Remember game magazines? Remember how awesome they were? Yes, a few of them are still knocking about to this day; in the UK, we've got the likes of Edge, Wireframe, Retro Gamer, and Switch Player to name but a few, but for those who grew up in the '80s, '90s, and '00s, magazines like NGamer, CVG, and Mean Machines were the absolute bee's knees.
One thing they all had in common was their memorable video game ads. Often printed over one or two-page spreads, these didn't simply showcase a bunch of key art and be done with it; no, they were creative and often hilarious. Some had a kind of quirky "DIY" element to them, with sellotape used to stick various images on top of one another to create a mock-up of what a certain game might look like.
That's exactly what artist Kemmo (@Kemmo_Ado) has done with his rather brilliant mock-up Switch adverts of Splatoon 3, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Metroid Dread. Opting for the rather simple yet brilliant "Who Are You" tagline, the adverts effectively blend key art from the respective games into real-life environments - so for example, you've got poor Samus laying in bed while one of the deadly E.M.M.I robots hides in wait underneath - brilliant stuff!
Check it out:
Pretty cool, right? It's making us feel all warm and fuzzy inside with nostalgia; and what is this salty discharge coming from our eyes? Ahh, we do miss the days when gaming magazines were all the rage. One user even posted their own mock-up for Super Mario Odyssey, sourcing Kemmo as a direct inspiration, which is just lovely to see!
Thanks to Kemmo for letting us share his work; be sure to check out his Twitter page for more!
What do you think of these mock-up Switch magazine ads? Let us know below; best comment will be labelled *STAR LETTER* (disclaimer: you won't get anything or this nor receive any actual acknowledgement... we're busy, okay?)!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 17
Removed - unconstructive
I love these ads! They also make me really miss the likes of ONM here in the UK. Hey, at least we still have EDGE, I guess.
I really, really miss games mags, though not because of the odd adverts of the era! But these are spot on for the vibe of those ads, good work.
That Animal Crossing one is honestly quite creepy....and absolutely fitting of the time period. I didn't really gets ads like these when I was into gaming magazines as a child (it was kind of the transition point from the Gamecube-era ones to what they're like now) but I know them very well and this is a great mock-up of something like this, amazing job!
These look great. Fun read
These feel very authentic, especially the Animal Crossing one's overly detailed and creepy missing poster. Good stuff.
I remember these kinds of ads, they were alright but there were better ads out there.
The Metroid Dread mock-up in here is kinda funny though.
I was just telling my wife last week about how I love looking at EGMs from around the turn of the century and how wacko the ads are, with a giant irreverent jokey picture taking up 3/4 of the spread and four tiny screenshots below. Sometimes you can't even tell what the game is unless you read the copyright info at the bottom. These are pretty much perfectly done.
I still have loads of copies of old ONMs and NGamer. Loved getting them every month. Does anyone remember ‘Total!’?
@The_Pixel_King I miss ONM so much... Wouldn't have found out about Project Mirai DX and Theatrerhythm without it.
One of my favorite distractions is to go to archive.org just to look at old copies of EGM, PSM, etc.
In some cases, the ads aged like a fine milk and in no way would be published today (cough cough Daikatana).
These ads are fun, but with how much love Nintendo actually gives franchises like Zelda and Metroid, they feel disingenuous.
@The_Pixel_King There's a new magazine coming soon, that is very similar to those classic magazines from the u.k
I love them, I miss them because I’ve grown up and have strict gaming rules which includes not having so many “rules” and just enjoying gaming…. There are enough rules in the world. Let gaming be fun.
Gaming mags embrace that and these adverts are a bit of fun.
Right now the world needs fun.
What we will really miss in the coming decades is how purely fun gaming once was, once the industry becomes a free-to-play lootbox-infested digital casino.
omg, these are frickin' hilarious. a lot of times when modern people try to make stuff in a certain retro vibe like this they are woefully off the mark or overly stereotypical. but these are dead-on. good job, creator of this stuff!
These are great! I have a stack of old GamePro magazines and checking out the creativity in the ads is one of the best things about flipping through them. Definitely a part of retro gaming that I miss.
Awesome ads just like the gamecube days!
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