Mean Machines was a multi-format video game magazine published between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom.

Julian Rignall built and launched a consoles-oriented section of the magazine called Mean Machines.

Small retailers in Britain began importing consoles and games directly from Japan, modified them for the UK market and sold them on.

Rignall and newly hired designer Gary Harrod spent two weeks planning the design, editorial tone and style, and published Mean Machines Issue Zero: a 16-page test version of the magazine that to elicit feedback from potential advertisers and readers.

After a successful launch, monthly sales of NMS dropped to a level just below the original Mean Machines at its peak, and the circulation of MMS began to decline, and at the end of 1993, EMAP Images launched the officially endorsed Sega Magazine, which competed with sales of its own independent Sega publication.