Finally, the moment you've been waiting for... the Nintendo cover feature! Well, sort of. While the cover told us that MAD was going to lampoon NES games, they actually opted to satirize computer games instead. This was very disingenuous of them and I, for one, am completely fucking pissed. Now I realize that in 1990 the terms "Nintendo" and "video games" were generally used interchangeably, especially among adults, but that doesn't excuse this mess-up. Good satirists must have an intimate and complete knowledge of the material they are mocking. Without such knowledge, their jokes will be too superficial to entertain anyone with anything more than a casual understanding of subject matter. Not only that, but an incomplete knowledge of the subject matter can cause a satirist to make jokes that come off as ignorant and offensive to someone with a better understanding of the subject and there is no place for such sloppiness in the world of humor. Then again, it's possible MAD knew *exactly* what they were doing when they put Super Mario on the cover. Mario is the single most recognizable video game of all-time and he had a godlike hold over my generation when this magazine was printed, so it's very possible that MAD put him on the cover as a cheap ploy to sell more issues. So you can take you pick as to why Mario is on the cover of a Nintendo-less issue of MAD, shoddy workmanship or intentional exploitation.
That being said, the first page of the MAD Guide To New Computer Games is pretty clever. You have Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego's Luggage coupled with Jordan's vs Bird's: Agents One on One. The Jordan vs. Bird parody is my favorite of the two, as it pokes fun at both game and the rampant endorsement deals that both players enjoyed at the time. Plus, it lists the game's publisher as Moronic Arts. From this day forward, I shall only refer to Electronic Arts by this name. And yes, I'm well aware that Jordan vs. Bird was on the NES, but it was on the C64 as well. The Carmen Sandiego spoof loses some major points for depicting Carmen without her trademark fedora. Also, the game's publisher is listed as Bound & Gagged, which doesn't sound a damn thing Broderbund. But wait, there's more...