Game Ads: the weird and the whimsical

[Lee__Kanker]

Time to bust out all those edgy ads boys
My fav has to be "Have fun or the developer will fucking kill himself"

But let's not forget all the lovely jap ones that make for great posters

How can you not like tis guy? He just wants you to have a good time

 

[Clippy]

I only found out about and played Incredible Crisis some 15 years after it came out but the game is fun so here's hoping Mr. Takahiro is still with us.

 

[Cu-Neo]

I have some here. These are very "uniques"

Yep two balls for the price of one

I love how the most wtf ones are from sega

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I have some here. These are very "uniques" View attachment 5074
Yep two balls for the price of one
View attachment 5075View attachment 5076View attachment 5077
I love how the most wtf ones are from sega

I was tempted to show the sega of uk ones, they were so crass bc they came from an adult magazine! Unlike italy and the us they werent strictly marketed towards children

Speaking of balls

I agree with Yawiga for being on the game boy DKL is the rad, also dkl 1 is the only game I know where the second level is an ice level, it and earthworm jim

I gotta say the ganon costume is sick

 

[Yousef]

I have some here. These are very "uniques" View attachment 5074
Yep two balls for the price of one
View attachment 5075View attachment 5076View attachment 5077
I love how the most wtf ones are from sega

Damn it’s a REALLY missed opportunity that the domestic violence ad isn’t for tekken. Imagine.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Damn it’s a REALLY missed opportunity that the domestic violence ad isn’t for tekken. Imagine.

Xiaioyu vs Wang on the tv

 

[ATenderLad]

I loved this picture, it looks like a mix of David Lynch, and Micheal Bay's Got Milk advertisements, with that high contrast sweaty-ass coloring.

Very normal.

Very normal.

Can toys commit war crimes?

Perfection.

And finally, THIS...

...was an ad for THIS.

All these years, that's still what I picture when I hear "kids these days" or "they used to make good cartoons for the 8-10 demo but now all the cartoons are for the 5-7 demo and I took that personally."

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I love these

 

[Octopus]

Love diving into some bizarre ads, here are the first ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Of course the legendary classic Daikatana;

 

[Lee__Kanker]

View attachment 5084
I loved this picture, it looks like a mix of David Lynch, and Micheal Bay's Got Milk advertisements, with that high contrast sweaty-ass coloring.

View attachment 5085
Very normal.

View attachment 5083
Very normal.

View attachment 5086
Can toys commit war crimes?

View attachment 5087
Perfection.

And finally, THIS...
View attachment 5088
...was an ad for THIS.
View attachment 5089

All these years, that's still what I picture when I hear "kids these days" or "they used to make good cartoons for the 8-10 demo but now all the cartoons are for the 5-7 demo and I took that personally."

A lynch-esque ad for the Gameshark of all things, how peculiar!

Heh Ive seen the one for ace escape, neat
Thta turboprop racing game looks cool...



Mankind's greatest achievement

 

[fake-kun]

 

[Yousef]

View attachment 5103

Oh man, this is like Kirby Avalanche where Kirby verbally insults his opponents

 

[ATenderLad]

STD...don't leave empty-handed! (I still have a ProgramPad somewhere.)

The last time I tried to make a 6 player cabinet we ran out of snacks and hand sanitizer, proper planning for any event is key.

Get his ass.

Got his ass.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I love cartoon ads

I wish that sonic outfit was a smash mod or something

 

[Octopus]

I have no comment on this one.

Be a 'wiener?

I laughed more than I should have when I first saw this one.

I'm just including this one for the blatant false advertising, as anyone whos read my first Marvel article knows.

 

[ATenderLad]

As a very unscientific experiment, I've been going through some EGM magazines, from 1990 onward, to see when it started getting...interesting. Adult fare has been around since the Atari 2600, but the wacko marketing was more recent. This applies to America, plenty of my family grew up in Japan but I never did.

1990, it's mostly all extensions of box art and taglines. Here's about as weird as they got.

1991, Sega especially starts leaning into "Attitude".

1992, more of the same. Tubular, radical, far out.

1993, we're starting to cook with gas. A hallucinogen, I suspect.

1994....yessssssss.

By 1995, Weird is Normal, and the Games Are For Horny Teen Boys era truly begins. (3DO being a big example.)

(Also, there's a notable uptick in implied violence that maybe coincides with the success of Mortal Kombat. You rarely saw anything like it up until Mortal Kombat 2 is poised to take over arcades, then..)

Not a judgement, just a noticeable change in marketing trends. From this point forward you can find most of the weirder ads already posted above in the thread, American advertisers had a wild time marketing games for the Playstation especially. Tomb Raider, in particular, was a massive get for these folks.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I have no comment on this one.View attachment 5124

Be a 'wiener?
View attachment 5123

I laughed more than I should have when I first saw this one.
View attachment 5125

I'm just including this one for the blatant false advertising, as anyone whos read my first Marvel article knows.
View attachment 5126

Ive never seen the load one XD

As a very unscientific experiment, I've been going through some EGM magazines, from 1990 onward, to see when it started getting...interesting. Adult fare has been around since the Atari 2600, but the wacko marketing was more recent. This applies to America, plenty of my family grew up in Japan but I never did.

1990, it's mostly all extensions of box art and taglines. Here's about as weird as they got.
View attachment 5114View attachment 5116
1991, Sega especially starts leaning into "Attitude".
View attachment 5115
1992, more of the same. Tubular, radical, far out.
View attachment 5118
1993, we're starting to cook with gas. A hallucinogen, I suspect.
View attachment 5121
1994....yessssssss.
View attachment 5127
By 1995, Weird is Normal, and the Games Are For Horny Teen Boys era truly begins. (3DO being a big example.)
View attachment 5128
(Also, there's a notable uptick in implied violence that maybe coincides with the success of Mortal Kombat. You rarely saw anything like it up until Mortal Kombat 2 is poised to take over arcades, then..)
View attachment 5129

Not a judgement, just a noticeable change in marketing trends. From this point forward you can find most of the weirder ads already posted above in the thread, American advertisers had a wild time marketing games for the Playstation especially. Tomb Raider, in particular, was a massive get for these folks.

Very interestring, I recall the 00s leaning a lot into weirdness and crassness as well

Is rayman's dick also detatched from its body and floating? Can he move it like its arms? Does he have balls?

Its got nothing to do with the game but it'd make for a cool album cover

My favorite however are those jap ones, they're so pretty, neat and elegant

 

[ATenderLad]

Here's a wild one,

"We'll do a test run on Ritchie before we send this stuff to the Kurds."