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Finally, the discs also devoted space to commercials that were running on TV at the time, ranging from Nintendo’s own marquee titles to stronger third part offerings that needed an extra in-store push. Nothing fancy in these videos, just straight-up commercials from a more innocent time.
N64 and Game Boy Color commercials
Ridge Racer 64: Hearing this woman’s shrill voice more than once is pure torture, so our hearts go out to anyone who, say, had to work next to one of these kiosks and had to hear it every damn day.
Kirby 64: Brief and explanatory, this is a better ad than the game deserves.
Excitebike 64: This was going to go in the “Remember” section, but as with Kirby the ad is so strong we wanted to share it.
Tetris: What would the ‘90s be without a dated Jerry Springer reference? And two years too late at that? Gotta sell Tetris however you can, we guess.
Mario Party: A very Wii-style ad nearly 10 years before Wii ads. Seeing as this ad is sanctioned by Nintendo, Mario getting arrested is now official canon.
Mario Party 2: Another year, another party. Why not.
Mario Tennis: One of several sports videos of the time showing casual douchebags getting owned by Nintendo characters. Good stuff.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: The weirdest Zelda ever has one of the best commercials in all of Nintendoland. Creepy, dramatic, ominous… the exact tone it needed to be.
Game Boy Color: Funny how Nintendo could sell a system where “a little bit of color” is the primary addition, but hey, it worked. The ad is still symptomatic of Nintendo’s “this is cool, right?” approach to edgy ads, using gnarling old ladies and doltish bullies as stand-ins for personal troubles.
Bonus Pokemon section!
You didn’t think we’d leave out the pokemans, did you? This exact timeframe, 1997-2001, is when Pokemon explode onto the world stage and became a lifetime staple for Nintendo and its devoted fanbase.
Originally posted September 18, 2009
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