Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
Nintendo Power issue #131, dated April 2000, documents Tony Hawk's Pro Skater at the precise moment the game had cemented its status as a genuine cultural phenomenon extending far beyond the gaming world. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater had been released in September 1999, and by April 2000 — seven months later — it had sold millions of copies, introduced an entirely new genre of sports game, and accomplished something rare in gaming history: it had made skateboarding culture broadly accessible to a mainstream audience while losing none of its authenticity for the skaters who were already invested in the scene. The game's soundtrack, featuring tracks from Dead Kennedys, Goldfinger, Primus, and Rage Against the Machine alongside newer punk and hip-hop artists, had introduced hundreds of thousands of young players to music they would not otherwise have encountered. Its warehouse and schoolyard environments, its trick system, and its score-attack gameplay had created an entirely new vocabulary for sports games that every competitor would spend the next decade trying to replicate. For collectors building a focused archive through the Nintendo Power magazine run of the N64 and early GameCube era, a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater cover issue from the game's post-launch peak is among the most culturally significant the publication produced in the 2000 calendar year.
The "Guts" framing in the listing title likely refers to a Nintendo Power feature format — possibly "Guts" or a similarly branded tips and strategy section — that provided the kind of exclusive gameplay guidance that was the magazine's primary editorial value proposition in the pre-internet era. For players trying to find all the secret tape locations, master the combo chains, and unlock the game's hidden characters and levels, a detailed Nintendo Power strategy feature was genuinely indispensable in April 2000 in ways that are difficult to fully appreciate from the perspective of an era with instant online guides. That practical editorial function, combined with the cover's visual celebration of Tony Hawk and skateboarding culture, made this issue a document that readers kept and referenced rather than simply read and discarded. The included poster — almost certainly featuring Tony Hawk or key imagery from the game — adds the display dimension that made Nintendo Power issues objects as well as publications. Anyone researching gaming and youth culture in early 2000 will find this issue a precise primary document of the Tony Hawk phenomenon at its peak commercial and cultural moment.
The listing also notes the inclusion of collectible Pokémon cards — a detail worth flagging for collectors as a period-specific bonus item. In April 2000, the Pokémon Trading Card Game was still at or near the height of its initial American craze, having launched in the United States in 1998 and generating extraordinary commercial frenzy through 1999 and into 2000. A Nintendo Power issue from this period that included Pokémon cards reflects the magazine's awareness of its readership's overlapping obsessions — Tony Hawk's skateboarding game and Pokémon cards were both defining objects of the same generational cohort's cultural life in early 2000 — and the cards themselves are a secondary collecting consideration for issues where they remain present and unremoved.
About the Publication
Nintendo Power, launched in 1988 as Nintendo of America's official magazine, was by April 2000 still the most widely read gaming publication in the United States, maintaining its circulation on the strength of exclusive Nintendo content, comprehensive strategy guides, and the poster inserts and bonus items that made individual issues objects of collecting value. Its editorial format was designed entirely around the Nintendo gaming ecosystem, and by 2000 it was navigating the transition from the Nintendo 64 to the upcoming GameCube while covering multiplatform titles like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater that were reshaping the gaming landscape. The late-N64 era issues are actively collected for their documentation of one of gaming's most creatively productive periods.
Key Highlights Inside
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater cover feature with strategy content — comprehensive coverage of one of the most culturally significant video games of the late 1990s, published in April 2000 at the height of the game's post-launch commercial and cultural penetration.
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater poster insert — a large-format display piece from the game's peak moment, representing a primary collecting criterion for this issue alongside cover condition; poster-intact copies command a meaningful premium over poster-removed examples.
- Collectible Pokémon cards included — a period-specific bonus item reflecting the simultaneous peak of the Pokémon Trading Card Game craze in early 2000, representing a secondary collecting consideration for issues where cards remain present.
- Tips and strategy content consistent with Nintendo Power's format — the kind of exclusive gameplay guidance that was the magazine's primary practical value for readers navigating Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's score attack, secret tapes, and unlockable content in the pre-internet strategy guide era.
- Note: Specific additional game previews, counselor's corner content, and other editorial features beyond the confirmed Tony Hawk cover story have not been independently verified from the listing. Interior details should be confirmed against a physical copy for comprehensive research purposes.
Condition & Rarity
Surviving copies of this issue in good condition with minor wear typical for its age present the expected profile of a twenty-five-year-old gaming magazine that has been handled through active use before entering a collection. Good condition indicates structural integrity — covers attached, pages present and legible, spine intact — with the light softening and handling marks that characterize a well-read copy of this vintage. A plastic protective sleeve confirms deliberate preservation effort. For this specific issue, the condition and presence of the Tony Hawk poster insert and Pokémon cards are primary evaluation criteria alongside cover condition — complete copies with all original bonus items intact represent the most desirable surviving examples and command a meaningful premium over incomplete copies. This issue attracts Nintendo Power completists, Tony Hawk franchise collectors, early 2000s gaming culture historians, and Pokémon card collectors simultaneously — an unusually broad convergence of collecting communities for a single issue.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Nintendo Power issues from the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater era with intact poster inserts and bonus items are among the more actively sought in the late-N64 collecting category, combining the game's extraordinary cultural footprint with the magazine's characteristic bonus-item appeal. If this April 2000 issue has already found a home, the full Nintendo Power collection at OriginalMagazines.com spans the magazine's coverage of Nintendo's platforms from the NES era through its long run and is the right place to continue exploring. The complete 2000 magazines collection offers broader context for gaming and popular culture from the year that opened the new millennium.