IMPress Polly
08-10-2014, 06:35 AM
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.
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.