Video games are advertised in all sorts of ways, with one of the original methods being commercials on TV. I have to say that most video game commercials of today are pretty boring compared to what I watched as I grew up. Some were good, others were bad, and then there are those that truly grabbed the audience’s attention. The following list I have put together is my top 10 video game commercials which stands out as classics in my book. With so many video game commercials of past and present, chances are your list is going to be different from mine. Even so, these commercials are meant to make you laugh and smile, so just sit back and enjoy the show.

Please note that some of the clips will have poor sound and video quality, since most of my choices are from old commercials.

10. Metal Gear Solid
We all dream of going on an epic quest, whatever if it’s to rescue a princess or save the world. This felt no different when Metal Gear Solid was first released for the PS1, where most of us dreamed of being the hero to stop the terrorists and save the girl. With its commercial, it shows that anyone is qualified to be a hero…………only it wasn’t for a good reason.



9. Sega Genesis
Sega had an extremely aggressive marketing campaign for their Genesis system, with the popular slogan being “Genesis does what Nintendon’t”. They produced a lot of commercials promoting their system while criticizing Nintendo. One of those commercials is the following that included a number of famous people.




8. Syphon Filter 2
Syphon Filter was a series released for the PS1 that I felt was horribly ignored in favor for Metal Gear Solid (not that I have anything against Metal Gear). It’s a shame too because the series back then was great. To counter the Metal Gear hype, a commercial was released promoting Syphon Filter 2. While it looked like a lot of gamers missed this, it still deserves praise for using the gameplay itself to produce a funny scene. Check the clip out and you’ll see what I mean.




7. Game Genie
Certain games were extremely hard to beat back in the old days. This could have ranged from beating the final boss in Batman, or just simply getting to the next level in Battletoads. That’s where the Game Genie came in, an accessory that with the proper codes could let you do almost anything to the game you were playing. With such a radical item, an equally radical commercial was needed to promote this.





6. Super Mario World
After the huge success of Super Mario Brother 3, Nintendo had the huge task of making an even better Mario game for the Super Nintendo. Needless to say, they did just that and released Super Mario World with the console’s launch. Naturally, they had to let the public know of this new game, which is where this commercial comes in. While it mainly keeps saying it has a bit more of everything, it’s safe to say they should have said it had a lot more of everything.





5. Final Fantasy III (VI JP)
There are so many Final Fantasy commercials that I love to watch, it was extremely tough to choose only one. In the end, I decided to go with the one which I believe is the very first Final Fantasy commercial to be aired in North America, which was Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan). The most impressive thing about this commercial was that they actually used monsters from the game itself for the commercial, instead of making up some weird and random creature that wasn’t even in the game. That alone shows whoever made this ad took the time to research the game, even if it was only for a bit.




4. Nintendo Power
Believe it or not, there was a time where we didn’t have the Internet to look up strategy guides and cheat codes to help us beat a video game. That’s where Nintendo Power came in, a magazine that was full of previews, reviews, maps, secrets, and codes for various Nintendo games. Not only that, they provided strategy guides for games the Final Fantasy, Super Mario, and various other games. With something like this, word needed to spread about how great this magazine was, which is where this commercial comes in.




3. Super Smash Brothers
The Super Smash Brothers series is one of Nintendo’s most popular and successful franchises. We all enjoy beating the stuffing out of all of Nintendo’s famous characters, but this was hard for us to picture back when it was first released for the Nintendo 64. Lucky us that this commercial gave us a good idea on how much fun that would be.



2. Grand Theft Auto
When something is advertised that doesn’t do and/or isn’t what the product in question really is, that is called misleading advertising. Taking that into consideration, this is exactly what happened when Grand Theft Auto did a commercial on Coca-Cola by showing an environment that is the complete opposite of what a Grand Theft Auto game really is. Yet by doing this, it produced one of the best commercials I’ve ever seen.




1. Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball
How can a video game that I’ve never played before, on a console system that I’ll never own, get labeled as having the best video game commercial? It seems pretty cheesy that I would pick Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball as my #1 choice. However, it has the one thing that most other commercials don’t have: it’s honest. This game’s commercial is the most honest video game commercial I’ve ever seen. In fact, it’s one of the most honest commercials I’ve ever seen on TV overall. If you’re finding this hard to believe, just watch the clip.


Seriously, what they showed is the EXACT reason why we would even consider buying this game. Now there’s a lot more to this game than what was shown in the commercial but this was all they needed to show to get Xbox users drooling over buying it.

I hoped you enjoyed reading this blog and watching these classic commercials. As usual, feedback would be greatly appreciated on this and my other blogs if you can spare the time. Thanks again and keep on gaming.

~SmilingScot