I have been trawling youtube recently watching older Nintendo of Japan advertisements from years gone by and was preparing a post in regards to which ones I had found which I found to be the most odd when gamesradar did a write up of purely Japanese commercials from all the major players which can be found here:

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-evolution-of-japanese-game-commercials/a-20090903104029668011#20090903104029668011

While not a bad article I think I can safely state that the commercials below come in as being far more bizzare and clearly could only originate from the Japanese.

Starting off at number Five:

Donkey Kong Country 2 – Diddy’s Kong Quest

Released in Australia in 1995 to critical acclaim on the SNES it was the follow up to the hit title Donkey Kong Country. In order to promote the release of the game the following advertisement was run in Japan and I truly cant believe the amount of awesome displayed by this video. SOUP A DAWNKEY KAWWNNNNG TOOOOOOO:

Number four:

Donkey Kong Country: GBA

Another entry from the Donkey Kong Country series this time from the re-release for Nintendo’s GameBoy Advance released in 2003. This one is just plain bizarre and features acts that one should not try at home with another species:

Number 3:

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Produced for the release of the GameBoy title in 1993. It contains a group of puppets which are characters from the game who sing and dance on an island. If you speak Japanese it probably makes sense however it contains very little game footage so what to expect from the game going by the add itself would be difficult but I could only assume it involves the worlds scariest puppets.

Number Two:

Mario Kart DS

This is my personal favorite of the lot to be honest. Its overly bizarre and has strong homosexual overtones which I am sure was NOT the intended point of the ad from Nintendo’s point of view. First of all it contains some odd ideas of what Japan seems to think of the worlds cultures, some rather stereotypical views if you would but its funny as all hell. I’m pretty sure its the same actor in all four and features them playing in a multi player game and ganging up on the Luigi character.

Number 1:

Legend of Zelda: A link to the past

Nintendo? Check. Zelda? Check. Theatrical Dancing? Check. Attitude? Check. Rap? Check. Wait whats that you ask? Rap? Yes its true I don’t know why but Nintendo of Japan thought it was a great idea to announce the release of the title with a rap promoting its release and its relaxing qualities.

Led by link the main charachter the troupe performs a rap about the title with such glorious quotes as:

This adventure is GORGEOUS!

You will have to watch the rest of the video to get the full affect but I can state that it has to be one of the best adverts I have ever seen for a game and you cant blame them for trying to reach the young on their own level eh?