In the late 1980s and early 1990s I subscribed to what was then the golden trio of gaming magazines: Nintendo Power, GamePro, and Electronic Gaming Monthly.  EGM never seemed to be satisfied as being just a single magazine, however, as it branched out into a bunch of splinter publications, and whenever I'd see one of these at the bookstore newsstand, I'd snap it up.  After a few months of buying magazines like EGM², however, I came to realize that I was basically purchasing the same magazine twice and stopped.  One of the EGM spinoffs that I totally missed was Super Gaming, a very limited magazine that only covered new Japanese releases from the point of view of the American market.  GameSetWatch has a little look back at the magazine and explores why it folded after just four issues.

All four issues of Super Gaming released were only 32 pages long, but they were available both on a subscription and at the newsstand, as the Electronics Boutique price stickers on my issues indicate. The contents mostly read like a "lite" version of the EGM of the time -- lots of little previews divided up by console, a handful of large features packed with colorful screenshots, and not a heck of a lot of real in-depth content. Starting with issue 2, the magazine had its own review section, covering nothing but Japan imports and featuring scores from editor Mike Riley, associate editor Ken Williams and someone named "Samrye" (get it? huh?!!).

It seems to me that Super Gaming's unique content would have been better served as an ongoing feature in the actual Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine as opposed to existing as a stand-alone spinoff.  It's not like the magazines had completely different audiences.  Of course, in the end these EGM sister publications come off more as an attempt at grabbing more cash from readers hungry for more gaming information than as dedicated magazines designed to thrive independently.