When will the UK stop freaking out about Bully? If you guessed "Never," "Probably not anytime soon," "Not in this lifetime," or "Is that a rhetorical question?" then you're on the right track.
The newest slew of censorship whinings stemmed from a commercial for the game, which some people found "offensive," "distasteful," and (insert negative adjective here). The ad featured typical Bully shenanigans: destruction of property, wedgies, and so forth. The Advertising Standards Authority received thirty-one complaints about the commercial in question, as a handful of folks were upset that children could easily see it on their tellies.
Take Two blames sensationalist media coverage for the complaints, and as for the ASA? They don't seem too worried, as the organization declined to take any action regarding the ad. Even so, Take Two has no plans to run it again in the future.
To see the "offensive" commercial for yourself, just click past the break.
It's no secret that Okami's sales on the PS2 weren't too great, despite the fact that the game was hailed by critics and gamers alike. Some companies might be touchy about things like that, but not Capcom. Even though the gem they published sold a lot less copies than it deserved to, Capcom at least has a sense of humor about the whole thing, as the ad to the right shows us. Hailing Okami as "the best game you've never played" is one of the funniest Wii ads we've seen, in fact.
Way to go, Capcom -- that's what we call good marketing.
No More Heroes is out on the 6th in Japan, and Grasshopper Manufacture and publisher Marvelous have stepped up the release of media. Accordingly, videos released through the official No More Heroes website are now generally longer, and are coming out every day. We've embedded one at the top of the post; the other new ones at the website are pretty bloody and thus less appropriate for public display. We know that some of you were upset about the lack of blood in previous videos -- you will be pacified as henchman after henchman explodes into a fine red mist. The video update also shows that Travis can find and wear new outfits, much to the consternation of cosplayers.
After the break, we'll have a look at a provocative magazine ad for the game that, were we a British publication, would no doubt elicit a "Phwoar!"
If, like us, you've been wondering where Atlus' creativity went with its terribly plain Trauma Center: New Blood boxart, you'll be happy to hear that we managed to find some of it in the latest issue of Nintendo Power. While not as hilarious or ridiculous as the Geometry Wars: Galaxies piece we featured late last week, this blood transfusion ad we spotted certainly is creative. Jump past the post break for the full page.
We can't decide if this marks a clever nod from some kids at an advertising firm to Internet culture, or the precise moment that LOLcats stopped being cool or funny. We're feeling generous, so we think we're going to go with the former, seeing it as a refreshingly lo-fi, low-budget, punk-rock approach to game advertising. Also it made us laugh.
If you can't tell (because the ad doesn't actually have the name of the game printed anywhere!) this cat is advertising Sierra's Geometry Wars Galaxies. The ad was found on IGN by NeoGAFfer John Harker, and we don't want to think about how much money we made for IGN when we tried to find it ourselves. We even reloaded the same Jackass PSP review found in the GAF screenshot to maximize our chances of having the same ad come up. It was only later that we discovered the actual website for these ads, which contains a load of 'em.
Of course, those of you with excellent memories for Geometry Wars advertising will remember that this isn't the first time Sierra has used bizarre, nonsensical advertising techniques to promote this game.
Nintendo's latest advertising effort for Metroid Prime 3 attempts to make a connection to another beloved franchise in the minds of Nintendo fans. And make no mistake, this ad is aimed at Nintendo fans: it's being mailed out to My Nintendo members.
In order to promote their newest "hardcore" game, Nintendo is banking on happy memories of the last one, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. They're hoping that gamers who love adventure games on Nintendo but somehow haven't decided to go pick up Metroid will do so.
Is it even possible for someone to be enough of a Nintendo fan to have registered online, but not have heard about Metroid Prime 3? E-mails don't cost anything, we guess.
When we were thinking about content to post during Metroid Week, old commercials immediately sprang to mind. From the old NES commercials that declared we were playing with power to funky Japanese ads that have a live action, cosplaying Samus, we knew that you readers would get a kick out of it. So, head on past the break and get an eye full of some commercials starring our favorite bounty hunter.
There have been a lot of Wii jokes and comics, but this is definitely one of the most funniest we've seen, because it combines the great 'Wii would like to play' ads with the notion of the 'Wii-injury'. That makes it pretty much the definition of that whole 'two great tastes' cliché. Check it out after the jump to see for yourself.
