ONM Remembered – Pack-In Week, day 3
“Miyamoto says he’d like to see penguins in all his N64 games. Fortunately these aren’t like Mario Kart‘s kamikaze fowl!”
from 64 Solutions: Pilot Wings / Wave Race (pack-in with 64 Magazine issue 14, April 1998)
Where ONM used glossy printing that made their tips books appear nigh-identical to the manuals you found in Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games, N64 Magazine used cheaper-feeling paper with cardboard covers. ONM went all-out on presentation, often focusing pages on the plethora of official artwork they had to chuck around, while N64 Magazine’s were comparatively spartan, but made up for it with helpful tips and their trademark sass-back.
64 Magazine also offered tips books of their own, coming somewhere in between the two styles: they used cheaper printing, but their house-style graphic design helped organise the proceedings more than N64’s straight-outta-Microsoft-Word aesthetic. They’re a bit wordier, a bit more precise in their support, but also a bit unpredictable with the images: the Pilot Wings coverage had barely any imagery at all if I recall; a screenshot or two to break up the flow, but nothing to aid the write-ups.
Wave Race 64, meanwhile, has got these lush little maps. I haven’t even played Wave Race 64. I can’t imagine what good maps are for a racing game, or if these maps are already viewable in-game, but I’ll reprint anything with a map. Dang it, even in black and white they’re pretty!
