMs reviews are average, a bit of text, a bit of screenshots. But nevertheless, this magazine still tells you what’s required to know in a review, the sound effects/music, the graphics, the gamplay, the replay value and all the others you can think of. The reviews aren’t bad, they’re just not as good as Cube’s.
8/10

INTERACTION
Cube: In terms of interaction, Cube has the minimum. They aren’t very many competitions for you to enter, maybe one a month. Also there is one small section for letters and only about four a month get picked. There’s another section called the cheating monkeys, where you ask for cheats and tips, but nothing special. But after I’ve said all this, you must take into consideration that this magazine has just started up.
5/10
NOM: NOM is brilliant for competitions, questions, tips and much more. First of all let’s start off with Club Mario. Club Mario has a section for you writing in and having your say. Whether you win or not, you still get an answer, there are quite a few places to get in and 3 or 4 winners, so it’s a good deal if you ask me. Next we come to the scores part, this is where you can try to be the best, also if you come 1st in a hall of fame you get an N64 controller, nice little added extra for, also if you come 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th you get a heap of prizes in the mega challenge, what fun. The best competition by far is the Blag Fest, simply answer one question to win a great prize such as Golden Sun. Now we get to the cheats section, all you have to do is send in a cheat or tip and if it gets in the magazine you win a prize, brilliant!
10/10

SIZE
Cube: Cube a pretty huge magazine. With about 130 pages in it. But about 5 pages are taken up with adverts, still this is by far the bigger magazine.
9/10
NOM: NOM usually has about 100 pages in it’s magazine, so quite a bit can fit in also only about 3 pages are taken up with adverts.
7/10

OVERALL
It’s quite obvious that Cube is the winner, but they do have to take into consideration a bit more interaction perhaps and fill up those advert pages with some rumours maybe? As for NOM, it may be the only Official Nintendo Magazine in Britain, but a lot of improvement is needed, in the previews for instance.
Cube: 4/6
NOM: 2/6

Thanks for reading

RiCkOsS

I personally prefer NOM because they review Gameboy Advance games as well and give you better free gifts. But I also buy Computer and Video Games magazine, GBX, Cube and NGC(which you didn't mention at all).

They have to say a game is brilliant. They could at least say "This COULD be a great if....." get what i'm saying? Anyway, when they review games they say some of them are crap.

NOM dont have to say that though

We've already gone through this before on older posts, comparing old 64 magazines to NOM. The reason that NOM is written the way that it is, is because it is officially licensed by Nintendo and they cannot go around saying how crap games are. No matter how bad a game is, they have to give it a good rating and point out some good features. If you ever saw the rating for South Park, all the little kiddies who got the chance to review it gave it 95% to 100% and the magazine also gave it over 90%. I went out and bought it because of this and believe me this game was absolutely crap! When I looked at the unofficial mags I saw that the game had got pretty poor reviews. But this will always happen with officialy licensed magazines, a company will not fund a magazine and give it an official license if its gonna go around saying that all games are completely crap, you want to have the mag promote your games so that you can get more money. Unofficial mags can say how bad games are as they dont get any money on how well games sell so if a game is crap then it gets a crap rating.
But apart from the reviews in the magazine they did have some other good sections but when I buy a magazine, I always get it so that I can get reviews on games and see whether they are worth buying.

Joe Dark wrote:
> I got CUBE today but cant comment as I havent looked at it yet but if its as god
> as the other issues ill enjoy reading. I couldnt find EDGE anywhere ein Town
> today.

I was in a magazine too you know Rob! That magazine may be fireman Sam
> magazine for the best drawing of Sam but thats not the point. (I was 6!!)

LOL! :-D I used to get that.......

I got CUBE today but cant comment as I havent looked at it yet but if its as god as the other issues ill enjoy reading. I couldnt find EDGE anywhere ein Town today.

I was in a magazine too you know Rob! That magazine may be fireman Sam magazine for the best drawing of Sam but thats not the point. (I was 6!!)

Indian-DudeY2K wrote:
> RìÇkø§$ wrote:
> i remember when you were in NOM,
> Rob.

yep , i kept that magazine perfect so i can show my kids , i was in a
> magazine. Ive still got the big padded envelope that they sent me my control and
> rumble pack in , why you ask ??? just incase i ever need to use it for something
> (and sentimental reasons ;-))

Lol "Here we are, children, this is the magazine with my name in!" "That could be anyone, Dad!" "Get to your rooms, now!!!" :-D

Hey, Indian Dude Y2K. Thanks for participating in my post in the FOG chat. Remember to check back next week for the next edition!

RìÇkø§$ wrote:
> i remember when you were in NOM, Rob.

yep , i kept that magazine perfect so i can show my kids , i was in a magazine. Ive still got the big padded envelope that they sent me my control and rumble pack in , why you ask ??? just incase i ever need to use it for something (and sentimental reasons ;-))

AfroJoe wrote:
> I think I'll buy Cube, and if I like it I'll get the 2 issues I've missed, and
> get a full subscription. I want to see a mag go from the start.

Is it worth
> it?

How much?
£3.20 , and it is worth it ;-)