So, Nintendo Gamer magazine is to close, thus ending the Future Publishing unofficial UK Nintendo magazine line that started way back in 1992 with Super Play and continued on through N64, NGC and NGamer before ending up in its current incarnation. To be honest I thought it would at least hang on until the Wii-U (do you write that with a hyphen?) hit, just in case fortunes turned around its dwindling sales figures but it was not to be. 

It is, of course, a sign of the times with many gamers now getting up-to-the-second news from the net and feeling they no longer need to patronise a printed mag but those that stayed with it knew the secret; it's not just about the information.

I've been genuinely touched by all the messages commiserating the end and all their tales of gaming childhoods growing up with the mags. Knowing that I had a tiny part in some of those mags gives me an immense amount of pride and so it was really nice that I was asked to do one more cover. Well, actually two; one for the newsstand and another for the subscribers copy.

So, here's the normal one:

and here's the subscriber copy pic:

I hope they're OK (last minute etc. etc. excuses) and I do wish I'd been able to do something slightly more epic and off-the-wall but there you go. Can't imagine I'll ever get to do another games magazine cover now unless I do my own. Now there's an idea...