Author Topic: Worlds Of Power novelizations of NES games  (Read 7019 times)

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Offline JonLeung

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Worlds Of Power novelizations of NES games
« on: May 31, 2022, 07:59:21 pm »
Figured I'd share my latest collection accomplishment... I got all the "Worlds Of Power" novels, which are books very loosely based on ten NES games, which I also now have!


Here's a close-up of the first five. I already had the Blaster Master and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest books growing up. At the moment, they're the only two I've read, LOL. Blaster Master's story is actually canon to Blaster Master: Blasting Again on the PlayStation, and I believe some characters/elements are in the Blaster Master Zero series (my brother bought them on our Switch but I never got around to playing them yet).


Here's a close-up of the last five. They stopped doing trading cards with tips after the sixth book. The last two books have bigger but fewer pages.  I mention the censoring of weapons below with a later photo, but notice here that they also removed the horns and rounded the tail of the gargoyle for the cover of Before Shadowgate.


The only one I have that still has the trading card intact inside is Ninja Gaiden.


Here's the mirrored tip on the back. Though if you compare it to the previous photo, you'll see that it's actually the exact same tip at the end of the previous chapter.


Here it is, mirrored (or unmirrored?), if you don't feel like trying to read it while reversed.


Here are all the cartridges and books stacked next to each other.


Here's a close-up of some of the censored art. Actually, it looks like the art wasn't taken verbatim, but rather, redrawn. But they omitted the weapons, so these look kind of odd. What are Snake and Mega Man doing?


I ended up buying two of Ninja Gaiden, because the first one I bought was actually a later print that doesn't mention the trading card. And I was looking for the Bases Loaded II: The Second Season book for a while, as it is the last book and seemingly quite rare. Then I suddenly saw two opportunities to get them, and ended up getting both. Might sell one of them later...
« Last Edit: May 31, 2022, 08:14:26 pm by JonLeung »

Offline DarkWolf

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Re: Worlds Of Power novelizations of NES games
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2022, 09:24:53 pm »
These kind of remind me of this book I picked up sometime in the 00s, probably from eBay. This was published in the UK by one of the magazines over there. I do remember Scholastic releasing some Sonic the Hedgehog related stuff here in the states though.


Offline JonLeung

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Re: Worlds Of Power novelizations of NES games
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2022, 09:35:05 pm »
Interesting!  Apparently, there are four of those Sega Power novels, and they came as freebies with Sega Power, a UK gaming magazine, which probably explains why I hadn't heard of them before (being in Canada, in a pre-Internet age, and not into Sega at the time).  Sounds like these might be worth checking out too.  Thanks for mentioning that, DarkWolf!  I learned some things today.