“Does anybody out there remember my great and undying love of all shooters?” So rings the iron words of former editorial director of GameFan Magazine Eric Mylonas. The self-proclaimed “king of gamers” was, at the least, a man of many words... many, many, many words. More often than not, he’d be ranting and raving about some kind of game, why it rules (or sucks), and he did so with more erudition than some college English professors I‘ve had. He was a lover of overhead shooters (Radiant Silver Gun-style, go stand in the corner if you’ve never heard of it) and titles that would make today’s manly, badass, MTVified “gamers” wet their knickers. GameFan’s greatness didn’t end there. They called it “The last true enthusiast magazine,” and given the fact that most game magazine editors today seem to be clones of one another (giving every game the same score, the same review, the same rave, and only low-profile games are blasted), that statement was more than true. In a world where games have been degraded to appeal to a more generic audience, that which is defined as “hardcore” has become increasingly rare.

But that is exactly the word that defines every editor of GameFan: Hard-fucking-core. Mylonas’ tastes centered on the second dimension, his favorite games were on the explode-your-television-with-an-onslaught-of-controllers-middle-fingers-and-harsh-language level of difficulty, and he scoffed at the PlayStation as though it weren’t fit to share the same types of atoms as the Genesis or the Neo Geo. The other editors had varying preferences (unlike the aforementioned clones), and the weird thing about GameFan was that these nerds were so dorky that they had to come up with nick-names that they thought were cool but everyone else thought were lame (and comic book-style caricatures to go along with them). Hence, we had names like Fury and Kodomdo and Eggo and The Judge. Mylonas was known as ECM (probably his initials) and despite the fact that these guys were so hardcore it’s likely few of them had ever seen or even heard of these strange alien creatures called “women,” they still had balls bigger than cantaloupes. Ya gotta have big balls to put games like Cannon Spike and Jet Grind Radio and Vagrant Story on your cover. Ya gotta have big balls to feature exclusive coverage of NUON game Freefall (remember that extensive failure? No? I think you need a trip back to the corner). Ya gotta have big balls to tear through Final Fantasy VIII like the piece of shit game that it is and actually give it a review to reflect that (despite the game’s overwhelming popularity and the possible backlash of Square pulling ads in protest). And ya also gotta have balls to admit mistakes (like the Lunar 2 snafu that occurred almost a decade ago). They even received an award from Nintendo for not putting Pokemon on their cover. And they never ever sold out. And it cost them.

Essentially (okay, this is just my theory), the reason why GameFan went kaput is because they had too much journalistic integrity. They weren’t afraid to bash Shenmue and the PlayStation 2’s lackluster Japanese release. They were honest—brutally honest—tell-your-girlfriend-she’s-fat-because-it’s-true (and she asked) honest. These guys were so honest that (to my conclusion, because I don’t really know why they bought the farm) they gave high-profile games bad reviews, advertisers pulled ads resulting in a loss of money, and their publisher canned the mag. It was a big bummer for me because I only have nine back-issues and I had just renewed for a two-year subscription when the last issue (Final Fantasy XI on the cover—wait, they actually gave an FF game the cover treatment? What a concept!) came to my door.

It's like how IGN considers a review score of 5.0 "average" while and score of 6.0 has "more flaws than merits." What the fuck? How can an above average game have more flaws than merits? Shouldn't that description be reserved to games that receive a 4.0? They sure don't make 'em like they used to (game review mags/sites, that is).

Nowadays, EGM is pretty much the best bet (an “Earlier Great Magazine” according to Eric) and even that mag suffers from the same unconditional Final Fantasy praise and cloned game reviews that I so despise. The death of GameFan is really a good example of just how games have changed over the years. The insane difficulty of games is still present (but waning) and we now have a new army of “casual” gamers who think Destruction Derby and Enter the Matrix are the best games ever made, but at least I can still whoop ass at Contra and Super Punch Out. One think Mylonas did do that I didn’t like, however, was bitch in an editorial about how the “only one real person that’s ultimately responsible for the demise of the NGP (Neo Geo Pocket) [is] you,” the gamer who didn’t buy it, when GameFan didn’t even cover the system, but nobody’s perfect (8. 9., Sept. 2000, pp. 6).

So what happened?
They tried to make an even harder-core magazine called Game Go! but nothing came of it. They released one issue with the help of Video Game Depot and then it, too, went kaput. A recent Google search of Eric C. Mylonas shows that he’s been writing strategy guides for Prima (I’ll bet that Shinobi guide is pretty good). I also googled some of the other names on the staff list and it appears Matt Van Stone (Kodomo) still has a good gaming reputation and Tyrone Rodriguez is reviewing games freelance and also working in development, Geoff Higgins seems to have dropped off the face of the earth (assuming that these are the same people, and I’m sorry I don’t know Rodriguez’s or Higgins’ alter egos), and George Ngo (Eggo) is writing internet FAQ’s. I don’t know what Jason Weitzner (Fury) is up to but a Google search of the words “Jason Weitzner gamefan” brought up some pages that can’t be displayed (at least when I accessed them).

Lastly, I’d just like to thank GameFan for producing such an excellent magazine even though I was only able to enjoy it for less than a year. I wish all staff members good luck in their future endeavors. GameFan, R.I.P.

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