Raiden and Kano jumping out of an arcade cabinet to grab people and drag them inside would be the start of a rather horrifying isekai anime.

You can tell a lot about a man based on whether or not he finds a playable Sawada to be a selling point

The poster for Street Fighter: The Movie, should have been a picture of M.Bison, and the tagline: "For you, it was the hardest fight of your life. For him? It was Tuesday"

Fun fact from the recent MK doorstopper book, the kids in the MK advert are the kids of Roger Sharpe, who was the head of marketing at Midway at the time but is widely credited as"the man who saved pinball" by getting NYC pinball bans effectively lifted after showing their city council it was a game of skill not (gambling-related) luck by calling his shots and hitting them in front of the lawmakers.

I feel like the "domestic violence" ad works for me exclusively because the art's vibe is very "1950s wholesome family" and I just think that's funny for some reason.

Ok I think I get the Spanish bra one. Between the text of "Life is a constant struggle, train yourself with Tekken" and the target audience of teen boys, I think they're saying "you've heard horror stories about how hard it is to unhook a bra in the heat of the moment, but compared to Tekken combos, it'll seem easy."

I’d be down for a whole series of videos like this

I miss this kind of advertising. They really dropped the ball on game advertising post-2004

That World Heroes slander was out of pocket lol

In the UK we had an advertising campaign from Sega with a guy getting cybernetic upgrades from a barber so he could keep up with Sega games. Later, the barber would get their own comic in Sonic the Comic.

1:59 There was actually a limited comic book that explored a kid getting pulled into an MK game and being forced to compete. The kid looks like a young Kobra to me.

The best one is from Bill Clinton reading a Guilty Gear ad on TV. "Kill your friends... Guilt Free" - Bill Clinton

so I'm pretty sure "The Third Place" thing is in reference to like, a psychology thing about how people need at least 3 stable places to frequent for better mental health: home, work, and a place for, y'know, general relaxation and socializing (like a bar or an arcade). A PS2 is almost certainly in your house so it can't really Be That

I think that the Street Fighter Alpha ad is meant to convey that the game is so intense that it blew up the house shown in the photograph. It's not the most well executed visual metaphor, but it was the nineties and pretty much everything in adverts for toys and video games aimed at kids was exploding because we weren't inundated with news stories about suicide bombers like we were post-9/11. Could be worse: back around that time, half of the adverts for games we had in the UK were photographs of sweaty people with nosebleeds looking like they'd done a bunch of coke and fallen asleep in an alley. It took until the Shadowman ad campaign where they offered to pay you to place a permanent ad for the game on the gravestone of your recently deceased relative for the ad industry over here to start toning it down.

The super mega angry Jeanne D'Arc reminded me of that cover from Psycho Soldier with a really weird Athena who had Marge Simpson/Elvira's hair, a very weird torn schoolgirl outfit and for some reason elf ears... We call her Bad Box Art Athena

I find the retail ads (or whatever they are called), the ones directed to cigar chomping old men that own arcades to be the most fascinating. Some _try_ to explain the games but others just fall back on "Look, this is popular with the kids and has a high turnover/profit loop"

I like how 90s women were only allowed to be badass if said badassery was balanced out with stuff like "professional assassin and heart breaker💔" "try not to get distracted, as hard as it is🤭" "she'll steal your heart... literally💅"

"The Third Place" was the initial ad campaign for the PS2 in the UK (and probably Europe?), where they basically tried to continue the advertising weirdness that worked well for the PS1. Kind of gave way to the more generic ad campaigns they ran later in the console's life.

Those little fatal fury character figurines reminded me of kinikuman figurines

Seeing that "AOL @keyword: NOA" in the Killer Instinct ad sent me back in time. God. My God! It was all real!

I remember a fold-out magazine ad that revealed a muscular arm was actually ripped off at the shoulder. No idea what game that was for, but as a kid it was a bit discomforting to look at.

Gamepro actually printed a letter of a reader stating how they were so offended by the World Heroes life's a beach ad.

