Nintendo is celebrating the 27th Super Smash Bros anniversary on the Nintendo 64. Pitting everyone’s favorite Nintendo characters against each other, the original video game was a rare opportunity to see a crossover. Watching Donkey Kong finally beat up Mario is almost as rewarding as watching Yoshi get its revenge for being dropped down so many holes.
This weird fighting game from the typical kid-friendly video game company would go on to inspire four. With 78 characters and counting, the Smash Bros. series has grown into a fighting game phenomenon. When it released, however, Nintendo took a very strange approach to marketing the game to audiences.
On the 27th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. release in Japan, let’s take a look back at the weird and surreal commercial that advertised the game in multiple regions of the world.
Pikachu, Yoshi, Mario and Donkey Kong skip merrily through a field of sunflowers. Set to the 1967 song ‘Happy Together’ by The Turtles, a madness quickly falls upon the friendly quartet. Mario assaults an innocent Yoshi, taking him out at the knee and triggering a massacre nobody could have seen coming.
Honestly, the best scene is this random kick Pikachu takes to the kidney here. The commercial is pretty short, wrapping up with Yoshi hitting Donkey Kong with a KO thanks to Mario’s hammer. The wave of aggression that overtook children’s favorite video game characters is finally over. What inspired this commercial? Who sat down at the marketing room and decided that having costumed versions of kid’s favorite game characters assault each other is a good way to advertise Super Smash Bros.?
Smash Bros. commercial from Japan is way cooler
Compare the Western commercial to the Japanese one. It starts similarly, with four kids playing in a field, with the Donkey Kong stage Jungle Hijinxs manifesting before the children. Link, Kirby, Pikachu and Mario line up, ready for a fun romp. They look happy, or at least like they’re in a game — not four costumed characters taken by fits of madness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYqXBP3IQ-Y
While Smash Bros. fans are celebrating the 27th Super Smash Bros anniversary of the game, it’s fun to look back at the original advertising for the game.
