Let's Look at Some Game Commercials Part 3

Drunk squirrels, former heavy weight boxing champs, plumbers, old ladies, and pink puff balls make up part 3 of our look at game commercials.

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.

Part 1
Part 2

Let's Look at Some Game Commercials Part 2

Having a look at game commercials was so much fun that I've decided to post Part 2 much sooner than expected. Here's more gaming commercials from the gaming eras gone by and some more recent. If you missed part one, you can view it here.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Mario and Sonic were fierce rivals in the 16-bit days but when SEGA left the hardware business, Nintendo welcomed their formal rival with open arms with SEGA showing support for each Nintendo machine the company has released since the GameCube. Seeing Mario and Sonic star in a game together got a lot of people excited. Unfortunately, it wasn't a grandiose platform adventure, but a series of Olympic games. In these ads for the game that started the series, Mario and Sonic's rivalry gets started up again as the two constantly try to one-up each other during TV interviews. This collection of commercials shows Sonic getting Mario with an air horn and Mario too slow to stop him. Later, Mario challenges Sonic to a race. It doesn't go over as well as you'd think.

Mega Man 3

No matter what Keiji Inafune says, Mega Man 3 is a fantastic game and it will always be my favorite game of any Mega Man series. I only wish it had a decent commercial to go along with it. No gameplay scenes are even shown during the American TV spot. In fact most gamers that saw this didn't even know it was a gaming ad until the very end where Mega Man 3's box art is revealed. This is one of those old commercials that's just flat out strange.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Widely considered to be the greatest game of all-time, Link's first 64-bit outing was given stellar ad treatment. There's tons of gameplay scenes shown while moving music plays. There are a few different versions Ocarina of Time's TV ad and one changes the final wording. Originally the last words were "Willst thou soar? Or willst thou suck?" This was changed to "Willst thou get the girl? Or play like one?" You can see that version here.

Wave Race 64

"Water turnin', tide turnin', sun burnin' Wave crashin', head bashin' Ridin', glidin', collidin', high flyin', fish fryin' Eye crossin', cookie tossin' Snakin', quakin', booty shakin' Strollin', controllin', rock and rollin' Wave Race 64, The first jettin' , sweatin' in your face race for Nintendo 64 Strap on that sea horse and ride." What can I say? It was the 90s and I love this commercial for that.

Kirby's Adventure

Like Kirby's Dream Land before it, the American TV ad for Kirby's Adventure was very much Americanized. And you know what? I don't have a problem with that. You can see some early shades of American Kirby is Hardcore in the commercial with Kirby using his angry eyes. I quite liked the fencing segment even when I was a kid. Sword ended up becoming my favorite Kirby Copy Ability.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

At an animal adoption show, a lady describes the types of animals they have to offer. Among the critters is Kirby and he promptly shoots a missile out of his month. Can your pet do that? I didn't think so. I love how Kirby doesn't show an ounce of pity for injuring that cat. I'd so adopt Kirby in a second.

Tekken Tag Tournament

A kung fu student asks his master if he's the greatest fighter in the world. The master says he's strong but the Tekken fighters are far above him. Even after he lists the fighting strengths of the Tekken combatants, the student still insists that he'll defeat him. His master just laughs in his face.

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition

Nintendo had a good port of Street Fighter II on the SNES. SEGA was fortunate to get the tweaked update, Champion Edition on the Genesis. The highlight of this ad comes when a hand reaches out of the case and crushes the game next to it, which happens to be Mortal Kombat.

Aladdin

Aladdin on the Genesis and SNES were two drastically different games. The SNES version was made by Capcom while the Genesis version was developed by Virgin Interactive. I haven't played a great deal of either so I can't say which version I prefer, but I always remembered the Genesis version's commercial. Kid gets three wishes so he wishes for Aladdin. And for his next two wishes? Turning his friends into a dog and a fire hydrant. While comical, the kid really did screw himself with his last two wishes.

Streets of Rage 2

I'm pretty sure this one wasn't the first Streets of Rage 2 ad that hit TV, but it amused me so much that I just had to feature it here. Bobby is being harassed by two punks in his class. Solution? Get a Sega Genesis with Streets of Rage 2. Play it, beat, love it. Get respect and ladies. If only real life were that simple.

Part 1

Let's Look at Some Game Commercials Part 1

Advertisement is a very powerful tool. When used effectively, it can generate great interest in one's product. When used poorly, well, you get a terrible ad that people reflect on just how awful it was. For any TV watcher, commercials are easily the bane of their existence. But one thing that always catches my attention whether they happen to be good or bad are game commercials. In this new special feature, we're going to be taking a look at some game commercials. I was originally gonna title this feature, "Awesome Game Commercials" but I realized that every commercial listed may not fit that criteria. To keep from overloading the this post with videos, all you have to do is click the title to see said commercial. This is a feature I wanted to do for quite some time but due to the amount of commercials I have to list, I wasn't sure how to go about it. Then I discovered the joys of making multiple part posts.

