Back in August, when I was the first to report that Nintendo Power would be ceasing publication at the end of the year, I was largely able to compartmentalize my personal feelings about the move in favor of reporting on the facts. But today, when I saw the above image of the magazine's final cover (left)—one that pays loving homage to that iconic Issue 1 cover from 1988 (right)—it really hit me how much the death of Nintendo Power represents the end of an era.

I didn't subscribe to Nintendo Power until its second year in print, after I finally convinced my parents to get me an NES. I haven't actually read an entire issue cover-to-cover for about 15 years now (timing that roughly corresponds to when I got unlimited Internet access in my home). But for a period of about ten years in my youth, Nintendo Power (along with GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly) served as my main introduction to the larger world of video games.

At the time, the large screenshots and previews of titles that I would probably never own were the main draw. But looking back, I feel like the most important thing I found in those glossy pages was a feeling of connection to the larger world surrounding the games themselves.

It's difficult to remember now just how hard it was to feel like a part of a wider community of gamers before the advent of the Internet. Sure, all my friends were Nintendo-mad as well, and we'd go so far as hosting local Nintendo-themed parties and tournaments. But that's nothing like today—I can play a game of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with a stranger thousands of miles away, or argue about the relative merits of the Wii U with someone in Istanbul. If our little cul-de-sac was one of thousands of islands of disconnected Nintendo fans, Nintendo Power was the vital, monthly cargo drop of supplies that allowed us to survive and thrive as up-and-coming gamers.

The things I remember most about those golden days of Nintendo Power aren't the individual reviews or previews (though I wore out the issue with the multi-page Battletoads feature). They're the letters section, which shared the opinions of other, regular gamers, and the occasional reports on events like the Nintendo World Championships. The high scores lists that made me realize my skills needed work and the "Classified Information" section opened up a world of hidden Easter eggs. The monthly "Top 20" was my first exposure to the business side of video games, while the annual awards first made me care about game criticism (don't laugh, I was eight years old). Even the comics helped, as they thickened the light-as-air stories behind some of these games into something more engaging and real.

Perhaps most of all, I recall those larger-than-life covers that were the first thing I saw when I opened the mailbox, covers that really captured the essence of a game without reducing it to a screenshot. This was especially true in those early years of the magazine, when the design team was allowed to get really creative with the imagery (anyone else remember the disturbing Castlevania II cover?)

Sure, most of the actual writing in those early days of Nintendo Power was thinly veiled marketing copy that I was too young and naïve to pick up on; the current, Future-published incarnation of the magazine resembles those early issues in name only. And I realize that the game industry and the publishing industry have largely grown past the point where a dead-tree magazine focused on a single console maker can succeed (while we're at it, R.I.P. PlayStation: The Official Magazine).

Still, the way this final cover brings the entire Nintendo Power run full circle can't help but bring back bittersweet memories of a time that feels much closer than 25 years past. So here's a final, nostalgia-tinged sendoff to a magazine that served not just as a monthly delivery of gaming information, but as a vital, pre-Internet connection to a burgeoning community that would grow up to be lifelong gamers.