Answer: Nester

The mascot for Nintendo Power, Nintendo’s long-running and widely circulated gaming magazine, wasn’t an existing Nintendo character, but was a cartoon creation of the original Nintendo Power editor Howard Phillips.

The energetic teenager Nester (his name was a reference to the Nintendo Entertainment System, or, NES) debuted in the in-magazine comic strip, Howard & Nester. The strip revolved around the adventures of Howard Phillips and Nester, adventures that were typically used to showcase new games wherein Nester would take on the role of a character in the game. When Phillips left Nintendo in 1991, the strip was retitled Nester’s Adventures.

In 1993, the strip was phased out only for Nester to return briefly in issue #100 in a strip showing him headed off to college and then to return as an adult in issue #231 with a child of his own. From that point forward, the comic focused on Nester introducing video games to his video-game loving son, Max. The final issue of Nintendo Power featured a meta-reference wherein Nester is reading the last issue of Nintendo Power and lamenting the passage of the magazine and all the memories. His son Max cheers him up by saying, “None of this is really going away, is it? I mean, Nintendo Power had a great run, and you’ve got it all right here. It’s like when you finish a great game – you’re kind of sad to see it end, but really proud and happy, too. You know what I see when I look at this final issue? 100 percent completion.”

Nintendo Power was in circulation from 1988 to 2012—if you want a dose of pure nostalgia, you can browse the covers of all 285 issues here.