Five Super Nintendo Game Commercials!

There's something magical about watching television commercials from the past. If you take the time to watch some commercials from a particular time period you'll be able to get a feel of what pop culture was like at the time.

When you watch these five SNES commercials, you'll be able to learn one thing about the early 1990s.

They were weird.




Super Mario RPG

This is a commercial for the Japanese release of Super Mario RPG, a collaboration between Nintendo and Squaresoft. It involves a trio of singing Piranha Plants sitting atop skyscrapers in an unnamed city commanding anyone who will listen to "play the game!" Mario is also walking around on the streets. He's probably on his way to do the Piranha Plants' bidding.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie's Double Trouble

It starts out innocent enough with a rough and tumble western fee. We see a woman dancing at a jukebox who turns around and OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT. It then cuts to a male gorilla driving a motorcycle. After some in-game footage she apparently joins him on his trek. Is the ape-woman supposed to be Dixie Kong? Better yet, is the male gorilla riding the motorcycle supposed to be Kiddy Kong? To my knowledge, there isn't a moment in DKC3 where Kiddy Kong ditches his baby sleeper & pacifier for badass biker gear.

Earthworm Jim

We begin with a sweet old lady in her rocking chair surrounded by woodland critters. She begins to tell the tale of Earthworm Jim, but in early 90s fashion, she starts being gross by eating a bowl of worms. Over the course of the commercial she apparently turns into some sort of demon who wants Earthworm Jim dead. I don't know.

Mortal Kombat 2

There's nothing particularly cheesy or awful about this commercial, but I found it to be worth sharing mostly because of it's ability to nail the "real world" aesthetic of the Mortal Kombat universe a year before the 1995 film released. Not a bad commercial at all.

Super Mario All-Stars

I like this commercial particularly because it serves as a solid example of the "console warz" between Sega and Nintendo that were going on at the time. Considering I remember buying a Genesis that came with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog, commercials like this mostly existed to be grade school playground ammo when arguing with your friends to justify your "choice." You know what, it isn't that different from modern day console discussion on the internet.

I want to thank YouTube user VideoGameAds for uploading these commercials. Look forward to some Sega Genesis/Mega Drive ads in the next chapter of this series!