GameSlice: Behind the Scenes of the Computer and Video Game Industry

GameSlice Daily Editorial

February 22, 2000

Editorial
on trends in the gaming
industry and
hot topics.
HERE

Interested in the process of game development? Sound, graphics, code, and design are all covered
in our game design section.
HERE

Back to Index
HERE

SPECIAL ADVERTISING EDITION

Here's a look at the latest game ads, as seen in the March issues of popular gaming magazines:
Army Men: Air Tactics
Publisher: 3DO

View the ad:
Page 1

If you are looking for an advertising campaign in the game market with true panache, look no further than 3DO's witty and zany ads for the Army Men series. Featuring great headlines and brilliant artwork, 3DO has given style and flair to a product line with bland looking top-down screenshots. For example, this month's ad for Army Men: Air Tactics has a cute tagline ("I Love the smell of melted plastic in the morning") with the accompanying image of plastic toy soldiers flying in a helicopter over a BBQ, with a few soldiers already melting on the grill. Although the accompanying text falsely assumes most players already know about the Army Men style of gameplay, you can't deny the ad catches your attention. Overall, 3DO has been doing an admirable job elevating the quality of advertising for PC games, showing the power of a well-executed creative concept.
Grade: B+

Force Commander
Publisher: LucasArts

View the ad:
Page 1
Page 2

Coming off the heels of its excellent campaign for Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machines, you'd expect something special from LucasArts as it starts to roll out the publicity for the much-delayed Force Commander. Unfortunately expectations are not in line with reality when it comes to this embarrassing ad -- it makes the battle of Tatooine looks like a bunch of Legos playing in a sandbox. (I have my doubts whether the one screenshot shown is even a real in-game image). Sure, LucasArts is in a tough position trying to promote a game from the classic Star Wars universe post-Episode I, but surely they can do better than filling half of a page with pure black ink and not even hinting at the story. Instead we're given a list of six characters in the game and not much else. Perhaps the creative-types wanted to keep it simple and clear, but in my opinion only one thing is clear: This ad doesn't do justice to the Star Wars franchise.
Grade: D

More Ad Reviews: The Sims, Starlancer, and more! >>>