Monday, November 5, 2007

Hey, Nintendo, where the heck are the ads?

Sorry, would've been longer, but I had to whip up something quick after another idea fell through. I'll try for something more sufficient on Wednesday, I promise!



Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and Battalion Wars 2 are now available at a retailer near you. Unaware? Don't feel left out, not many other people knew, either. And why is this? Lack of advertising! Both these games are sitting on store shelves RIGHT NOW, and we haven't seen so much as an online release of a television commercial! Website ad banners are pretty much as far as it's gone so far. So then, where the heck are the ads?

There's no reason for Battalion Wars 2 and Fire Emblem to be shunned like this. They're both significant games based on successful franchises.

Battalion Wars 2 is based on the incredibly famous and successful Nintendo Wars franchise, which started way back in 1988 with Famicom Wars. Since then it has seen games released on the Super Famicom, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Gamecube and (With Battalion Wars 2) the Wii.

Fire Emblem goes back nearly as far, starting back in 1990 on the Famicom. It has since been seen on the Super Famicom, Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, the Japanese Virtual Console and now the Wii.

These games could hardly be considered insignificant, and they definitely deserve at least one television commercial.

So where are Nintendo's advertising bucks going as of now? Well, look no further than...



...Super Mario Galaxy. Off the top of my head, I can recall hearing about Galaxy ads on websites, Japanese subway trains and even a full-fledged television commercial!

Now, of course we're going to see ads for this. I mean, come on, it's Super-freaking-Mario we're talking about here! But that's no excuse to ignore the slightly less popular titles. Battalion Wars 2 and Fire Emblem have pretty much gotten the advertising boot, so where does that leave upcoming titles such as Disaster: Day of Crisis and Endless Ocean? I fear for their futures...

It seems that if a game doesn't feature a big name like Link, Mario or Samus, it just isn't worth the advertising department's time. Seriously, the Wii Would Like To Play guys don't look too busy! Go grab 'em and pump out some more ads! The Wii can't survive on the big guys alone, you know. After all, variety is the spice of life.

The Duck Has Spoken.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good points. I agree. Both games are fantastic. I got BWii at launch and will have Radiant Dawn soon enough. I was just as excited for them as for Mario. Maybe even moreso for BWii. The online is a blast. I really wish they would work a little harder to sell these titles, they are just so damn good. They could both be really big sellers if they just got the word out.