Best video game commercials

Cafe Society
#1

Ok, I know video games rarely get advertised on TV, but lately they have been becoming a lot more common.

So what are your favorites? I saw one recently that I think is just brilliant.

It’s for Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. A guy at work has to get something on his boss’s desk without being noticed. So he does all of Solid Snake’s sneaking moves, like crawling and even hiding under a box. At the end, he gets found out and an exclamation point comes over his head, and the “alert” sound plays.

I also loved the old-school EA Sports commercials. Maybe 10 years ago (wow!) they had a series about what they wanted to take from real life and put in their games. For the PGA Tour game, in one part the announcer kept saying, “Gimme, gimme, gimme” then quick cut to a guy missing a short putt and he says real quick “there’s no gimmes in golf.”

They also did a great series for their 97 line of games that centered around the slogan “I’m better than you, and I can prove it.” The next year they did radio talk show style commercials that I thought were really cool.

I also massively enjoyed the Grand Theft Auto 3 commercial that featured out-and-out mayhem from the game set to one of the opera tunes from the radio.

#2

I saw one of those Playstation ‘Live in your world, play in ours’ commercials that I thought was pretty funny. There were a couple of cops in their police car with some shady looking guy detained in the back seat. The police officers were discussing the best way to kill someone and dispose of the body. They were discussing a video game but the guy in back was getting very nervous. I’ve only seen it once, though.

#3

I happen to have had a television advertisement for Super Mario World (1992) running through my head the past week. I can’t remember the details, but the announcer spoke very rhythmically and quickly, so it was catchy and exciting. Something like this…

#4

The Battle Tanks ads where they mow down the “Snuggle Bear.” Too bad they got sued for those.

#5

The best - ABSOLUTE BEST - video game commercial was for Final Fantasy 3 (US). It depicted Mog sitting behind a desk… he’d press a button, and in a gruff, raspy voice, say, “Next!” A freaky monster would enter the room and growl… Mog points a little box at it, a bolt of energy zaps out, and fries the monster. Then, again, Mog says, “Next!” Another monster comes in. “Ooh, scary!” ZAP! “Next!” ZAP! “Next!” ZAP! Etc. etc. etc.

Hilarious shit…

#6

I hate to say it, but I got Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” stuck in my head after watching the commerical for Red Faction 2 over at the Red Faction 2 website. Well, that might have something to do with listening to the song over and over again since watching the commerical.

I rather liked it how they somewhat sychonized the events in the commerical with parts of the song.

(Expects soon to hear from someone who thought the commerical sucked ass)

Don’t know if I’ll actually buy the game though (I’ll have to wait until it gets ported to PC anyhow).

#7

I like the Yoshi Island commercial… Where some fat dude is consuming a lot of food, (the food represented the amount of content in the game, as well as Yoshi’s eating [and then egg …‘passing’], which is a big part of the game.)

The guy gets so fat, he explodes, and green ‘innards’ squirts everywhere. This is when Nintendo started marketing a little more for the older crowd.

It were the days of Ren and Stimpy, or at least reruns of Ren and Stimpy. Disgusting was cool.

#8

I really liked the Xbox DOA commercial, where they had the two geeks explaining why they liked the game ('cuz the girls kick real high).

But my favorite was a Japanese commercial for Piposaru (Ape Escape) 2001, where on a city street, these giant monkeys dance to a little jingle, freeze, and their shorts fly off and land on the heads of the crowd. Including a mustachioed Frenchman who responds with “Pants tres bien!” Japanese people are cool.

#9

Theres a new one for the X-Box.

In a swampy pool, theres a stick/straw poking up from the water. A slight hissing is slowly coming in an out of it.

Then a black gloved hand with some sort of armor reaches out and deftly, lightly grabs hold of the straw without moving it an inch.

Then the thumb goes down.

You hear the hissing grow louder, struggling, and finally gurgling. A reddish amphibian-looking alien pops up out of the pool gasping for breath.

Then Jango Fett grabs him by the shoulders and says:
“Did you miss me?” :slight_smile:

I love it.

#10

I’m also a fan of the “Live in Your World, Play in Ours” commercials. My favorite is the one with the old lady in the nursing home. She’s babbling on about defeating the Lord of the Underworld and how that damn Black Dragon stole her key. Her grandson wispers in her ear “Next time, use the magic stones”. And Grandma gets this big grin on her face.

Works great because at first you don’t know it’s a video game ad.

#11

For those who like really old video game commericals (e.g. Atari 2600, Colecovision), you can find video clips of them at The Commercial Archive. I found an ancient commercial for Activision Ice Hockey featuring a young Phil Hartman. Funny stuff.

#12

I think that one is for GameCube and PS2, not X-Box

#13

X-Box GC, whatever. I love the commercial.

#14

The old Sega ones were OK, but the best was with the baseball player. He slides into 3rd after a triple. While dusting himself off, a hot blonde in the stands calls over “Hey Rickeeeee!”

He coolly points over at her and while not paying attention to the field is promptly rewarded with a line drive to the groin.

He then mutters out a very weak “Sega”

#15

I like the Tekken 4 ad. The guy is making breakfast but talking like he’s in a badly dubbed martial arts movie and making bruce lee type noises.

To the egg: “Prepare to meet Iron Skillet!”

#16

That’s the funniest commercial I’ve ever seen in my life. I didn’t know they got sued; you wouldn’t happen to have a link to any info about that, would you? As I remember, they purposely made it look considerably different than the “Snuggles” bear.

I also liked the one a few years ago where the kid is playing the hockey game, and the hockey players call him on the phone. Then the kid’s mom picks up the phone, and the hockey player is hitting on her (with French-Canadian accent).

Oh, yeah - and the one where the women’s self-defense class is pounding the crap out of the guy playing the “attacker”, until he snaps, and the women all suddenly get markers over their heads like the video game. Next scene, all the women are lying on the mat groaning. I bet it pissed off a lot of women, but they probably figured that women don’t generally buy video games anyway.

#17

There was a commercial for one of the Crash Bandicoot games, showing some bimbo in bed talking about last night. “Yeah, he was partying last night, had himself a great time… well, he’s paying for it now…” All through this, there’s the sound of somebody being violently ill in the bathroom… the door swings open and Bandicoot comes staggering out.

#18

blowero, there’s a thread about it here somewhere, I tried searching for it, but came up with nothing. Perhaps the original Doper who made that statement will be along in a bit to fill in the details. I know that the commericials can still be downloaded from Sega’s site, so perhaps the poster was mistaken.

#19

(Ethilrist, just to nitpick, that was Conker from Bad Fur Day, not Crash Bandicoot.)

#20

There was a Sega commercial for a football game that had Joe Montana as the spokesman.

I just remember the 400lb shirtless fan in the stands yelling “GO - JOOOEE!!” and Montana just saying “Oh. my. god.” and then gets tackled hard.

IT was kinda funny :wink:

Anyone remember the Sega Saturn Theatre of the Mind commercials with the Sphincter?