New Wario Land ad shakes up YouTube

by Ross Miller { Sep 23rd 2008 at 11:00PM }

Nintendo has unleashed a rather clever YouTube ad for Wario Land: Shake It. It starts out simple enough, with mid-quality gameplay footage (first sign of trouble: the embed code is for Facebook only). And then ... well, we don't want to spoil it for you. Needless to say, it was a fun surprise. If the reviews are any indication, it might end up being the best thing to come out of the tremor-phillic Wii game.

Tags: ad, shake-it, wario, wario-land, youtube

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

MNC Dover @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:09PM

Wow, that was rather clever. Surprised no one thought of it already.

Sneakz @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:21PM

The first time I watched it, it crashed Firefox Safari 3.0.1 for OS X.

Sneakz @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:22PM

I meant Firefox. I don't know where "Firefox Safari" came from.

PersonOfSorts @ Sep 24th 2008 1:16AM

I'm sure plenty of others have thought of something similar. It's just that very few clients have the limitless Nintendo cash bucket.

t3kni9e @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:12PM

Lol I thought something was wrong with youtube because it kept stopping and it was shaking. Until I noticed coins dropping then I realized that's what was cool.

SoulBlade @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:13PM

eh - it's just a gimmick.

/idiots

Kirby1612 @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:17PM

Just a gimmick? I think it's actually pretty smart and also agree with MNC Dover. It's surprising no one thought of it so far. It's not like it makes me want to buy the game any more, but it sure made me watch the entire video.

SoulBlade @ Sep 24th 2008 9:25AM

I probably should have ended it w/ /sarcasm .

I thought the thing was pretty cool, but I imagine a lot of idiots will say its just a gimmick like they say about many other things.

Geist @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:16PM

That was actually pretty cool and totally unexpected. Somehow it's actually made me consider purchasing the game.

CesarSalad @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:22PM

THAT WAS PRUTTY COOL

Geist @ Sep 24th 2008 2:31AM

NAW IT WAS PURTY KEWL

SkaDan @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:23PM

I was wondering why it wasn't working on my iPhone!

I was all $%*&@! about that **** and really confused why it was coming up with "no videos for this user" when everyone else on Joystiq was watching it :P

brian @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:24PM

HOLY COCKBALLS BATMAN!!!

DarkNessBear @ Sep 24th 2008 3:28AM

hehehe. that made me laugh, thought of your avatar saying that with that face...hehehe...

Oh yea cool ad!!!! Watched it twice!

Monkeydog @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:26PM

Should have ended with a Rick Roll.

No not really.

Shame I use flashblock, it would have been much more of a surprise if I wasn't using it.

vidGuy @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:29PM

Very cool ad. I don't know what the actual returns on something like this would be but at least it is creative.

I'll probably check this game out when it falls into the $20-$30 range. It seems like a lot of the reviews mark it down for being a sidescroller :( I wish 2d games were more profitable than they are nowadays - there's too few new ones.

KeenCommander @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:36PM

I thought the reviews were solid, other than one anomalously low one - must have just been me.

Anyways, I'm just not interested until the price drops to the $30 range. I still haven't finished 5 different Wii games, so I'm not exactly desperate for play value.

Geist @ Sep 24th 2008 2:25AM

Only five? I laugh at you. I have four unfinished DS games, two unfinished PS2 games, and two unfinished Wii games. And then today I bought Dragon Quest IV. Clearly I have gone completely mad.

John Z @ Sep 24th 2008 7:47AM

Across all the systems I own, my unfinished count stands at 70.

Damn job. Getting in the way of my gaming time.

Danny F. @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:37PM

Compared to most advertisements out there for games, that was really different and pretty unique. I dont even like the wii like that yet that ad kinda made me want to get that game. Cool and awesome ad

Danny F. @ Sep 24th 2008 3:21PM

I take it back..... only 4:3 ratio....no widescreen??? Are you serious N?? What the hell happened here?? Not cool......

MOT @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:41PM

Didn't work on Firefox for me. Or does it need Flash 9? I have Flash 10.

MOT @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:42PM

Where's my comment?

Geist @ Sep 24th 2008 2:25AM

Right there.

DangerMouse @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:47PM

That rocked. They did a good job on that.

Bigfoot @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:47PM

This game is amazing.

Rick @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:50PM

AWESOME!!! I don't give a shit about the game, but the ad is great.

Ranus Studios @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:52PM

That improved my night a bit.

LuckyEMS @ Sep 24th 2008 12:00AM

would have been cooler if i hadnt noticed it being a fake youtube page

non tube address/signed in at the top/signed out at the bottom

Ridgecity @ Sep 24th 2008 12:23AM

it's not a fake youtube. Nintendo owns a exclusive youtube channel since the DS was released...

Vidikron @ Sep 24th 2008 12:54AM

I'm not sure what your looking at, but that's a genuine Youtube address and when I went to view the video my actual Youtube account was logged in.

MosquitoControl @ Sep 24th 2008 8:22AM

Yup, it's a real youtube address.

I noticed it was fake, too, though. First I tried to adjust the volume, but it wasn't popping up correctly, although I could mute. This made me check the URL, which was to a channel. It shouldn't have looked like a video page if it was a channel page. Only then did I remember it autoplayed the video, another no-no.

So, before anything happened, I knew something was up. Of course, the autoplaying thing should have given it away, but I had like four joystiq windows open and wasn't paying full attention.

Ridgecity @ Sep 24th 2008 12:21AM

The game is pretty funny, This was done by the New Super mario Bros DS team.

Obie @ Sep 24th 2008 12:24AM

THAT was badass....not enough to make up for Wii Music...but great nonetheless. ;)

Josh @ Sep 24th 2008 12:24AM

Well, the URL and the formatting of the page (not exactly correct) gave it away that *something* was up, but that was still really really exciting and cool. You can play around with the broken page pieces, too. :D

FSK405K @ Sep 24th 2008 12:33AM

Fail. Fewer things piss me off more about web design than not being able to maximize video from the first second. The button being there but unusable gave the whole thing away.

gir @ Sep 24th 2008 12:50AM

More like YOUR comment fails.

Vidikron @ Sep 24th 2008 12:52AM

Oh yeah? You knew that because that button didn't work that everything was going to fall apart like it did?

IGLAW @ Sep 24th 2008 12:36AM

Called it.

Kyle @ Sep 24th 2008 12:42AM

Reminded me of a certain Strong Bad cartoon..

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail118.html

Top Cat @ Sep 24th 2008 2:11AM

the system is down!

Ken Seang @ Sep 24th 2008 1:09AM

That was actually unexpected and funny! I just want to see some non video game players that goes to that youtube link and check it out. They probably thought they had a virus or they crash youtube or something lol.

Abscissa @ Sep 24th 2008 1:29AM

I use Firefox's FlashBlock extension. The first sign to me that something was odd was that the "Flash anim here" box was gigantic. I still didn't guess what was coming though :). Although once that "stuff" started it ran REALLY slow, kinda ruined the effect.

Ordeith @ Sep 24th 2008 2:03AM

Kinda like when Office 2007 was relased. The Office 2007 "Ribbon" began to appear at the top of some websites and all the formatting buttons (and real-time previews) would work.

Click "font" and scroll through the list, watch the fonts on the page change... that kind of stuff.

I thought it was pretty cool at the time.