Wii Would Like to Play
Haters can hate all they want. It won't change the fact that the Wii was a revolutionary console, one that put Nintendo back on the number one spot. This TV ad shows two gents knocking on doors, delivering the line "Wii would like to play." It really shows what the Wii is about. Motion controls and family fun. True, there are plenty of single player experiences on the Wii, but the point of this commercial was to focus on the fun that you can have with a group of family or friends.
Super Mario World
Even as a kid, I was a huge Mario fanatic. So I ate up anything I could find for the upcoming Super Mario World. This was the first American TV ad for Super Mario World that I'd seen and I rather like it more than the one that proceeded it. It's full of gameplay footage as the announcer describes the new technical aspects that the SNES brings to the table. My 10 year old jaw was on the floor as I saw Mario jumping on dolphins, running from huge spikes and riding Yoshi on a skull raft.
Kirby's 20th Anniversary TV Spots - Art Class, House Sitting, Piano Recital
In honor of Kirby's 20th anniversary, Nintendo released Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition. A heartfelt compilation set containing six Kirby platformers and some nifty bonus features like three episodes from Kirby: Righty Back at Ya!, a 45 page booklet and a soundtrack CD with 45 tracks. There were three TV spots for Kirby's 20th anniversary and all of them were hilarious. The first ad has Kirby as a model for an art class. He's not very good at it, what with his constant bouncing around. Needless to say, the art teacher is not pleased. The second ad has Kirby house sitting for a woman going out of town. I'd have Kirby by my side in a fight any day, but house sitting? I hope that lady has insurance. Lastly, Kirby is supposed to play the piano at a music recital. Given that Kirby has very short arms, it doesn't go over very well. It was nice to see Kirby given such great treatment with Kirby's Dream Collection and for his TV ads advertising the his 20th anniversary. Nintendo really did go all out.
Jet Moto 2
I've never played any of the three Jet Moto games on the PlaySation but I fondly remember the commercial for Jet Moto 2. As the race begins, all but one of the racers speeds across the starting line. After a short while, the frustrated racer gets off his bike and tells the player, an old lady, to press the button that activates the gas. That is beyond funny stuff.
PS3 Baby
Well, I did say not every game commercial we look at would be good, didn't I? This one is one of the biggest head-scratchers to come out of Sony and to this day, I still don't comprehend it. The ad shows a baby sitting some distance from the original PS3 model, making facial expressions while we can see some gameplay going on in the reflection of the baby's eyes. OK, seriously, what is this ad trying to say? It's weird and creepy.
The Many Uses of Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Now here's an, ahem, interesting way to advertise your game. Use it on bald spots? Check. Cutting fruit? Check. Cleaning up messes? Check. Using it as dog food? Check. Even as a kid, I thought this one was strange. Did anyone ever actually try to do any of those things with Sonic 2?
Conker's Bad Fur Day
WARNING: The above link contains mature content. View at your own risk.
Released near the end of N64's life cycle, Conker's Bad Fur Day was a platform game unlike anything on the system. Conker's urinates on flames to extinguish them, helps a bee "pollinate" a flower and then jumps on said flower's giant breasts to reach new heights, and then there's Sloprano, a giant, opera singing pile of feces. And it was one of the best platformers on the N64, one from Rare, no less. For all the sex jokes, foul language and gore, you heard nary a peep out of a soccer mom due to Nintendo's rather poor advertising campaign. Magazine ads were only featured in adult magazines, and Nintendo Power didn't even acknowledge that the game existed at the time. Nintendo's heavy focus on it's family friendly image was one of the primary reasons that led to Conker having abysmal sales.
Mega Man 10
One of my favorite Mega Man games, this ad goes all out in making it feel as if the game were released in the early 1990s. The intentionally bad VHS video quality coupled with cheesy rhyming makes this ad "Mega awesome!" To make things even sweeter, the background music playing during the commercial is an arrangement of Mega Man X's highway intro stage. There's some irony in that. See, when Mega Man X first came out, some gamers actually thought the X stood for 10. As an added bonus, the commercial shows footage from Nitro Man's stage, which is also a highway level.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Getting a star athlete to star in your game commercial was a common practice back then it continues to be one to this day. But few athletes were nearly unstoppable juggernauts like Mike Tyson, the final opponent to his self titled game. It's as if Iron Mike's laughter in this ad is taunting the player. No surprise seeing as how brutally hard he turned out to be. This game was later released as Punch-Out!! Most think this was due to the rape charges that Tyson faced, which he was found guilty of, but that isn't the reason he was removed from the game. His contract with Nintendo was up and he was on longer the heavy weight champion. Simple as that.
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