Classic Nintendo Power Promo Videos

[IMPress Polly]

Back in the '90s, Nintendo Power (then Nintendo's official magazine here in the United States) would occasionally mail their subscribers free VHS tapes promoting various things Nintendo (most often individual games published by the big N). This tradition began in 1994 with a video promoting Donkey Kong Country and concluded in 2000 with a video promoting Banjo-Tooie. Thereafter they sent their subscribers a CD-ROM promoting the Nintendo Game Cube in 2001 and a DVD promoting the Wii five years later. These videos were sent out in advance of the release of the hardware and software in question, so they served as useful previews of some of the more hotly anticipated Nintendo games and systems to come back in the days before YouTube and live streaming of industry trade shows. Nintendo not being known for its overly serious approach to the medium, neither was Nintendo Power known for its overly serious approach to the promotion thereof. As a subscriber to Nintendo Power for more than a decade beginning in the summer of 1995, I received many of these videos in the mail. They were cute, especially in the eyes of a kid! :smiley: Although most of the videos tended to focus on providing extensive game play footage with a cute narrative, two of my favorites, posted below, had full-fledged, goofy plots complete with deliberately bad acting that's pretty adorable, especially in retrospect. :grin: Most of their readers preferred the former approach revolving around game play footage (myself included at the time) because it made the videos more of a preview of what was to come...but over the years, as I've moved on from the novelty of these old games, I've started to appreciate the more creative videos more. They've grown on me. They weren't quite as useful as preview material, but they were wackier, and since I don't need the preview anymore, I guess it's the wackiness that appeals to me more nowadays. So anyway, here are what have become my two favorites from the '90s NP promo video collection:

Star Fox 64 promo video:

This one has the funniest plot, IMO. And hey, bonus, it's even got a preview montage that includes Mischief Makers and "Zelda 64" (a.k.a. Ocarina of Time); two of my all-time favorites for the system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgEZJt911Qw

"You can buy it at the store!" ...:laugh:


Diddy Kong Racing promo video:

...Well hey, this was pretty funny to me as a kid. :grin: And hey, holiday system review montage that includes the hidden gem Mischief Makers? Count me in!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7dSXVUds_E

I wanna see Brush With the Monkey!! Just saying. :wink:


Anyway...

All the old NP promo videos have been posted on YouTube at this point, so if anyone is interested in seeing more of these goofy little classics, just let me know and I can repost more of them here.

[Peter1469]

You saw these in re-runs right? :smiley:

[IMPress Polly]

The two in the OP I got in the mail back in 1997 thanks to my Nintendo Power subscription. :cool2: I also got most of the others in the mail too: the Yoshi's Island preview video, the Nintendo 64 preview video, the Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie preview videos, etc. The exceptions -- the ones I've had to view on YouTube -- were the Donkey Kong Country and Ken Griffey Jr. game promo videos. The former came out before I was an NP subscriber so I never got it in the mail. And I don't know why they passed me up on the baseball game promo, but I'm okay with that because I wasn't into regular sports games (and I'm still not).

[IMPress Polly]

Alright, I've gotta post at least one more of these classic Nintendo Power promo videos from back in the Nintendo 64 era today! They're too adorable not to post at least one more! This next one is a preview promo video for Banjo-Kazooie, which was a super-cute fantasy adventure game by Nintendo and Rare (remember Rare?) back in the summer of 1998. I actually received two different versions of this video in the mail from Nintendo Power: one from Toys R Us and another from Blockbuster Video. The contents are exactly the same save for at the tail end just before they get to the sizzle reel wherein the Toys R Us video mentions Toys R Us and the Blockbuster video instead mentions Blockbuster. For the hell of it, I'll share both versions below. The Blockbuster one will come first simply because the video quality is the best of any version I could find on YouTube.

Banjo-Kazooie promo video:

This video is a little more conventional in presentation than the two Nintendo Power promo videos I shared in the OP in that there's no endearingly goofy storyline or acting. There is, however, an endearingly goofy, super-cheesy narration to it that's just kinda nostalgic to me. :grin: Much as with most Nintendo games themselves, Nintendo Power (Nintendo's official magazine until late 2007) featured a goofy, quirky, kid-friendly tone that way for most of its existence. It feels especially appropriate for a game like Banjo-Kazooie that was basically a super-cute parody of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and various other classic pop culture media and icons. Super-cuteness didn't last, but it was kind of a thing for Nintendo games wherein Rare was in the picture in the latter 1990s (not uniformly, but frequently) and this was definitely part of that.

Although, as mentioned in the OP, over the years I've come to like the NP videos that had silly storylines because of their uniqueness, one of the benefits of this video not having one is that the makers were able to provide a much more extensive preview of the game itself with lots and lots of footage, tips, and peaks into each of the game's worlds in addition to the usual character introductions and general game play overview, and that comparative practicality was something I, along with most NP readers, preferred at the time. I also like the preview reel at the end of the video, particularly for including some cool, stylized preview footage of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which was one of my absolute favorite games for the system! And speaking of the preview reel, here's a fun little note on the game they call Twelve Tales: Conker 64: that was to be another of these super-cute Nintendo/Rare releases, and one that I was highly interested in. However, after Rare and Nintendo broke it off in terms of working together a couple years after this video was made, Rare converted the Conker game into a very different kind of title called Conker's Bad Fur Day, which still featured the furry protagonist, but in an M-rated grossout comedy scenario that I didn't much care for. (Think battling a giant boss made of poop, using your piss as a play mechanic, etc.) Anyway, here are the Banjo-Kazooie promo videos.

Here's the Blockbuster version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_09HsijaSQo

Now the Toys R Us version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwbWxaIA4bM

Star Fox 64 promo video:

Thought I'd re-post this one as well since the Star Fox 64 promo video I had posted in the OP evidently was removed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPsAoxLAhCk