Revenge of the Classic Commercials

[Nester the Lark]

Sega's Zaxxon was one of the first arcade games to be advertised on television (and maybe the first in North America). This one is apparently from 1982.

Speaking of Sega, here's one that isn't really a classic commercial. It's actually a parody of Sega's Nintendo-bashing ads from the early 90's. I I thought it was pretty funny because it captures the hyperactive, bad-attitude style pretty well.

[Wildcat]

Zaxxon was another game I played back in my early youth. I never understood how to properly play it back when I was 4 - the first stage always beat me because of my lack of understanding of how to control the ship up and down. I remember when I was 7 or 8 finally getting a mild grip on it and making it out into space for the first time, but it wasn't as much fun. I replayed it recently thanks to the Sega Genesis Collection and zipped through the first stage on the first try without dying. Funny how memories work, eh?

[Nester the Lark]

Got a few more commercials here.

Here's a commercial for Jungle Hunt for the Atari 2600/5200.



I used to have the 5200 version of this when I was six-years-old. It was my favorite game at the time, partially because my dad gave it to me as a present. Isn't that wonderful?

Unfortunately, it got stolen (along with the console and most of our other games).

Here's one for Splatterhouse on the TG16. This is another long-forgotten commercial that finally turned up on YouTube.



Just in time for the holidays, it's a Sega Genesis Christmas ad.



I always remembered the "I heard Matt got a Sega Genesis" part. I was like one of those kids myself, except it was for the NES. I used to bug the heck out of the neighbors.

And finally...



This is how I got Sonic 2 for my Genesis. It came with Sonic 1 and a mail-in coupon for Sonic 2.

[Nester the Lark]

Contra Edition!

I could only find three commercials for the Contra games.

Super C



I don't seem to remember ever seeing this one, but maybe I had just forgotten. It's an interesting portrayal of Red Falcon, tho. For some reason, I had never thought of him that way.

Contra: Hard Corps



This one I remember. It's short, and it doesn't actually show much of the game, but oddly enough, it does flash the secret level.

Contra: Shattered Soldier



I remember this one, too, and I think it's pretty funny. However, it's pretty misleading that they say it's available for Game Boy Advance. What it was actually referring to was Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX, and that had nothing to do with Shattered Soldier.

[parrothead]

Here is the North American commercial for the Game & Watch game, Pinball. Yeah, when most people see a Multi-Screen Game & Watch, they often compare it to the Nintendo DS. But the Multi-Screen Game & Watch series weren't the only ones the Nintendo DS was inspired by, but it was also inspired by the last three arcade games Nintendo independently-created (Punch-Out!!, Super Punch-Out!!, and Arm Wrestling), as well as the Virtual Boy (which used two screens to create a 3D effect).



To celebrate Pac-Man's 30th Anniversary, here is the commercial for Tomy's LCD version of the Pac-Man arcade:

gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=8713

While I was finding the LCD Pac-Man commercial, I encountered the commercial for the Color TV Game version of Nintendo's Block Fever:

[Nester the Lark]

There are a ton of live-action Japanese commercials for Neo Geo games. I won't post them all, but some of theme are pretty entertaining.

Here's a promo video for Fatal Fury 3 that I thought was pretty cool, featuring a live-action Terry Bogard.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's another live-action Fatal Fury commercial. This one is for Fatal Fury Special.



After seeing this and the promo video from the previous post again, I'm wondering who that girl is supposed to be. I don't recall Terry ever having a girlfriend in the storyline of the games (other than Blue Mary).

On a completely unrelated note, here is a strange commercial for Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts that I remember seeing back then.

[parrothead]

Here is a compilation showing Terry Bogard, along with Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi in their own versions of that Fatal Fury Special commercial you showed, Nester:



And if you ever wonder why Ryo Sakazaki has black hair, while Robert Garcia wears a white suit in the Art of Fighting anime, then watch this Art of Fighting 2 commercial:

[Nester the Lark]

^ That's a funny Art of Fighting 2 commercial. I like the part where Yuri (I guess that's her) accidentally hits that guy in the head.

I'm still fascinated with the girl from those Fatal Fury commercials. I have to assume she was added strictly for dramatic effect, because I've been doing some research, and there is absolutely nothing official about Terry having a girlfriend, or having to rescue a girl from Geese.

Altho it works really well for the commercials.

[Nester the Lark]

Here are longer versions of the live-action commercials that parrothead posted, and they're slightly higher quality.



They look kind of like American cosplayers, don't they?

[The Qu]

This cracks me up because Yoshi goes "meep!" in it. Also, Bloober.


And a companion commercial.

[Nester the Lark]

I think this is quite possibly the most non-Japanese-like Japanese video game commercial I've ever seen:



I can't help but wonder why they took this approach. I just seems kind of random.

[Fryguy64]

That looks like a rip on a movie... That is the ONLY explanation I can think of...

[Nester the Lark]

Oct 29, 2010 3:01:51 GMT -5 Fryguy64 said:

That looks like a rip on a movie... That is the ONLY explanation I can think of...

Let's see. Three kids hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere and playing video games. Sounds like The Wizard.

Except that it doesn't really look anything like The Wizard, and they never played Game Boys, and one of the kids was a girl.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's another Japanese commercial that doesn't look Japanese, but in this case, it makes sense.