Sega Advertisements

When I was growing up, I didn't have a Super Nintendo.  I was pulled into the miasma of made-up words that my generation was renowned for and got sucked in by the advertising for the Sega Genesis.

Does anybody else remember "blast processing?"

I'll admit, Sega did a really good job at the time as making themselves out to be "cooler" than Nintendo.  Nintendo had a plumber for a mascot who was jovial, friendly, and was part of the older generation of games.  Sega had a blue hedgehog that ran so fast you'd be done with a stage in mere moments.  Nintendo had a gray system, Sega went black (and really never went back...until the Dreamcast).  Nintendo grayed out blood from games like Mortal Kombat, Sega left the blood in.  Sega was just cool, and the advertisements showed it.

I remember this one well, because it showed up ALL THE TIME in magazines.  I kept wondering why the bad guys from Street Fighter II were so angry at a bunch of letters, and never really understood what they meant under the dotted line.  "Fill in the fighting word of your choice."  You mean like "roundhouse" or "uppercut?"  "I can kick some real uppercuts?  How does that make any sense?  Maybe they meant special moves, but I'm pretty sure no character could kick a hadouken.

Too bad they didn't say "fill in the body part of your choice" because then it'd be really simple.

I'll freely admit I owned and loved this game.  But this ad is what got me interested at first.  It might just be the most 90s cast I've ever seen outside of some really bizarre comic book characters (Hi, Cable!).  You have a guy with a glowing robot arm, a hot woman in a sports bra, some other dude with a glowing hand, and a kid wearing skates flying through the sky.

When I first saw this ad, I got so excited.  And then I realized it wasn't a game with Macho Man Randy Savage, Spider-Man, and the Terminator teaming up.

That's a pretty huge disappointment to suffer through when you're young.

Speaking of blue hedgehogs, I think this was the ad that initially got me interested in buying a Genesis instead of a Nintendo.  Just look, it actually has the words "major attitude" right there in the description.  I lived in the days when attitude was everything, and you could get away with a lot if you just acted like you were supposed to be taken seriously (see: Vanilla Ice).

Something I do vividly remember is that it wasn't just "Nintendo vs. Sega" smear campaigns (which Sega was notorious for, remember "Genesis does what Nintendon't?"), but even the games themselves would compete with trash talk.  Most people don't remember Eternal Champions, but I remember thinking that, first of all, that guy in the green jumpsuit looked really, really stupid, and second that this game must be even more awesome than Street Fighter II if a magazine ad said so.  Man, was I wrong.

Now, I know that some people complain about ratings and how video games are limited by systems, but I'll point out one thing.  When I was a kid, I saw both of the following in magazines at seemed aimed at my demographic (i.e. video games), and I've heard stories of how upset parents got.

Okay, fast question, what exactly am I supposed to be taking advantage of, and do I need written consent before I take it?  Aren't there laws against that kind of thing?

So, yeah.  When you have to hide your video game magazines from your parents, maybe they need to tone back some of the advertising techniques they're using.

Just a thought.