Some posting in an earlier thread today got me thinking about video game commercials or ads that were good or bad.
Take for example
the wonderful Super Smash Bros. 64 trailer. which brings back far too many good memories. good ol fashioned people in costumes.
Here is the overrated gears commercial.
i mean, Mad world is a GREAT song, but the pacing in that commercial was horrible past the first 30 seconds in the longer version, in the shorter version its even worse. the horrible literal lyrics of "familiar faces" as he looks into the reflection in the puddle, and then "worn out faces" as he turns the face of the broken statue. Right at the end, the piano in the dark with only the orange eyes illuminating the scene start to work, but as soon as the creature is revealed the pace of the song is too slow for what you are seeing on screen. Artistically, the gears commercial was nothing more than a fan trailer with dubbed music. it just looked so amatuer.
People write off the ps3 launch commercial with the baby far to often. thematically, the baby doll one is incredible. Very 2001 monolith style. The young, blank slate of a child is completely awed and blown away by the knowledge that the ps3 imbues into it. It only works with the doll too, a real child would have been not good enough. there is impact there, the reflection of all the images in the eyes as the tears flow, then retract.
I'm a really big fan of the Wii for all commercials. They are pretty straight forward, but really make the Wii look fun. I also dig the asian music going on.
The console wars at its finest. Sega does, no you cant do this on nintendo. It really speaks for
itself.
OCTOROCS!!! Creepy man in basement knows names of zelea monsters.
The classic japanese Zelda ad.
There are some good print ads out there too. My favorite game print ad ever was the Aliens Vs. Predator 2 ones, the 3 page ads, that had the xray's of the skull of each the human, alien, and predator.
any other gems out there?
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How did they ever get away with that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeYu8CvKW-g
For that matter, the Metroid Prime/Fusion commercials were really cool because they had live-action Samus... action. For a few fleeting weeks it seemed like a live-action Metroid movie would be a good idea.
And I saw the Majora's Mask ad a year ago. The ad blew me away and I've already played this game. Damn, I wish I could see something like that on the TV.
Aha! Found it!
I love this commercial. It's so well made.
I know multiple people who went out, bought a 360 and the game based on that trailer alone. Ive seen people talk about it at work, sales of Mad World went up. Everything about that commercial is beautiful.
Message = "This game is beautiful, you need to see it to believe it"
Conversely the PS3 doll trailer is just stock horror footage, it actually puts people off the PS3. Sony has fallen int the key trap of thinking "people like fear, lets assosciate ourselves with fear and shock as an emotion". This can work, but by tying the fear to something semi-human (a baby) and vaguely annoying they produce the wrong emotions. You see that advert and think, err, thats weird, that baby doll was disgusting. Again this could work, but the PS3 didn't do anything about the baby doll being disgusting. It just sat there.
Message = "PS3, it just sits there while the disgusting baby wanders about"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5V65dtKOk2Y&mode=related&search=
Gamer Tag: LeeWay0
PSN: Leeway0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2WoP51iXHw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2QRIWdNtxY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SanWyvMQunI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V65dtKOk2Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STk3jPQVjK0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ged6gwNtJ8A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lnev_Ken6o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJPC6I2ss2c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jUzIxnbkpI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obLniZJF1H0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa2wsCBBQbc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyqnqw62W_s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e02bNcVaAr0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXpXbNzntOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ktg2wPXNCM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFyYHPxm1GA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3cVQPSTEyA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LNtJPKD3RQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TLkdLqmxuk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7N70nQaZP4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axtfGT1UHvA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhZWB_KfBLs
That should be all of them.
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The Sakura Taisen one is especially strange, even for Segata Sanshiro.
Gamer Tag: LeeWay0
PSN: Leeway0
The best ones are the ones where he just starts slaying people for no apparent reason.
Those are ads that make me want the product.
More companies should have their mascots slaughter innocents at random.
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@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvljN9ycqLg
Nintendo knows how to make some pretty great commercials. This is probably the best use of music I've seen in one, haha.
To true. Most video game commercials nowadays seem to be nothing more than some music, some shots of the game, and a voice over guy.
Now the Ratchet & Clank commercials almost always make me laugh.
They could have really easily gone with just a commecial full of action, fast cuts and hair metal riffs, but they didnt. It had a little bit more quality which is indicative of the game. How many game commercials have we seen where it's just FAST CARS BIG GUNS LOOSE WOMEN, I thought th Gears commercial set it apart from the pack. Sure it was cheesy, but it was different. You were being to unfair on it and didnt understand its purpose.
US: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxSuKNIMcrk
jap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Jc757Xg14
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0SPoupVuAlw
Especially if you're a kid at his ranch.
I should really finish that game. I bought it back in 2000 but never got past the first dungeon.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
The Japanese one is pretty quality too.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RjWSt7CJjRo
Watching that girl hopscotch to the moon freaked me out the first time I watched this and it freaks me out now.
Yeah, that part gets me, too.
Seriously, I just watched it again, and the song and movie combined gave me the shivers.
I remember this commercial actually turning me off to The Legend of Zelda when it came out. Of course, back then I was still clinging on to my Atari 7800. I eventually saw the light.
I still find myself muttering that "WHICH WAY TO GO?" phrase from time to time. It always amused me for some reason.
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I always liked this Double Dash commercial with the airport carts. It's always hilarious when you take regular gaming logic and apply that to real-life situations, and I think it's the fact that they're going about 10 mph that makes it funnier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoVmBcR1EsY
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVKbbocrUKQ
Edit: And/or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyFrekxy7wg
PSN ID : DewtheKing
Playing: The Red Star, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
I liked the Japanese God Hand ad. It's hilarious and was really helpful in my decision to buy the game (and it's fucking amazing). It has a bit of that Segata feel to it.
Lest I forget - The Ad.
By the way, do you remember the 3dfx ads? Not strictly videogames, but you should definitely see them.
I dont think it is. For quite a while he has been a digital artist working for ILM and only recently got into acting.
IMDB doesnt show the ad either, though Im not sure if they list ads, I dont think they do. I mean it looks like him.
The ocarina of time commercial is really special to me. In 1998, OoT was my most anticipated game ever. I didn't have access to the internet then, so I got all of my information from magazines. When I saw this commercial, it was the first time I had seen the game in motion. It was overwhelming.
I also really like the Super Mario RPG commercial and the Super Mario World 2 commercial, but I can never find them.
Anyway, you people are using YouTube for this poo? Pfft. http://gameads.gamepressure.com/ I think that's the right URL (if it isn't, Google for something similar). Huge database of game commercials from around the world.