Adbusters -
June 19, 2001 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed
within this column are those of the participants and the
moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the
GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive
material afoot.
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge, drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
It's too early to get excited about the Sphere system, since so little's known about it, right?
Don't much care. Good stuff - FFX is shaping up to be truly kickass.
Onward.
| Part of a complete breakfast, or something |
| Chris,
While not technically an ad for any specific game, there is one Nintendo ad that is leagues above others. It had a catchy jingle and everything -
"Nin-ten-do, it's for breakfast now. Nin-ten-do, it's a cereal, WOW!"
Yes, the ad for the Nintendo cereal is my favorite. Not only did that commercial get me to buy the cereal, seeing the characters from The Legend of Zelda in my cereal bowl made me want to buy that game, too.
So, in a way, the cereal was also an ad. However, I clearly stated that the commercial for the cereal is my favorite game ad, and I'm not going to change this position. The cereal tasted like crud.
-Dan
|
What I mostly remember, aside from the insipid little jingle,
was that it wasn't simply Nintendo Cereal, it was the "Nintendo Breakfast System". That, and it was actually two cereals, Mario and Zelda, packaged together like a box of Nerds candy.
Wheaties were way better.
| 3 |
| Without a doubt, the best game ad I've ever seen (and if you know of a
place on the net where I can download this, please tell me) is the
commercial for Super Mario Brothers 3. No, I don't mean "The Wizard", I
mean the shorter television commercial.
There was no misleading "let's only show the prettiest parts of the game
like Square does" trickery or anything like that. Hell, nothing from the
game was shown at all and "Super Mario Brothers 3" wasn't even mentioned
once.
The entire ad featured various individuals chanting "Three! Three!" over
and over and with increasing energy until eventually the camera pulls
back to reveal that all the individuals are standing in a large "3"
formation.
That's it.
Never once did the commercial mention what it was for, but everybody
instinctively knew. Most gamers loved Super Mario Brothers 2, but they
really sought a return to the traditional gameplay of the original, and
by the time the commercial began airing, the hype for
Super Mario Brothers 3 had reached a fever pitch.
The ad is just brilliantly simple and effective.
- Panadero, who only obtained the Hammer Brothers suit a few precious
times
|
Interesting piece of retro-history I've noticed in the column lately - the general devaluation of the US version Super Mario Bros. 2. Back in 1988, when the game came out in the States, I don't remember anyone saying "eh, it's ok, but not as good as the original." On the contrary, I remember SMB2 being considerably more fun and enjoyable than the first, with better play control, graphics, much more interesting environments and gameplay that let you explore and mess around, rather than rush to the flagpole at the end. SMB1 was insanely popular among kids 10 and younger, but lots of people, from kids to lawyers to housewives, played SMB2.
Of course, that was before anyone could get on the net and discover that SMB2 was *gasp* not the real Super Mario Bros. 2, and that all truly cool people preferred the Japanese version of a given game.
Not that I'm trying to say Mario 3 wasn't just as good, or far better than Mario 2, or that it didn't deserve the canonization it got before and after its release. It rocked, case closed.
| If Fred Savage endorses it, I don't want it |
| Definitely The Wizard. Besides enticing kids to pay money to
watch Nintendo Power for more than an hour and a half, it made the Power
Glove look like a useful accessory. Just think about that awhile.
Pokeytax |
You know, I still haven't ever seen The Wizard... maybe it's time to pull an 80's rental weekend at Blockbuster...
| UHF Sountrack, track 11 |
| Hi Chris
You said yesterday that games like FF9 and Chrono Cross shouldn't rate highly in terms of fun factor. But then what does 'fun' mean?
I can't be arsed to run and get a dictionary, but 'fun' basically describes something you do to make you exhilirated or happy. When I first played Crazy Taxi, I actually started laughing out loud because it was so incredibly different from everything I'd played before, and, well, fun. But ultimately it gets repetitive and boring. FF7, though, would actually make me jump off my chair and punch the air after beating a particularly difficult enemy; although the fun in it may not be as instant or obvious, RPGs do slowly build up and immerse you into an incredibly fun experience, and so deserve the high fun ratings they're given. It's the same thing with strategy games. Creating a massive army from scratch may take ages, but it's all worth it when you finally move in and crush the enemy in an enormous battle.
But in a way I kind of see your point. A large part of the enjoyment of RPGs comes from the anticipation, the feeling that all the work you're putting into levelling up your character is actually going to help you in the game, and hence let you see more of the story, or give you a pretty new spell to gander at, or mean that you'll be whisked off to yet another lush environment with pleasant music. And that's why a great story, graphics, music and imaginative backdrops help make RPGs so much more enjoyable.
Oh yeah, the topic. Ummm...best ads were the old Sega ones where it'd say 'to be this good takes ages', and then 'ages' would flip over and read 'Sega'. Why, you ask? Just because.
Paulo
|
Fun is semi-subjective - there's no guarantee that everyone will find the same thing enjoyable, but there are games that a lot of people find incredibly entertaining to play, often despite (or because of) simple gameplay. Tetris, Bionic Commando, Super Dodge Ball, etc.
But I think it's a mistake to say that a game has to be fun in that way to be considered good. Silent Hill is a great game, but I can't honestly say I really enjoyed playing it. Still, when I walked away from the title, I ended up respecting what Konami had made, and I'm looking forward to the sequel. Ditto Vagrant Story, or FF8. That's not to say I wasn't engrossed in the story, or deeply involved in the combat system... I just wasn't sitting on the couch with a big grin on my face the entire time I was doing it.
And that's why fun factor would be a good indicator for a game, no better or worse than sound or graphics or control... if it could ever be measured accurately.
| I really need to update the FAQ one of these days |
| Chris-
I was just just wondering, when do you stop taking letters, when does
the new column go up, and most importantly, what time zone are you in?
-Bored and Lonely |
Good question. I don't ever really stop taking letters, if something comes in late and it's good enough, but generally I start going through the day's email sometime between 5 and 6pm, and everything that gets sent in later gets bounced into the next day's column. I generally put up the column sometime between 7 and 10pm, depending on how much email I got, and I'm in the Central US time zone, which should make it easy for most of y'all in the Western Hemisphere to read today's column and get a letter in on time.
| Style over substance |
| I gotta say, maybe it's a nostalgia thing, but the only videogame ads that ring any bells in my head were the early 90's Sega ads. This doesn't make sense. They were the start of a bad thing; that is, the replacement of people actually talking about the -videogame- with inane MTV-ish short attention span screaming bits. But then again, they're the only ads I -remember-. I think that's the idea. If the ideal videogame ad came out, according to fan criteria, it'd probably be a nicely edited sequence of in-game action scenes and with in-game music running in the ackground. I, personally, would love to see ads like that. But that's preaching to the converted. Why sell to us? Of course -we- would love to see it. We're already gonna buy the damn thing. The publishers don't need to make an ad like this. They need to pull -other- people in. Hence the method game ads use now. They make you pay attention and remember the thing, not necessarily want to buy it right there and then. Wrestlers singing in a church do that. Ads with Mr. T in them do that. [the success of that pac-man game, is, however, debatable] Insisting that your console THINKS does that. Putting a man in a marsupial costume outside a corporate headquarters with a megaphone does that. Arranging a bunch of people so that they look like a mario head when viewed from millions of feet about the earth does that. And hell, catchy jingles do that.
Genesis does what Nintendon't. Believe it.
|
Problem is, I don't think this is 100% accurate - the percentage of style-over-substance ads probably started to rise with the Genesis (and Sega's always been a master of very cool ads, believe it) but they've always been around. The two major ads for the original Zelda demonstrate this pretty well: the classic "Zelda? Zelda!" ads were catchy, but the actual gameplay shots didn't tell you anything about the game, and the Zelda Rap wasn't much better. (And yet, amazingly, stupid little white kids once thought that was cool. Er, not me tho.)
| Junk, but attractive junk |
| Chris,
Well, damn if I aren't proud of myself, I think I hit the nail on the head yesterday. And I know just because I came up with the topic you'll post this. Right? Right?
And on to the topic...
Best ads for a game? Alright, kick my ass if you will, but I fell in love with Legend of Dragoon's ads. (NOTE: ADS != GAME) They were amusing, boasted pretty good graphics, and made me laugh. I've noticed in my 17 years that people tend to love humorous commercials over, say, dramatic ones(If you need an example, just ask. I'd be more than happy to become a regular on the column ^_^ ). It puts the product in your mind, and when you see the said items in stores you tend to go "Yeah! That's what that commercial was for!"
...Does that mean you'll buy the item? Well, no...but you'll remember the commercial! And that has to count for something.....right?
(Even though I could never bring myself to finish the game, I liked the commercial.)
So, in ending....well, you get the idea. Yeah.
Garion (too lazy to even put the numbers behind his name anymore)
P.S.: I still love the original Lunar Eternal Blue over all else. No characters have ever made me laugh so hard.
P.S.S: You won't leave us like that mean ol' Drew did will you? And..if YOU went to Japan...you WOULD take me with, right? RIGHT?
|
Desperation doesn't sell, kid - don't expect your next letter to be printed.
But seriously, you're right, ADS != GAME. (A slogan I'd spray paint in front of Sony's headquarters, if possible.) Ads may not equal anything, in fact; I can think of any number of great car, soda, and beer commercials over the years, but none of them have ever made me consider changing my brands. (Nissan, Coke, and Shiner Bock, for the record.) A cool-looking piece of box art is one thing, but ads alone are never going to influence my purchasing decisions.
| How not to market a game |
| Um, I think the worst ad ever was the ad for Fear Effect 2. I mean, "These
Two Ladies Put the Ass in Assasin"? Sure, it caught my eye, but it didn't
exactly get me pumped to buy a game about lesbian agents. I'd rather buy an
immersive game than a porno I can run on my PSX.
-KuMojoMog, who are a first time writer but are a long time reader
|
Agreed. Enough said.
Closing Comments:
Tomorrow's topic: The Sphere system, of course. Mindless speculation is always good, but let's also hear what you want to see come out of the system, in comparison to previous FF systems. Later.
-Chris Jones, disappearing down Flamingo Lane
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