Keep this series going Matt

I hate when I take too many Cyber gashes to my groin and become ground beef as a result.... relatable marketing.

Kano in the MK ad is Quan Chi in MK Mythologies. Blown, my mind is. Also, Retroarch has this feature to download cover art for roms, and since arcade machines don't have cover art, it will download advertisements like these instead for sets like MAME. The neat thing about arcade game advertisements is that they're often more directed at arcade operators rather than patrons. Some will boast that their game will suck your customers absolutely dry and have said customers beg for more. It's an interesting shift of perspective. You've only shown us the tip of the proverbial iceberg today, Matt. Looking forward to more.

brought me back to the crazy time of 90's/2000's child hood. This is some good content, thanks man

The "third place" was a tv ad for PlayStation 2 directed by David Lynch. It involved a man with a ducks face.

I like the Rival Schools ad. "Meet me after school...to see who's ahead of the game."

god i have so many memories of some of the.....weirder adverts we had in uk magazines during the nineties....a lot of weird shit

Last I checked, Neo America was from G Gundam.

As far as I know, "The Third Place" was a bizarre marketing campaign for the PS2. There were some really strange ads that came out of that.

I stole every EGM, game pro, Nintendo power, game informer pc gamer magazine from longs drugs 92-98 I remember all of these

From what I understand, the spanish text in the Tekken 4 one is trying to say something more like "Life is full of fights, so since you have to fight something, why not Tekken 4?", with a joke that taking off a bra is one of these fights, because it's hard. That part is in English to make it more obvious that it's a fight. For SNK I can only remember those ads with Shinkiro illustrations and those were great, I used to buy gaming magazines in the 90s and they were always full of them. I'm from Brazil though, not sure if those more crappy ads got here or I just forgot about them.

Aw yeah, there's VS. and Mace: The Dark Age! 90s magazine ads are a lost art (for better or worse). Sometimes you get a bland 3D render that we thought was amazing because 3D was still pretty early on so just the prospect of a 3D boob was enough, or sometimes the ad just makes fun of you. Maybe both!

Old ads and commercials are some of my favorite media. Definitely would love to see you cover more!

Advertisements in the 90s were really just like "this female character will take you out AND break your balls!!!" No wonder guys on Twitter are the way they are.

Sofia says get on your knees and bark like a dog Matt: Not to weird🤣

Ngl the domestic violence poster would be perfect for Tekken also I like to think the butcher poster with Killer Instinct is what made Max fell in love with KI lol

"You've got to be fast to last." That pretty much explains how Sonic is still alive, given the fact that Sega themselfs screwed the IP over the years.

The 90's Brazilian marketing was aggressive as well, a good example was Sega's brazilian representative Tectoy when they were promoting MK for Mega Drive (Genesis) and Master System, the ad was like this: "Yes, there is blood here. With that name, what did you want, soup? This game definitely isn't for softies. That's why if you have a strong stomach, the fighter's sensational and violent adventures will invade your videogame to promote real fight. There are 7 fighters for Mega Drive and 6 for Master System with incredible digitalized photos. Among them there's Johnny Cage with his terrific Shadow Kick. Fight for your Mortal Kombat. Or go play with dolls!"

16:40 Thanks to Guru Larry, it was revealed that the designer for this character based it on his sister... who he was attracted to.

So many of the Street Fighter or Darkstalkers ads feel like they decided that they had to avoid the gorgeous Japanese art cuz some Capcom USA guy thought it was "too foreign" and also thought that the Sega Saturn E3 video was the height of cool.

*Mai does fireball in KOF Maximum Impact ad* Matt: That's not a move, that she does. Well, Andy Bogard sometimes has a move like that, and Mai's grandfather Hanzo taught him, and Hanzo is explicitly referenced in the backstory of Maximum Impact 1 or 2, somewhere, so maybe Mai COULD do that move, but she prefers to fight with her fans.

