A little unfortunate that these have dissappeared. Dunno why I've always had such a fascination with these. As a kid I'd get something like Game Informer, and hardly care about the actual content - just look at the ads. Dozens of big full page spreads of rad as hell art (sometimes. a lot of the time they were a little bland, but shhhh... that doesn't support my point right now). I love looking at the composostions, espeically when they're apart of a big advertising campaign. Nintendo's Play It Loud, Get Into It, and Who Are You? ads are big standouts in my mind. It wasn't until compiling images for this that I found out about the Virtual Boy's campaign and fuck yes, dude. It's awesome.

Likely my favorite ad is the Majora's Mask one seen at the top of the page. GOD, what a composition!!! This so effectively instills so much dread and communicates the direness seen in the game. The tagline is just a little stupid because, well. The moon is not as heavy as the earth. I know the phrase "weight of the world on your shoulders" isn't about the weight of the earth but still. Anyways! Could you imagine seeing this before Majora's Mask came out? Before easy internet access? Shit would be crazy. The choice of screenshots only make it more intriguing. Crazy good stuff.

Maybe its dumb I care about this stuff but it's really neat to me! I think I have a weird interest in marketing im realizing? Dunno.

go back?