Maximo: Ghost to Glory for PlayStation 2 (2001)

 

Original ad featured in the April 2002 issue of EGM.
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An average 3-D platformer with more marketing budget than originality.

A spiritual successor to 80s classics Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985) and Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1988), released on a multitude of consoles and computers, Maximo for PS2 was a run-of-the-mill action game in a 3-D environment.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow for GBA (2003)

Original ad featured in the June 2003 issue of EGM (167).
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Vampire Hunter A+

A beautiful game with superb publicity material.

Aria of Sorrow stands alongside Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance as a fantastic trio of classic 2-D games. Aria was the last of the three, but all of them are uniformly excellent. And really difficult.

Final Fantasy Origins for PlayStation (2003)

Original ad featured in the June 2003 issue of EGM (167).
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Fantastic artwork for a relic of the past

During the last days of Sony's original PlayStation, Japanese RPG giant Squaresoft published a series of Final Fantasy games on what was the world's most popular game console. Sadly, the games were not good at all.

God of War for PS2 (2005)

Original ad featured in the April 2005 issue of EGM (no. 190).

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The best publicity is a good game

The original Greek mythology action game featured some very solid advertising. Equally as good as the game, actually.

Shadow of the Ninja for NES (1990)

Original ad featured in the November 1990 issue of EGM (no. 16).

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A true hidden gem for Nintendo's 8-bit machine

Well-known publisher Natsume, of Harvest Moon fame, released what could be called the perfect cross of Ninja Gaiden and Contra. Sandy for them, no-one paid attention to their game during the begging of the 90s.

Sinistron & Tricky Kick for TurboGrafx-16 (1990)

Original ad featured in the November 1990 issue of EGM (no. 16).

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Two for the price of a grey one

Two-game ads were the norm in the late 80s and the begging of the 90s. Unfortunately for these two games, both ads failed to capture the imagination of young readers.

Mario Golf for N64 (1999)

Original ad published in Tips & Tricks, issue of August 1999, no. 18

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Simple and clean, just like Nintendo

A fun game for the N64, Mario Golf used a distinctive style for its publicity, neither too garish nor too loud, just like you would expect from the Big N.

Granada X for Genesis (1990)

Original ad published in the December 1990 edition of EGM (no. 17)

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An atypical shooter for Sega's 16-bit monster 

One of the earlier shooters for Genesis/Megadrive has a surprisingly cool advertisement that is probably 10 times more interesting than the actual game.

Ninja Gaiden & Ninja Gaiden II (1990)

Original ad published in the September 1990 issue 

of Electronic Gaming Monthly (no. 14).

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No frills advertisement for hard-as-nails series

A game this good needs no supplementary material to extol its virtues. Word-of-mouth built the notoriety of its legendary level of difficulty before gamers repeating "git gud" were even born. Oh, and both NES games were actually fun.

TurboGrafx-16 System (1990)

Original ad published in the June 1990 issue 

of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE).

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An ad only a hardcore gamer would love

NEC's ill-fated TurboGrafx-16 received a lot of publicity during the late 80's and the beginning of the 90s. It was a drastic sales flop for the Japanese electronics giant, but not for the lack of trying.

Heiankyo Alien for Nintendo Game Boy (1990)

Original ad published in the June 1990 issue 

of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE).

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Awesome art, terrible writing

Another puzzle game that comes from a long line of classic PC and arcade versions. The printed material shown here is probably the best I've come across for Nintendo's Game Boy.

Hyper Lode Runner for Nintendo Game Boy (1990)

Original ad published in the September 1990 issue 

of Electronic Gaming Monthly (no. 14).

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Strange artwork for an all-time classic

Released at least on 28 different consoles, the original Lode Runner was a 1983 game developed firstly for Apple, Atari, Commodore, VIC-20 and PC systems. It then spread absolutely everywhere. The artwork for the Game Boy version remains curious, to say the least.