"Tekken has all these great characters, let's focus on those!" *Tekken has a brown bear, a panda, and a velociraptor wearing boxing gloves

Should've showcased the other Clay Fighter ad that mocks the MK "Prepare Yourself" ad. I remember laughing when I seen it back then.

Would love to see more videos of these, 90s and early 2000s were a wild time for video game ads. Some like Crash Bandicoot really leaned into the nonsensical

Spare Rib of Spinal "There's so much meat on it! He's a fuckin' skeleton!" It's somebody else's meat.

"Why World Heroes and not Fatal Fury?" Even 90s Interplay knew not to insult Terry Bogard, the Legendary Wolf.

Quake 2 also had a weird meat theme add and I can’t express how happy I was when that add was in the extras for the remastered

U have let me relive my childhood with these game ads, gamepro gameplayers ,egm. Thank u man.

All they needed for a good Darkstalkers ad was a two page spread of Fetus of God

Fun fact the guy who did the character design for Toshinden also did the designs for Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer. He went on to do hentai and just straight up used all his female characters, including Sophia, in the soon to be Criterion classic Angel Blade

13:58 Yep, actually this ad is actually the most tame I've seen as I've been researching as much gaming magazine scans for DOA, fanservice really did start from the beginning, it just became even more prevalent over time (the first Xtreme game probably helped with that) I mean I'm fine with it in the actual series, only a couple times with a few costumes I think go too far, but that's only in 5 and 4 I think It's always been with the series since the beginning, so it makes more sense why people didn't like when they said 6 going away from fanservice. DOA needs to be both the fanservicey stuff while also being a great game, it just works for success

50:36 Mai casually hitting that Shinkiro Geese stare perfectly

My main takeaway from this was that the 90's REALLY liked the word "butt."

There was a time when Toshinden was a system seller. The mid 90s were ker-azy.

35:40 That's not an Urkel reference, it's a LifeAlert reference - it was their tagline for commercials depicting old people who have fallen and need to press the little LifeAlert button around their necks to call 911. You may know the line from Fighting Vipers' training mode music, which samples a LifeAlert commercial.

That second Sophia art is PEAK!

God this all takes me back. Where's my fuckin' time machine?!

That Street Fighter Alpha ad is a perfect representation of 90's game print ads in general. A two page spread of something gross or depressing, with a couple tiny screenshots of what they're actually selling.

I miss when there were 5+ good videogame magazines.

Still got my Fatal Fury 2 figures. They had more than the ad showed. Got Terry, Big Bear, Billy and Jubei. Wish I'd gotten the whole set.

A new Pocket Fighter would be a great excuse for them to use some hand drawn graphics. Imagine the sprite detail of the last 2D KoF with the cartoony fun of Cuphead. If they just start with the good concept, a small roster, and tight gameplay, it would probably catch on, and they could just add a couple characters and further balancing every now and then.

Real talk - the Killer Kuts cd bundled in with killer instinct was fire 🔥🔥🔥 Also in the killer instinct folding ad I think the bottom of it had had the “play it loud” slogan. Can’t believe I remember that one so well lol

Do more of these game ad commentaries! There is a bottomless wellspring of bizarre material to work with!

I could swear that World Heroes ad in the thumbnail said "So kick her ass!" instead of "Want to fight about it?!"

Oh god. I remember now. “The third place” was the PS2 ad-catchphrase for a cup of coffee. Didn’t last long I think. Went in tandem with the super weird David Lynch commercials? I don’t remember.

World Heroes was actually kinda popular here in Brazil during the 16-bit era in the early-to-mid '90s. I dare say almost as popular as Fatal Fury and more than Art of Fighting. I assume that was true in other places as well, that would explain why the people behind the ClayFighters ad felt the need to diss the game lol.

How about a sequel to this video... ...but with bizarre beat em up magazine ads!

