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Preface: In 1998, the Japanese publishing company Kill Time Communication (KTC) began serialization of the video game magazine, Nice Games (ナイスゲームズ), functioning as a complimentary publication to KTC’s still on-going Used Games (ユーズド・ゲームズ). In fact, both Nice Games and Used Games formed the slightly larger network of alternative video game magazines being published by KTC’s parent company, Micro Magazine (マイクロマガジン) which included the earlier Game Criticism (ゲーム批評).
Published every six months and lasting eight issues, Nice Games followed the ethos of Used Games by focusing on titles which were only a few years old but had already fallen out of the media spotlight. Additionally, given its focus, Nice Games ran no advertisements for the games themselves save for one or two pages on the likes of Brainstorm’s Action Replay (アクションリプレイ)magazine or the actual devices themselves. Finally, the editorial staff emphasized a Cahiers du Cinema approach of treating game directors as auteurs, interviewing the likes of Shoji Masuda, Hideo Kojima, and Fumito Ueda. This is all to say that Nice Games ran counter to mainstream video game magazines of the time, be it Famitsu, Comptiq, or the various line up of monthlies from Dengeki. As the editor-in-chief, Kaichi Takizawa (滝沢嘉一) wrote in the inaugural issue’s editorial letter, “These days are all about pursuing the latest trends and discarding the past. Yet, no matter how much time passes, no matter how old they are, good games don’t lose their brilliance. Nice Games shines a spotlight on these beloved titles, introducing them to you, our reader” (1998).