I love advertisements – seriously.

As a kid they were sometimes the best part of television. Toy commercials were cartoons, and nothing beat seeing an ad for a videogame. Perhaps now that Internet access has allowed gameplay footage and trailers to reach consumers directly, there’s no room for the quirky and strange marketing I’m nostalgic for. And the few ads that remain seem an increasingly poor substitute.

Someone more historical inclined will likely find a great many talking points about the industry within the marketing campaigns of yesterday. This was how companies placed their products within a context they believed would make us desire them afterall. This was how they wanted us to see their wares.

Whether I’m capable of divining any insight from a walking tour of old advertisements is questionable, but I was at least curious enough to dig through a few, finding what I believe to be an interesting contrast between Japanese and North American Marketing for the first three Metroid titles. Care to join me for a stroll down memory lane?

Reflecting on my youth through commercials reminds me of how incredibly lame that time must have been - delightful as it was. There’s a solid mathematical equation stating that if child A sees child B having a shitload of fun with object Y, then child A must possess object Y - immediately. So we absolutely have to see a kid having fun with the game right?

What also emerges is the idea that Nintendo was putting us into the game. Look, we can literally jump into the action! Like many Nintendo ad campaigns to follow, there’s also a complex struggle between the attempt to advertise a game as well as the hardware powering it.

I don’t recall ever seeing this ad on television, and in putting this piece together I was a little disappointed. Though it wasn’t a given that this would be the beginning of a legacy franchise, marketing on the original would certainly help influence that direction. But then I came across the Japanese ad, which while still following the idea of putting players into the game, takes a markedly different approach.

Instead of using the token videogame kid with a controller, the ad puts Samus through a series of motions, accentuating and glamorizing the game with live images of action. By the time Samus jumps into the game, the idea is of having all that action in your hands while controlling this heroic character. Granted Samus also surfs on a Famicon disk, but this is the beginning of a very different approach toward marketing Metroid overseas, insofar as the first three entries in the series are concerned.

METROID II: RETURN OF SAMUS

Mr. Spooky voice is out to warn us of the impending danger of a sequel. I’ve always felt this ad was clever. It not only picks up on the narrative strength of the story, but also find ways to use gameboy graphics throughout the entire ad.

The Japanese counterpart goes a long way to cloaking the fact that the Gameboy is involved in anyway. The only glimpse of actual gameplay occurs within Samus’ visor during the final seconds of the ad. But the entire piece is so entirely, epically - yes epically awesome - that I can’t be bothered to care. It’s as if I’m watching a hybrid of Heavy Metal spliced with comic sequences to create something I’m halfway convinced is more exciting than the actual game.

SUPER METROID

This is the point at which my childhood commercial memories get more entertaining, and perhaps completely derailed from the original intent. I’d like to think we can blame these things on Sega’s continually aggressive ad campaigns - not to suggest that this one directly retaliates, but the focus is clearly on the technology powering the game. And it shares a certain humor I associate more with earlier Sega ads - in that it’s not very often that Nintendo marketed anything that was going to kick your ass.

I’d be surprised to see a commercial like that surface in Japan. So the counterpart ad again uses a live-action Samus, this time recreating the initial moments of the game.

Seeing that baby Metroid in the jar is strangely adorable.

While this walks us through the first three Metroid titles, I do want to take time for one small detour. As you may recall, Greg recently alerted us to the sinister nature of the Kool-Aid empire and it’s spokesperson. But what he is unaware of is that his favorite female bounty hunter was once in league with this dubious beverage.

Promotions make for strange bed-fellows, and the tie-in for Metroid II featured in this ad certainly illustrates that. Enjoy some classic cheese at no extra charge, and start saving those kool-aid points rebels!