We rarely get to praise advertising for a Wii game, because it rarely exists, and when it does, it's rarely anything special. But Capcom nailed it with this TV commercial for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, featuring stop-motion action figure combat between Ryu, Mega Man Volnutt, Ken the Eagle and Tekkaman Blade. The animation is well-done, the combat is well-choreographed and at no point do three generations of family giggle at you from a couch.
Capcom says the commercial will be showing "in HD glory on USA, SyFy, Adult Swim and more starting next Monday." Provided it runs frequently enough and at good timeslots, this thing could actually sell some copies of the game. Check it out after the break.
Now this is how you make a commercial! Sure it may not be the greatest game ad ever, but it's still a heck of lot better than those stupid commercials starring brain dead kids waving wiimotes around. I do wonder if they are targeting the right audience though, 'cause I'd be willing to bet that the majority of the people watching SyFy and Adult Swim do not own or care about the Wii. IMO, they'd be better off airing these on other channels where kids would see it. After all, when it comes to word of mouth marketing, kids are by far the best.
They advertised New Super Mario Bros. Wii and are currently advertising Final Fantasy CC:CB on those channels, so I don't think it's a bad idea. In fact, I think this ad would fit right in on Adult Swim (the only one of those channels that I watch with any regularity). Between appealing to anime fans, medium-range ("casual hardcore") gamers, and people old enough to have childhood memories of watching G-Force or Battle of the Planets and/or playing Street Fighter and Mega Man, Adult Swim has a great audience for it. (The aesthetic resemblance to Robot Chicken is sure to turn a few heads, as well.) I agree that this game would be good to market to younger audiences as well (both because they will probably like the over-the-top action of the game, dig the "It's all kinds of awesome" tagline, and still give a crap about the Wii), but I imagine the problem is that since the game is rated Teen, a lot of the kid-oriented networks won't run the ad. Too bad Toonami's not still around, this would've fit in perfectly there.
At any rate, it's tremendously refreshing to see a third-party Wii title actually get some real marketing muscle behind it. I just hope this game sells.
They should have included the fight stick in the ad, too. Not too many people seem to know about this game and even fewer are aware of the fight stick that's similar to the SSIV ones for PS3/x360. I hope this sells well.
