I may miss a few commercials. I'm mostly focusing up to right before I been an teenager. Literately a huge one almost didn't make this blog entry for that reason. Now I'll try to keep things interesting to a degree. An era I wasn't on the computer much. I watched a lot of shows on several channels. Of course a few commercials sticks with you.
I will be focusing on commercials Rolfe doesn't discuss in that episode. I don't want people thinking I'm going to simply rip him off by doing the opposite of what I'm doing. I have a lot of respect for the man. I do enjoy retro to a degree. I'm quite happy to relive a lot of great memories here.
1. BattleTanx with Teddy Bear commercial
This commercial blew my mind. It's easy to confuse parts of the commercial with Snuggle Bear commercials. They used a similar bear character playing parts of the commercial similar to those. All of a sudden an tank starts going through a house. We see this teddy bear get damaged to a degree.
Let's be honest, just tanks might've came off being boring to people. This was a rather unexpected way to get people's attention. The commercial dramatically becomes an ad for the game BattleTanx. They took a huge risk it clearly paid off. This was a creative game commercial. The impact of change greatly helped the commercial become timeless.
By the way this is the only game featured I didn't play at all. I knew about it a long time. If I had the opportunity of course I'll love to give it a try. Seriously that commercial virtually sold me on the game. It didn't need to go as close as hard as it does. I simply love everything about the commercial a whole.
2. Super Smash Bros. commercial
I'm talking about the original Super Smash Bros. commercial. You have four of the characters while holding hands. Obviously people dressed up in suits similar to those characters. The commercial has this sense of peaceful to it. Until Mario trips one of them causing all of the characters to fight each other. There's some game play footage shown.
The song takes a notable change after Mario trips someone was a good idea. I was a huge fan of this N64 classic for years. I even say the greatest fighting game I played on the system honestly. This commercial if you haven't seen it before. It's mind blowing how effective it pulls you in the way it does.
The fact four people dressed up as these characters. Then a fight starts among em was genius!!! The song just simply works for the entire commercial. You really felt like you're watching an live action Super Smash Brothers commercial. Easily one of my favorite Nintendo commercials back when I were into their games.
3. SoulCalibur II commercials
GameCube commercial
Xbox commercial
PS2 commercial
Officially three similar SoulCalibur II commercials. This was to help promote the three main console ports having an guest character. You see parts of a character you can't fully see. They all talk to the same merchant. Some game play footage is shown. I loved the twist you finally realize the guest characters are the ones the merchant talking to.
This was a rather ambitious concept. We're talking three commercials that had to air close by each other on Television. None of it came off being rushed at all. It's mind blowing how truly effective these SoulCalibur II commercials were for their time. It was ambitious that ultimately paid off that instantly sells you on buying the game.
In my case, I actually did end up buying those ports featured in the commercials. More recently, DLCs prevents having to buy another console as well as a copy of that game on that system. I don't recall anyone else doing this style commercials either. Thankfully you can look them up on YouTube.
4. Twisted Metal 4 commercial
I will specify which Twisted Metal 4 commercial I'm talking about. We have Sweet Tooth and his clowns in live action. Sweet Tooth talking to the blue clown. Suddenly some chaos happens since that clown kept hitting the wrong buttons. This is the closest we gotten to an live action Twisted Metal thing until the show years later.
I grew up heavily around Twisted Metal series. This commercial focus on just Twisted Metal 4. Which is kinda an underrated Twisted Metal game honestly. I just love the concept of this TM commercial. For once, Sweet Tooth isn't the one causing bad things to happen. Although he is giving orders to the clown inside his ice cream truck.
I can honestly say they really don't make game commercials like this anymore. It was a surprisingly decent commercial for it's time. The length just works with everything that happens. It does help to convince people to buying the game. It's a kind of awesomeness you simply have to check out yourself.
5. Super Mario 64 Got Milk? commercial
There's a couple commercials for Super Mario 64. The one Super Mario 64 commercial I always remembered. Two kids were playing the game. After they went to do something. Mario escapes the game to use an skateboard to sneak into their fridge. He ends up drinking a lot of milk increasing his size.
He quickly returns to the game as a giant. Of course, we don't actually get to do that in the game. It still was awesome as a kid seeing an giant Mario stepping over platforms. We get a good usage of live action as well as CGI that's recreating Super Mario 64. Honestly a better recreation than the actual game itself.
This was a rather fun Mario commercial. I'm sure a lot of people still remembered this commercial. I haven't seen any Nintendo commercials since like it either. I loved what they were going for. Not only it's to promote an N64 game, a great one at that. It also promotes Got Milk? brand as well.
Conclusion
This was a fun concept I didn't consider doing myself. A lot of great childhood memories came back. I suddenly felt like my kid self. I also felt quite happy to remember these classic game commercials. I personally wanna thank James Rolfe for the idea. I would be interested in seeing other people reliving some of their favorite game commercials.
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