Bill Lambeer's Combat Basketball for Super NES (1992)

Original ad published in the April 1992 edition of Electronic Gaming Monthly (no. 31)
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Crap game, pragmatic advertising

Released around the same time as Base Wars (NES, 1990), Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl (Genesis, 1992) and Mutant Football League (Genesis, 1993),  Bill Lambeer's Combat Basketball for Super NES was shoved for Nintendo's 16-bit juggernaut in late 1991. It was the first b-ball game for the SNES, but other than that, it retains no other distinction. Some have called it one of the worst game released for that great console, while others routinely place it the list of most violent video games. Before hitting North America, it was called Future Basketball (Amiga and Atari ST, 1990).

Retro Atari Classics for Nintendo DS (2005)

Original ad featured in the April 2005 issue of EGM (no. 190).

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Great artwork, terrible performance

It took me 13 years to pay attention to this advertisement, prominently featured in the inner part of the back-cover. It's incredibly gaudy, but someone at Atari thought it would be cool to display this type of artwork to the masses. The end result was unique but falls way short of the intended objetive.

Virtua Cop 2 for Sega Saturn (1997)

Original add featured in the January 1997 issue of Ultra Game Players magazine (no. 93).
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Arcade quality action right in your living room

If you ever visited an arcade hall during the 90's you remember Virtua Cop fondly. It was one of Sega's most well-known brands and an absolute quarter-muncher. Graphics were very impressive for the time, thanks to the brightly colored polygons that gave the shooter a very futuristic feel. The same could be said about the sound and the overall feel of the game. It just encompassed Sega arcade quality and made for a memorable visit right next to other arcade classics like Daytona USA and Sega Virtua Racing.

NIGHTS into dreams...for Sega Saturn (1996)

Original printed ad featured in volume 4 issue 9 of Gamefan magazine.

The best 3D game that does not a feature a Mario character

Few games have been so well-received as “NIGHTS”, released by Sega for the Saturn in 1996, just when 3D was starting to dominate the video game market. Nintendo had of course Mario 64 and Sony’s Playstation was starting to gain ground with the 3D crowd, but the majority of titles that featured this graphical style were horrible. NIGHTS changed that forever. Of course 2D was still very popular and the SNES was still going strong (Yoshi’s Island was released in 1995; Super Mario RPG in 1996).

Shadow of the Colossus for PS2 (2005)

Original ad featured in the December 2005 issue of EGM (no. 198).

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An unrivaled masterpiece

To say Shadow of the Colossus changed the way adventure games are played would be a huger understatement. More than 10 years after its original release, there's still nothing that matches the sheer beauty of the 2005 product. Seeing that The Last Guardian (2016), the true spiritual successor of "Colossus", got mixed reviews from critics and fans alike, Sony decided to produce a remastered version of the now classic for the PS4 which will be launched sometime in 2018. So how does the artwork for the original stand up today?  

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance (1990)

Original ad featured in the November 1990 issue of EGM (no. 16).

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Terrific artwork, terrible game

Heralded as one of the worst games ever for the NES, this side-scrolling action RPG featured terrible graphics and gameplay, yet decent music. It was a ported to various different systems, including DOS, but never gained any traction on Nintendo’s console. Having said that, the box art and publicity material was absolutely beautiful.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for GameCube (2005)

Original advertisement published in EGM no. 198 (December 2005)

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A three-dimensional skin to a classic tactical RPG

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for GameCube was released to critican acclaim in North America back in 2005. It’s a tactical RPG very much in the same style as the legendary Final Fantasy Tactics of the late 1990s. Solid game with equally solid artwork, as you can see above.

Mechanized Attack for NES (1990)

Original advertisement published in VG&CE (June 1990)

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A ho-hum game with a decent ad

Little can be said about the game you see above. It was a first person view mode shooter in the same vein as Operation Wolf. Both of them were successful arcade games (they even had fake rifles to round out the experience), but lost quite a bit when ported to the NES.