[Update 1: It occurs to us that "most funniest" is in no way a sensible phrase, but frankly, we blame the video.]
Red Steel and Twilight Princess are reminiscent of terrorist videos ... at least to one individual in the UK. Apparently, this ad was a bit too "violent, offensive, and disturbing" for seventeen (yes, seventeen) television viewers in Britain, and they made their displeasure known. After a review by Britain's Advertising Standards Authority, however, the ads were deemed okay to go. "We also considered that viewers were unlikely to link the ad to recent events in Iraq. We concluded that the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence," the Authority said. Translation? Damn, y'all are sensitive.
Obviously, we've now won the console war. Sony and Microsoft can just go home. Good game, guys. Good game.
Frantic sets of microgames have been the standard of every entry in the WarioWare series, forcing gamers to assess and complete outlandish objectives at a frightening pace. While each title has its own "gimmick" with its microgames (e.g. Twisted!'s motion sensor), WarioWare Touched! and WarioWare: Smooth Moves have the responsibility of proving the newly-launched systems they debuted on. Working with these quick bursts of gameplay, these two games promote how the features of the DS and Wii can be taken advantage of, providing hundreds of examples in an enjoyable, playable format.
The New Gamer has an editorial on the steps Smooth Moves takes to successfully advertise the Wii remote's capabilities. Each five-second game manages to quickly retrain us on how we're interacting with the controller and what's on our screens, using condensed levels of popular games, memorable stances, and familiar situations for these brief vignettes. Because of these design decisions, adapting to the 100+ microgames ends up being more fun than intimidating, vindicating the Wii remote with each satisfying bite of gameplay.
Yeah, you've probably seen this one already, and that's okay. You don't have to watch it again if you don't want to (but we think it's pretty cool). But Nintendo's latest Wii ads are not only effective, but they reflect the Mii craze that is such a big part of the Wii's success. And since people are using Mii-like images on corporate websites now, Nintendo's boardroom ad is simply brilliant, and that's why it's in the spotlight this week. Check it out after the jump.
EA Sports demonstrated its commitment to making the Wii port of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 a success by casting the title star for the game's commercial. While this move seems like an obvious one, it would have been easy to just fill the 30-second spot with gameplay shots and close-ups of the polygonal golf pro. Instead, the TV advertisement features the sports celebrity demonstrating the Wii's unique controls with a graceful swing. Read on for the classy video.
Sorta kinda maybe. Everyone's favorite overly-hyped-shooter-with-glitchy-aiming-mechanisms-and-unintuitive-combat seems to be gearing up for another go. Ubisoft's Paris division has posted a big digital "Help Wanted" ad on the internet, whose transcript shall be withheld to save the reader from silly BabelFish translation errors. In any case, it asks for a game designer for the "continuation of the Red Steel franchise". There is no direct confirmation that the sequel will be on the Wii, but come on. It's pretty damn obvious.
One must wonder if the world really wants this. If they can iron out the bugs, improve level design, and add more realistic melee combat, maybe they'll have a winner. If not, we'll always have Super Smash Bros. Brawl to fall back on, right?
We welcome Nintendo's marketing blitz because it just means we get a lot of sweet video game footage disguised as ads. And we do like us some videos! But this ad for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance gets all the props for including Captain America's shield throw, since that's one of the first things we're all not-so-secretly dying to do.
Check out the video, embedded as always after the jump.
Nintendo has this nasty tendency to make money with their consoles, despite often being seen as the "loser" in the reputed console wars. Their stock holders are generally quite happy, especially in recent times, and believe it or not, Nintendo has a war chest of something like ten bazillion yen. Certainly a large R&D budget went into developing Wii technology, but everyone knows that the system is essentially a calculated risk. Nintendo needs to push its new brainchild, and it needs to push it hard; thus the chest springs open yet again.
A recent Bloomberg article states that Nintendo will launch a year-long, $200 million ad campaign for the Wii. Further, 80% of that money will be solely devoted to marketing toward non-gamers, attempting to expand their market into the coveted (and excuse the generalization) "old people and women" demographic. That's a whole heck of a lot of money to get the word out ... be sure to do your part and invite your baby boomer neighbors for a quick session of Wii Sports.
When will the UK stop freaking out about Bully? If you guessed "Never," "Probably not anytime soon," "Not in this lifetime," or "Is that a rhetorical question?" then you're on the right track.
EA Sports