Kirby's Dream Land

The American TV ad for Kirby's first game is radically different from the Japanese version. Kirby is being compared to Dashing Super Guy, your over the top manly figure that just screams "trying too hard." Different as it is from the Japanese commercial, I think it does a wonderful job of conveying what type of character Kirby is and what he's all about. Kirby literally chews up Dashing Super Guy and spits him out, proving that you don't need mountains of muscle to be awesome. This and the gameplay shots, one showing the defeat of iconic Kirby boss Wispy Woods was all it took to sell me on this game. Just like the North American box art, Kirby was white in this commercial because Nintendo of America wasn't sure of what color Kirby was due to a dispute between Shigeru Miyamoto and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai. Sakurai wanted him to be pink, Miyamoto thought he should be yellow. Considering the color limitations of the Game Boy's black and white monochrome screen, I find Kirby being displayed as white ironic.

Bomberman 64

It was on the SNES with Super Bomberman that my friends and I discovered the joys of blowing each other to kingdom come in the game's multiplayer mode that cemented by love for Bomberman. Naturally, I was stoked for the N64 incarnation of Bomberman. The single player campaign was very challenging had two endings, requiring you to collect all the hidden gold cards to see the true conclusion. I found the single player mode to be the strongest aspect oft he game while the multiplayer was lacking. What I love about Bomberman 64's commercial is the song that's attatched to it. Does it seem as if you've heard that tune somewhere before? Of course you have. Bomberman 64's commercial song is sung in the tune of the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon theme song.

Metal Gear Solid

After reading numerous extensive previews and hands on articles about Metal Gear Solid, it was quite surprising to see such a comical commercial for such a serious game. I mean, the tests they present to this solider are so simple, my two year old nephew could figure them out. The look on his face when he finds out what kinda mission he signed up for is priceless.

Excitebike 64 - Cliff / Seesaw / Boat

I read very little on Excitebike 64 before making a decision to purchase it. In the end it wasn't previews or reviews that helped convince me to buy the game (back then, reviews were my guide). It was the TV commercials that made me want to own Excitebike 64. Excitebike 64 has three different commercials and each one is laugh out loud hilarious. The first one I saw was where a motorbike driver slammed into a mountain. The second shows a toddler playing by himself on a seesaw get launched sky high after a driver lands on it. And the third shows a lone man enjoying the tranquility that comes with fishing. All that comes to a screeching halt when out of nowhere a motorbike splashes into the water. A few seconds later, the driver comes right down after it. Just what kinda ramps were these guys on? The tagline on Excitebike 64's box art reads "catch BIG AIR!" In the commercials and in the game itself, the line was clearly not blowing smoke.

Super Smash Bros.

I read up on Super Smash Bros. before it was released and it sounded like my kind of fighting game. Nintendo character's slapping each other around variously themed stages? Sign me up. While I wasn't shocked at the sight of Nintendo stars beating down on each other, I can only imagine the looks of disbelief on the faces of those that had no prior knowledge of this game's release. The commercial starts off innocently enough. Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi and Pikachu are all walking together holding hands in a flower field. Out of the blue, Mario turns and kicks Yoshi in the leg. From there on, everyone is beating the crap out of each other. To anyone that didn't know about this game, this commercial had to be a jaw dropper. I love how Mario is the instigator of the fight. This commercial still makes me laugh hysterically.

Super Punch-Out!!

You generally want to show your hero doing good. You know, looking cool, doing some sweet moves. The TV ad for Super Punch-Out!! shows none of this. Instead, it shows your in-game persona taking more hits than Jabby Jay and Glass Joe combined. Poor kid looks like he was used for a speed bag. Meanwhile, on the live action side of the ad, the boxer gets progressively worse after each barage of punches that the in-game boxer takes. All the while his coach goes on, telling him he's the greatest, even when he's in a body cast at the end.

Final Fantasy VI

Originally released as Final Fantasy III on the SNES, this was actually the sixth game in the FF series. Mog was one of my favorite characters and considering FFVI's complex cast, that's saying a lot. In the US ad for FFVI, Mog is holding monster auditions. Some of the scariest beasts you can imagine come through the door, growling up a storm, and Mog stays as cool as a cucumber, zapping them into oblivion, yelling "Next!" A great commercial for what is my favorite FF.

Sonic the Hedgehog

The Genesis had a two year head start on the SNES in the United States but it was still missing something. If SEGA was truly going to compete with Nintendo, it needed a mascot. With Sonic the Hedgehog, they got a mascot and then some. Sonic had an air about him that just screamed cool. SEGA of American knew this and they exploited it in their first American TV ad. Sonic was certainly not like "that nice boy, Mario." And I'm pretty sure the "lady" in the ad is Andy Dick in drag.

NiGHTS into dreams...

Just as they did with Nintendo in the 16-bit era, SEGA took potshots at Sony in the 32-bit era. The Saturn was quite the machine. NiGHTS showed off some incredible 3D visuals and effects for 1996 and SEGA was more than happy to point out that the Saturn was packing more power under it's hood than the PlayStation. In what had to be one of SEGA's most memorable moments in smear tactics, a PlayStation is dropped off a building and called "Plaything."

Donkey Kong Country

For years, Nintendo had played second fiddle to SEGA thanks in large part to Sonic the Hedgehog. Not only that, The Big N had endured wave after wave of aggressive ads from SEGA, slamming their games and their consoles. Then Donkey Kong Country stormed onto the SNES, boasting unbelievable 32-bit prerendered graphics. Nintendo was proud to proclaim that DKC couldn't be played on SEGA, 32X adaptors or CD-ROM, but only the SNES. It was a very lovely take that to Nintendo's rivals and it was quite nice to see that they weren't above aggressive marketing.

Part 2