On the internet, I've seen many praise the old GameFan issues, and that's cool. However, it does irk me slightly whenever GameFan gets all the "OMG they talked SO much about imports!" treatment. Sure, they had some coverage. But so did EGM. As a matter of fact, I actually discovered far MORE imports thanks to EGM than I did via GameFan
EGM covered a lot of SFC games, previewed in their INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK section. Sometimes, there were multiple pages devoted to one import title, likeFiremen: Danny and Pete
EGM deserves more cred for all the obscure SFC games they highlighted, most of which GameFan never mentioned
Going from import coverage to overall mag quality and which one is better, in general, well, let's see now
GameFan had ace screen grabs -- no doubt. But their writing left a lot to be desired at times. They were often too cute, though ironically that was part of the reason I loved them so much back in '93. They wrote like an enthusiastic 10-year-old, which was perfect when you were ten; you could easily relate to it, and feasibly, it seemed like you could have wrote the mag yourself
Two examples:
Volume 1, Issue 8 page 69
Another option is picking from two games, Turbo Hyper fighting and um ... I can't remember. I'm sorry sometimes I forget... Oh wait! I remember now, it's Champion Edition! Oh yea baby! Capcom is awesome
Volume 2, Issue 2 Editorial
Welcome to the Editorial Zone. A place where I, a person crazy enough to make a video game magazine, gets to write whatever I want. So, this month let's talk about the three toed Wallaby, a lovable little mate from down unda... uh, hold on. What was that you guys? I'm a what? OK, OK, I gotcha
Like I said, perfect when you're ten. When you're older, it doesn't have the same positive effect. GameFan hadn't aged as well as I was hoping it would, while EGM on the other hand is like a fine, fine wine. Their legendary 300-plus page holiday issues are still as good todayas they were twelve years ago. Their pictures were good enough, not on GameFan's level but the writing, which was far more consistent, more than made up for it
So, for me, EGM > GameFan. I still like GF a lot today, but it's no EGM, especially in hindsight
