What is your favorite video game commercial?



For a lot of us, what makes or breaks our decision to purchase a video game is usually a gameplay trailer. It’s no more effort than clicking away at a few keys on YouTube, hitting enter, and watching exactly what you want to see about a product you’re interested in. Yet, when many of us were younger, in the days before the internet was rife with content from publishers, or even limited to official websites with just a smattering of screenshots, the best way to gauge whether or not a game would be good was through its commercials. Played in-between various cartoons on Saturday mornings, using minimal game footage, and relying mostly on branding hype, these commercials were windows into all the possible greatness you’d soon be able to get your hands on at a local game store.

Some of them, especially from the days of the 1990’s manage to be so iconic that they’re well-remembered as pop-culture references, decades later. Throughout the history of video game commercials, they’ve ranged from absolutely cool, to pure unbelievable hyperbole, to so ridiculous that you’re downright confused as to why it exists.



So, that begs the question: which is your favorite game commercial? Funny, weird, or memorable, which bit of advertising has stuck with you over the years?
 

Deleted member 514389

GBA Connoisseur
Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2019
Messages
510
Trophies
0
Location
the toolshed
Website
f.ls
XP
753
Country
Germany
I was lucky enough to catch the Ocarina Of Time ad at my local game store as a kid before it got pulled. The one where it asks if you'll save the girl or play like one. Thought it was hilarious at the time. Also me and my friend Paul ran to the counter the second it stopped playing and demanded to know what that was and how much it costs. So it may have been sexist or whatever, but it worked.

This ?



I always liked the "Wii would like to play" ad.


Pure awesomeness.
And the coming together of cultures. amazing.
 
Last edited by Deleted member 514389,

Taleweaver

Storywriter
Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
8,540
Trophies
2
Age
42
Location
Belgium
XP
7,518
Country
Belgium
Actually, I've got to disagree : I've never bought a game or system based on a television ad, for the simple reason that either there weren't ones aired in Belgium, or my parents didn't let me watch television long enough to see one (this was early nineties). I've always bought games because of peer pressure in school, magazines or franchise brands (and, much later, on gameplay premises).

As a result, when one finally came on television, I was so used to games being this 'rebel thing kids do' that I had trouble processing what I had seen. Like... How can it be a commercial for a video game? It's like the television was cheating, because my parents always taught me that commercials only served the ideals of the salesmen, not of the product.

The commercials were these two (the first one is my favorite)


And



The irony is that even though I thought these were awesome commercials, by their nature I was cautious. I was used that movie trailers only aimed to summarize the movie for you and toy commercials flat out lied about their stuff (admit it: you also had this encounter where you thought you were getting a great toy, and be thoroughly disappointed when it sucked ass compared to playing kids on TV). So... A commercial... For this thing called Playstation?
To this day I never bought one. :P

Edit : forgot to mention... I've seen that 'weird Scottish girl' add, but much later. Can't remember it being on TV at one point.
 
Last edited by Taleweaver,

Lostbhoy

HEY YOU GUYS!
Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2009
Messages
2,106
Trophies
2
Age
43
Location
Scotland
XP
4,296
Country
United Kingdom
Oooh.... I just remembered the Atari 2600 ad that made a big deal of it being "UNDER 50 POUNDS"...... It was £49.99 :rofl2:

Cant find the UK ad but there is an US one along the same lines with stereotypical bad white 80s rapping....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Julie_Pilgrim

HarveyHouston

The Christian Who Hacks Stuff
Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2019
Messages
1,334
Trophies
2
Location
The Point of Know Return
Website
gitlab.com
XP
1,283
Country
United States
I actually have collected Nintendo commercials, a lot of which came from EmuParadise (before the feds went after them and told them to not allow ROM downloads). A lot of the commercials from the 1990s and 2000s are grainy and poorly converted - any high quality ones would be GREAT for my collection.

Who Are You? - Classic NES Edition Game Boy Advance SP

This was before the ones with a brighter screen. Despite this, I still want one.


Free Game with Nintendo GameCube Purchase

This is actually one of a series of commercials where the store clerk thinks his barcode scanner is broken.


Cube Mentality - Nintendo GameCube

This is a very weird commercial about a guy on a hospital bed - I think the premise here is that he lives, breathes, and thinks GameCube, but to be honest, I've never understood it fully. Was the Nintendo ad council on mind-altering drugs?!?


Have You Had Your Fun Today? - Nintendo Game Boy

Very low quality, but fun to watch commercial about adults doing crazy things - all because of a gray rectangle! :P


Special Moves - Nintendo Game Boy Advance

Also low quality (in fact, the same version I have!). This is the best way to combat bullying. :)


Touch the Bottom Rectangle - Nintendo DS

Despite the "Touching is Good" controversy, this teaser for the Nintendo DS debut is a classic.



That's only a handful of the ones I have in my collection. Of course, these are uploaded by others on YouTube, but they're pretty much the same ones. I haven't seen many for Wii or Wii U, nor DSi or 3DS, but I've seen a few old commercials.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Julie_Pilgrim

altorn

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2007
Messages
1,059
Trophies
1
Age
34
Location
Toronto, Ontario
Website
atlaswing.zxq.net
XP
1,808
Country
Canada
in the philippines we never had video game commercials, just toys like Lego, Barbie, etc.
when we moved to canada, i stopped watching TV. so i never really saw (or forgot if any) video game commercials. that said, i saw a couple of Goldensun GBA commercial on youtube 10 years ago and i love Goldensun so i guess that's the default.

 
Last edited by altorn,
  • Like
Reactions: Julie_Pilgrim
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    K3N1 @ K3N1: https://youtube.com/shorts/PArWUK0WyDQ?feature=share