US · 1992–1999
A cult favourite US magazine distinguished by its import coverage, lavish full-page screenshots, and enthusiast editorial voice that championed Japanese games years before they reached Western shelves.
GameFan, originally launched as Diehard GameFan in 1992 by Dave Halverson, was the antithesis of the mainstream US gaming press. Where EGM and Nintendo Power wrote for mass-market audiences, GameFan assumed readers who already cared deeply about games — particularly Japanese titles that were not yet available in the US. The magazine pioneered import coverage as a regular editorial pillar, reviewing Japanese Saturn, PlayStation, and Neo Geo titles months or years before localisation, and was among the first US publications to take fighting games, shmups, and JRPGs seriously as genres. Its visual design was equally distinctive: oversized screenshots often bled across full pages with minimal text, reflecting Halverson's conviction that showing a game was more persuasive than describing it. GameFan folded in 1999 after Halverson's departure and a failed transition to a different publisher, but its editorial legacy influenced an entire generation of enthusiast games media.