Monday, December 10, 2012

"The New Adventures of Superman", Nintendo 64, 1999.

How to better follow up a game based on Batman: the Animated series than to do an ad for a game based on its Superman-derived follow-up? From the looks of things I already know of this game, as the notorious "Superman 64", the game so bad it partially contributed to the sinking of the whole console's reputation. I didn't know it had a Playstation port! (That's because it never came to market -- after being torn a new one in the press, the developers made the mistake of fixing the problems introduced into the game after late-breaking interference from the property owners... but found that their ability to use the license had expired in the interim. Messes up the ads when products included in them never end up existing! Also, indicated only by a logo, this promotes a different, far better-received adaptation of the cartoon Titus made for the Game Boy.) Nonetheless, here it is in two different flavours of ads!
Extraordinarily, the newspaper in the ad isn't just Greeked out with Lorem Ipsum, but filled with actual game-relevant text. (Some might speculate that more care went into the ad than into the game.) So here I have transcribed most of it for you...
Superman
The New Superman Adventures

  • You have the power - super strength, x-ray, heat vision, flight and more.
  • 16 mission-based levels
  • Battle enemies from the series, "The New Superman Adventures", as seen on Kids' WB
  • Up to 4 players simultaneously.
Buy early and receive a free collector's edition DC comic book.
YOU ARE SUPERMAN
DAILY PLANET
Ultimate Edition 8 Copyright Daily Planet 1998 * A GREAT METROPOLITAN NEWSPAPER

SUPERMAN IS HERE
HEADLINE STORY
* Superman clears the air, Metropolis breathes a sigh of relief.
By RON TROUPE, Daily Planet Staff Writer

METROPOLIS - In the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, The Man Of Steel has done it again. As you read this, he's back in town and back on duty, cleaning up the skies over Metropolis after the mysterious outbreak of Kryptonite fog.
Using his X-ray Vision (and a special Anti-Kryptonite suit developed by S.T.A.R. labs) to scan the city, Superman has already located and dismantled several of the new Kryptonite fog generators. ...
Finding the remaining generators and the parties responsible is now tops on The Man Of Steel's "To Do" list.
So stand by if you're still seeing green! Truth, Justice, and the American Way are coming to a neighbourhood near you.

"... Truth, Justice, and the American Way are coming to a neighbourhood near you."
CITIZEN ALERT
Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane and staff photographer Jimmy Olsen are missing and presumed kidnapped. An anonymous caller left a tip saying they were safe and being held in another part of the city. The call could not be...
Who cares about the show airing on WB Kids? Oh wait, WB owns DC... I don't actually have much to say about this particular ad -- the game's notoriety overshadows any remarks I might come up with about the ad. Like Archie's Edsel car, Clark Kent's employment at a newspaper is becoming increasingly dated baggage for the character. Do you think that this lad is a member of Metropolis' Newsboy Legion? Here's the extended re-mix -- while it certainly lends more flavour, I don't think that it carries anything so important as to justify buying 2 pages of advertising over 1, unless of course DC's comics were offering their pages up at a subsidy to this adaptation of their flagship product.

No comments:

Post a Comment