The De-Evolution of Video Game commercials.

[Charlie]

After seeing the commerical for the new Rayman game, all I could say was "Yikes!" Seroiusly, how is a bunch of guys peeing in the snow supposed to make me want to buy the game? Does anyone stop to think about how bad video game commericals have gotten? With the new Zelda game, they got it right: plenty of shots of the game, less bullshit... it's actually the best game commercial I've ever seen. But some of these commericals are so dumb and have nothing to do with the game at all.

I thought Sega was the worst offender, back during the Nintendo vs. Sega war. Remember the commerical where the guy playing the gameboy hits himself with a chunk of roadkill and then goes "duhuhuh, colors." Dear lord, that was the worst game commerical ever, but the ones that Sony is churning out are so stupid it makes me want to boycott the games out of spite. What the hell happened to game commericals? How hard is it to put a video of the game and say "Here's what it looks like. Now do you want it?" No... the average game commerical features less then five seconds of actual game footage... sometimes none at all. And you wonder why a lot of these game companies are bleeding money.

Most of the print ads are terrible also. In the past, some of the ads were genius. Genesis does what Nintedon't. Simple and effective. The message there is clear: Genesis has better Graphics then the NES and here are the screen shots to prove it. Now let me pick up a fairly recent (November 2002) EGM and let's see what some of the ads are.

OK, a two page ad of a guy flying through the windshield of his car. Big words, "SMASHING!" Ad is for Burnout 2. Actual title of game takes up 10% of ad. Actual screen shots take up less then 5% of ad. Gee wiz, I wonder why Acclaim is going bankrupt (well, that and anti-trust lawsuits).

Now here's another two page ad, this one for Superman: The Man of Steel for the X-Box. The first page is just a big Superman Crest. The 2nd page has four whole screen shots. Actual title of the game takes up about 2% of the ad. Screenshots: 10%. Superman Crest: 20%. And that leaves the remaining 68% of the ad: NOTHING BUT BLUE. That's it. The actual space to let you know that you can only buy it on the X-Box is less then 1%. Fucking idiots.

I'm sick to death of game ads. Very, very few are good (GTA and Zelda)... most of them are shit (every 1st Party Sony game).

[zektor]

They didn't pee in the snow in the Rayman commercial, they were simply spraying pee out of the water bottles they were holding...which makes me wonder...WHY are they drinking pee?

[cheesystick]

I have to agree with you about the ads. But I must say, that the commercial for "Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus" was quite cool. I expected this game to be total crap, and it probably is, but the commercial actually made it look cool for a split moment. When you buy a fighting game, you want "bone crunching fun". In the commercial, thats exactly what they showed you, "bone crunching". The game most likely sucks, but hey, good commercial. The commercial gave me the urge to rent it, which is more than i can say about other games.

One thing I despise about gaming commercials is that they only show clips of the game "cinimatix", and none of the actualy gameplay. You think you are going to get this graphically awesome game, and you realize that everything you say in the commercial was taken from the into. The Panzar Dragoon orta was a serious offender of that crime.

BTW, did you see the "Godzilla: All Monsters Melee" commercial? Wow, that was stupid...(at least the game was alright)
-crispy

[Sothy]

What was that commercial for Mario World 2 or something.. nothing to do with the game just a fat guy eating at a buffet then he blows up and explodes green feces all over people..

I liked the GTA Vice City Commercials.

But I agree sometimes"and always has been" lately the Commercials are almost emberassing to gamers.

[Charlie]

GTA Vice City's commericals were perfect, because they tell you what the game is about and what it looks like. Ads for games should show the games.

I'm not going soft on Nintendo, because lots of their commericals are junk too. I think the commerical Sothy is talking about was for Yoshi's Story on the N64, but I might be mistaken. Recently the Mario Party 4 commericals featuring people in Mario-themed costumes were downright stupid. The Animal Crossing commercials were stupid and totally misleading. Smash Bros. commerical was downright dumb.

The Sony ones take the cake for stupidity. Remember the ones with Crash Bandicoot standing in front of NOA headquarters calling out Mario? That just came off incrediblity arrogant. The recent commericals for Ratchen & Clank and Sly Cooper make you dumber by watching them. Meanwhile, ads for The Thing made me want to buy the game, because the ads looked so good and showed lots of shots of the game.

The Zelda commerical is simply the most perfect commerical ever. Most of the commerical features clips of the game, with a voice over explaining the plot, and then a breif shot of the girl saying "To save... me." That makes me want to buy the game. Not some totally off topic 'shock inducing' commerical.

[Alex Kidd]

I gotta say, the Zelda commercial... I mute... when I her thatgirl save "to save... me..." I just wanna reach into the screen and squat her like a bug.

I don't know why it is, but video game commericals must make it a point to have extremely cheesey acting/voice-acting, cause it's no coincidence they all have it.

My favorite ad, seeing a bunch of teeneagers fighting over the Control Pad to play Thunder Blade on the SMS. And I remember the ads for Streets of Rage, they always did, (and I still to this to day) pronounce it StreeEEts of RaaAAge. Then they'd show a scene of the cop car launching the napalm bomb and all the baddies gettin' toasted (but the fire avoids you for some reason?)

Alex Kidd

[YoshiM]

I gotta say, the Zelda commercial... I mute... when I her thatgirl save "to save... me..." I just wanna reach into the screen and squat her like a bug.

Squat her like a bug, eh? Is THAT what it's called now ;) .

I too don't like modern game commercials. It's either all show and no game or all CG Cinema screens and no or little game. The worst offender is the Final Fantasy series. I think every FF commercial since FF7 has not shown the actual game graphics, just the CG cinema. Show us more GAME, that's what you are selling, right game companies?

However, I understand why they make the commercials the way they do. It's like anything else that's being peddled on TV: it's to grab your attention. Make it memorable so the person who saw the ad may think about the game when they see the title on a store shelf. In the case of Crash Bandicoot: I actually thought of that hairy mascot when I saw the game case. I didn't have a PSX, but the "Heeeere, plumber boy" taunts of Crash did enter my noggin. The commercials are also supposed to connect with some sort of event or emotion/mental state. In the "Game Gear vs. Game Boy" commercial Charlie must be referring to, Sega was saying that buying a black-and-white color game system when you could have awesome color was stupid. They also used the "bug zapper" approach where a back water family all sat around the bug zapper to watch the insects get zapped and had a gay old time, telling us playing a Game Boy with green graphics was about as fun as watching the bug zapper (and showing us that it's stupid, indicated by the drooling Bubba family).

Unfortunately, the game companies get most of their revenue from the mainstream "common" gamer and that's who the commercials are targeted towards. Hey, it worked for Nike.

[kainemaxwell]

Who could forget, "Coffee, tea..SEGA!!"

[hades]

I think commercials have been going down hill for quite a while.... http://www.personal.psu.edu/smc270/zelda_1m.wmv 8-)

[omnedon]

I wasn't in to console games at the time (computer only) but I clearly remeber seeing the commercial for N64's Zelda Ocarina of time, and being totally floored. It had all the feel and expansiveness of a big budget epic movie ad.

It would seem the ZeldaWW ad is following the same epic formula feel.

However, most ads suck. :-D

[Aswald]

Sadly, in a way, the 1990s never ended. A mid-1990s magazine also used the "urine in the snow" gimmick, and it wasn't even the worst one.

And that ad for DOA: Extreme Beach Volleyball makes it look as though (younger) gamers are pathetic losers who are into the high-tech equivalent of inflatable women.

Enough, already. Get someone under the age of 50 to determine what the two younger generations want.