Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
Nintendo Power issue #137, dated October 2000, arrives at a genuinely significant moment in The Legend of Zelda's publishing and gaming history. By the fall of 2000, the franchise had just completed one of the most celebrated years in its existence. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask had launched in April 2000 for the Nintendo 64 — the direct follow-up to Ocarina of Time, widely regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made — and its darker, more structurally unconventional design was still being processed by the gaming press and player community. At the same time, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons for the Game Boy Color were in development and approaching release, and anticipation for what the franchise would do on Nintendo's next hardware generation was already building. A Nintendo Power cover dedicated to Zelda in October 2000 landed at a moment of genuine franchise momentum, not nostalgia. For collectors building out a Nintendo Power magazine archive, Zelda cover issues are among the most consistently sought entries in the publication's run, and issue #137 falls within the franchise's richest creative period.
The included poster elevates this issue's collector profile considerably. Nintendo Power's posters were a defining feature of the magazine throughout its history — large-format, high-quality game art prints that readers pulled from the center of the magazine and displayed on bedroom walls across North America. A Zelda poster from October 2000 represents the franchise's visual identity at the height of its Nintendo 64 era aesthetic, and intact poster issues command meaningfully more collector attention than copies from which the poster has been removed. The combination of a Zelda cover, Zelda-focused editorial content, and a surviving poster makes issue #137 the kind of complete package that collectors of early-2000s gaming culture actively seek. Collectors assembling 2000 magazine holdings will find this issue among the year's most visually and editorially distinctive gaming press entries.
About the Publication
Nintendo Power was launched in 1988 as Nintendo of America's official magazine, initially published directly by Nintendo before transitioning to third-party publishing under Future US in 2007. Throughout its run it served as the primary print resource for Nintendo console and handheld game information in North America — covering upcoming releases, providing strategy guides and tips, running developer interviews, and functioning as the official communications channel between Nintendo and its most dedicated player base. Its format combined news, previews, reviews, and multipage strategy content, and its centerfold posters became one of its most culturally remembered features. At its peak circulation in the early 1990s it was one of the best-selling magazines in the United States, and its back issues are actively collected both for their gaming content and as artifacts of Nintendo's cultural history.
Key Highlights Inside
- Cover feature dedicated to The Legend of Zelda franchise, published during one of the series' most prolific periods — the same year as the release of Majora's Mask on Nintendo 64 and ahead of the dual Game Boy Color Oracle titles.
- Collectible Legend of Zelda poster included — a defining feature of Nintendo Power issues that significantly affects collector value depending on whether the poster remains intact and unremoved.
- Issue #137 in Nintendo Power's sequential numbering, confirming its precise place in the magazine's documented publishing run and making it straightforward to catalog and verify.
- Newsstand edition with no retail label, preserving the cover art without address block or adhesive defacement.
- Specific interior article titles and additional features beyond the confirmed Zelda cover focus are unconfirmed; collectors seeking full content details may consult Nintendo Power issue indexes maintained by gaming archive communities online.
Condition & Rarity
Copies of this issue in good condition present the typical wear profile of a twenty-five-year-old newsstand gaming magazine that was read and handled by its original audience rather than immediately preserved. Minor surface marks and light overall wear are expected for a publication of this type and age — Nintendo Power was printed for an engaged readership, not an archival market. The absence of a retail label is a meaningful collector-positive attribute, preserving the cover image without the defacement that sticker or printed labels leave behind. The presence of the poster is the single most consequential condition factor for this issue specifically: copies with the poster still intact and unremoved grade significantly higher in collector terms than those from which it has been pulled, as poster removal was the most common form of permanent alteration to Nintendo Power issues during their original reading life. A protective plastic sleeve applied at some point in a copy's storage history maintains cover condition and slows ongoing deterioration. Under standard periodical grading, a copy presenting with good overall structure, no label, minor surface marks, intact poster, and plastic protection would fall in the Good to Very Good range — collectible, complete, and representative of an issue that survives in better shape than many of its contemporaries.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Zelda cover issues of Nintendo Power with intact posters are among the more actively pursued entries in the magazine's back catalog, and finding a complete copy in solid condition takes more patience than the magazine's widespread fame might suggest. The full Nintendo Power collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the best starting point for browsing available issues across the publication's long run, and collectors working to document the broader gaming culture landscape of the early 2000s will find the complete 2000 magazine archive worth exploring for significant issues from that year across multiple titles.