Game Commercials: Super Smash Bros.

In celebration of the US release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl I’ve gathered TV commercials from all three installments in the series.



This is hands down the best TV ad for any Nintendo game, in my opinion. It barely shows gameplay footage, but it doesn’t need to. The guys in suits are hilarious and the music fits perfectly with the violence.




I don’t even remember this commercial, but that’s probably because it’s so lame. There’s no fun or excitement here, just a guy looking like a dork. If you take away the brief gameplay video you are left with nothing that has to do with Smash Bros. What the hell?




I like the two Japanese guys, but I really wish Nintendo of America would bring back the guys in suits from the N64 days. Also, the guys playing Brawl with the Wii controllers and nunchuks are making fools out of themselves, because no one can play Smash Bros. with those.

Game Commercials: Sega Game Gear

The Game Boy was challenged for its handheld crown many times, but it ate those other portable systems for breakfast. Here are two ads for the Sega Game Gear, a superior handheld that just couldn’t knock Nintendo’s black and white beast off the top.



Say, isn’t that fat kid Ethan Suplee, the guy from My Name is Earl? Sega compared themselves to Nintendo all the time, and here they are suggesting Game Boy players are retarded. Take that, Mario!




I don’t know what the deal with that lady is, but she seems to be coke’d up. Did you catch her Psycho Crusher-like spin attack? Perhaps a side effect from playing fruity Game Gear games. No wonder this handheld failed.

Game Commercials: Eternal Champions

Sega's Eternal Champions for the Genesis was supposed to kick the asses of both Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, but it only kicked its own ass by being so shitty and unplayable. This TV commercial is not awful, but the idea of Eternal Champions being so great that it will eat your other fighting games is a real joke.

Game Commercials: Street Fighter II

My most cherished video game series of all time got zero respect from Capcom USA and everyone involved in the making of this commercial. It’s ugly, bizarre, and disturbing. When I played Street Fighter II: The World Warrior I never thought of old black and white movies and dinosaurs. What the hell, man?





Now this is more like it. This was the first time I saw live-action Street Fighter characters, and they looked awesome! That M. Bison guy is wicked cool, maybe because he reminds me of Terminator 2’s Robert Patrick. Guile’s hair will never look good on a real human being, but Chun Li looks fantastic. These two short commercials were included in a GamePro/Capcom promotional video for Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition, and are better than the whole Van Damme movie.




Far better than the one for The World Warrior, but still not as cool as the Japanese ads. Here Capcom acknowledges Mortal Kombat as a threat and had Blanka literally destroy it, making an old security guy soil himself in the process. What does the ad teach us? Don’t piss Blanka off.

Game Commercials: Crash Bandicoot

The first Crash Bandicoot commercial had a guy in a Crash suit visiting the Nintendo building, showing off the game. It wasn't hilarious but it was so popular Sony decided to include the same guy in the Crash suit in all following PSone Crash commercials.




Crash Team Racing was an awesome game, perhaps the best mascot kart racing game behind Mario Kart, and its TV ad was just as good. The part with the old lady at the end is the best.




There were several Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped commercials, but as funny as they were they weren’t as funny as these outtakes. You had to be subscribed to the PlayStation Underground “CD magazine” to see them, but not anymore.

Metal Gear Solid 3 Japanese Commercial

I like gameplay footage in my video game commercials, but this Japanese Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater ad is so good it doesn't even need it. Humor is truly universal.

Super Metroid Commercials

Check out this awesome Japanese Super Metroid TV commercial from 1994 with a live-action reenactment of the game's intro. Game ads are rarely this cool.

Here is the American commercial for Super Metroid. They traded coolness for humor and much more gameplay footage. I guess it's not bad, but the Japanese one has freaking live-action Samus! The dog's scared shitless face at the end is priceless, though.

Super Mario Land 2 TV Commercial

Back in 1992 no one knew who Wario was, yet Nintendo chose him as the main attraction for their Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins TV commercial. It was very nicely animated and had a pretty sinister message: make Wario your master and destroy Mario. Not bad for a kiddy games company. If you missed it when it aired 15 years ago take a look at the YouTube video above. The quality is ass, but it’s worth checking out. Wario commands you to watch it. The game was pretty darn sweet, by the way.

Sony PS3 TV Spots: Europe vs America

American PlayStation 3 TV Spot

Holy shit! I already own a PS3 but I want another one after watching this awesome commercial. It's one of the best video game ads I've ever seen. It also reminds you that with the PS3 you're getting a built-in Blu-ray player so you can watch exclusive HD movies from Columbia Pictures, Disney and 20th Century Fox. Congratulations Sony, your efforts are paying off.

European PlayStation 3 TV Spot

Smiling poodles, circus folk, plastic hair, soulless women... What the hell is this? Who in their right mind would see this ad and get the irresistible urge to buy a PS3? Seriously, what were they thinking? European gamers are getting no love from Sony, unless bizarre, gay, and creepy describe their idea of love.

Atari Jaguar Commercials

Damn, it has been a while since I've seen these commercials for the short-lived Atari Jaguar. They knew they had wasted time developing a piece of crap console with the worst controller ever and made some of the shittiest games, so they went ahead and spent the few dollars they had left on lame TV commercials. Actually, the Alien vs Predator ad wasn't that bad, but it’s for the Jaguar so, who cares? No wonder 9 out of 10 gamers don't even know what the Jaguar is. It's true, I did the math...