Loaded was a magazine aimed at late teen, 20 somethings males in the UK. It was all about half naked ladies, beer and rude jokes. It was trash and if they were using a review from that on the advert then its a bad time for all. Also The Third Place was like the PS2 tagline in the UK

33:19 I love this one because it reminds me of a friend's art style and they're totally draw Yamazaki like this! Now I want to take this ad and challenge my friends and I to do a collab redrawing of this.

im gonna be real if my local meat shop has a Gameboy propped up as window dressing next to the meats id be questioning my life too.

Just imagining 90s Jean-Claude, coked out of mind taking Rockso the Clown photos.

There was one that I remember from a UK gaming magazine that was essentially a heart on a butchers' hook, I think that might have been for Eternal Champions? That one grossed me out as a kid

FWIW I think the rational with all of the non-sequater ads that are just random pictures, is that if you pick up a gaming magazine, all of the actual pages of the mag that are like reviews or whatever are mostly going to be single or double page spreads with a load of screenshots of games so that they don't have to pay for as many column inches; so the idea is that a big random image stands out while you're flicking through the mag and you stop to work out what the hell it's actually an ad for. It's basically pre-click era click bait. Now weather that actually lead to any sales is a totally different matter

Tekken 4 ad is because in Spain there is a joke than bras are difficult to open.

I remember an ad for, I believe, bloody roar. It had the tiger on it it and he says "who you callin' a pussy?!" I don't think I understood the double meaning at time haha

Nintendo's whole "Play It Loud" campaign should be in a museum.

People complain about modern game ads all being the same, but at least they actually represent the game. Old game ads were weird.

"Sawada Wins?! Of course he wins!!" - Matt McMuscles

The Flophouse Plays and Matt McMuscles' channels are a true free for all. They might be my go-to on video game content (Sorry, Scott the Woz and others). :)

Now the DOA ad makes sense! Seeing all these ads reminds me of PSM back in the late 90s!

Mace: The Dark Age was so very criminally underrated..

regarding the Fatal Fury Butt Kick, the other things that the ad is talking about is in the background (More Characters, More Fighting, More Selection)

So those FF figs had way more than just the three shown. I got Billy Kane.

There's a German version of the "domestic violence" ad where the text instead says "good parents hit their kids!"

Sorry you got beat up for wearing a KI pendant. You must have feared for the youth when the RE5 Kijuju necklace dropped.

I have a vivid memory of an SSFFII _billboard_ in Lancashire, that said, in front of kids and God and everything: “For the next best thing, shout ‘NORTHERN BASTARDS’,” emphasis _theirs_

It was acceptable in the 90's. It was acceptable at the time.

I appreciate 90s culture in general, not just in fighting game ads. It wasn’t the high point of culture by any stretch, but it was the era that gave the least amount of shits, and that’s beautiful in its own way

Like all 32X ads....Sega conveniently tucks away the fact you need to hook up 37 wires and it looks like a nightmare rig when done.

With how easy it was to use sex appeal in ads back in the day you'd think it would be INCREDIBLY easy to make a super eyecatching Darkstalkers ad that sells the game in an instant..... But nope, Prude Joe was in charge that weekend i guess?

Mai is also on the side of the Maximum Impact box, so as much as they were going in on the new protags, they were REALLY banking on Mai for the marketing.

It'd be nice to see some video advertisements and see your takes on them, Matt. I know there were some cringe worthy video advertisements growing up, but then also the famous, classic Mortal Kombat 2 city ad with the kid screaming "MORTAL KOMBAT!!!" was there too.

I miss those abstract ads. Back when we were kids we just needed it to look cool. Also, a lot of times the magazine had a preview or review of the game from the ads

I really hope Matt continues this for a few more videos; cause we all know there are so many more fighting game ads to look through =)

Video game ads in the 90’s in general were just weird. Like you’d see a bag of dog shit with the caption you’re going to die, but the game would be for Pokémon

I thought was the disney herucles font

There are magazine ads for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 where they mention 56 fighters all in one epic game.

You know how games listed bullet points of features on the back of the box? For DoA1, one of those was "beautiful women".