Thinking about video game commercials and Brutal Legend
Tonight I’ve been thinking about video game commercials. First off, there’s a thread on our messageboard where people are listing their favorite TV spots. And I highly recommend you check that out for a fun trip down memory lane (plus some great Japanese commercials too). But I also got to see the 30-second spot for Brutal Legend (which, btw, launched tomorrow…the same day as Uncharted 2). After watching it, I’m not sure what to think. Here–take a look:
Ya know what, I’m not sure what I expected…but it was not that. For a game that’s got such a great sense of humor, this ad is just…bland. It’s so plain. Excruciatingly so. No voice clips from the game, barely any violence, no blood, none of the inventive writing from the game, none of the licensed music from known bands, none of the metal personalities that make appearances in the game, and it has no Jack Black (well, except for the “Hell Yeah” quote). They bleep out a word that rhymes with “rock” but it doesn’t seem to make sense there (and in the TV version I saw it replaced that with “axe”). So what the heck happened here? What do you think of the ad? Did Activision or Bobby Kotick somehow buy the ad agency that produced this to intentionally sink it?
I’m not the only one that thinks it fails. Sorry Doublefine/Tim. :’(
And now, a funny video game commercial for a game that is not a comedy (unless you count the comedy of errors that the series has become in the years since this)…
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