| Nintendo Power's first issue (July–August 1988) gave a stage select and continue mode for the NES version: pressing Start with the A and B buttons at the same time selects a stage, and pressing Select five times while holding A and B continues a game. | p. 59 (PDF p. 62), Classified Informationp. 59 (PDF p. 62), Classified Informationp. 59 (PDF p. 62), Classified Information | Magazine |
| Konami released Contra for the NES in North America in February 1988, by Nintendo of America's release list. Nintendo Power's first issue (July/August 1988) ran it under a "Now Playing" stamp. | p. 75 (image 78), Contra feature | Publisher |
| The story differs between versions. Nintendo Power's first issue sets it in 2631, with a meteor landing on the Galga Islands; Famicom Tsushin's feature on the Famicom game sets it in 2633, with the Earth Marines sending Bill and Lance into the islands. The US manual sets it thirty years after a 1957 crash in the Amazon. | p. 75 (image 78), Contra feature | Magazine |
| The NES game has eight defense zones, and destroying the sensor at the end of each opens the next; the last zone ends with Red Falcon's destruction. Zones 2 and 4 are played in 3-D, inside a Mayan temple turned into a base. The manual names the later zones Waterfall, Base 2, Snow Field, Energy Zone, Hangar Zone, and Alien's Lair. | p. 76, Contra feature | Manual |
| Nintendo Power's first issue (July/August 1988) printed the code, which it said starts the game with over 30 extra men: on the title screen, Up twice, Down twice, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, then Start. | p. 57 (image 60), Classified Information, Contrap. 57 (image 60), Classified Information, Contra | Magazine |
| Unlike the arcade game, Computer Entertainer wrote, the NES version doesn't let the two brothers fight side by side. Its selection screen offers one or two players in Mode A or Mode B: in the standard game two players take turns against the gang, and the head-to-head game sets one player against a computer opponent or two players against each other. Nintendo Power's guide puts the head-to-head games in Mode B, the Arena: alone the player battles the fiercest of the Black Warriors, and two players fight each other. | p. 62 (PDF p. 65), Double Dragonp. 62 (PDF p. 65), Double Dragon | Magazine |
| Gauntlet was out for the NES in North America by mid-1988. Nintendo Power's first issue, dated July/August 1988, featured it; Computer Entertainer's August 1988 review called it finally available, and the same issue's availability list filed it under July, marked as shipped by press time. | p. 70 (PDF p. 73), Gauntlet | Magazine |
| The NES game's mazes make up five worlds, the Castle, the Dark Forest, the Lost Caverns, the Unseen, and Volcana, Lair of the Guardian, each mapped in the manual. Computer Entertainer counted over 90 mazes; Nintendo Power wrote of more than 100 rooms. | p. 71 (PDF p. 74), Gauntlet | Manual |
| Nintendo Power's first issue, July/August 1988, previewed the NES game as one Konami was preparing, a science-fiction action game in which the player saves the Milky Way from Zelos, a planet-eating alien, flying either the Vic Viper or the "Road British Space Destroyer". | printed p. 87 (PDF image 90), Pak Watch, Life Force boxprinted p. 87 (PDF image 90), Pak Watch, Life Force boxprinted p. 87 (PDF image 90), Pak Watch, Life Force box | Magazine |
| Nintendo Power's first issue (July/August 1988) announced that Data East would soon introduce RoboCop, "this near future science fiction adventure". Its second (September/October 1988) recalled the announcement and said it had found no more details. Its November/December 1988 issue listed RoboCop for February in its release schedule. | p. 87 (PDF p. 90), Pak Watch | Magazine |
| In the NES version's story as Nintendo's 1987 player's guide, Computer Entertainer's preview, and Nintendo Power's first issue give it, Paul and Vince, the two commandos of Ikari Warriors, are flying home in a plane the general gave them when a time warp over the ocean throws them far into the future (thousands of years, says Computer Entertainer; a thousand, says Nintendo Power), where Zang Zip, "the WarDog", has enslaved the people of Earth. The settings and enemies are alien, far from the first game's jungles. | p. 84 (image 87), Video Shorts, Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road; read on the page imagep. 84 (image 87), Video Shorts, Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road; read on the page image | Publisher |