Low G Man for NES (1990)

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

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Average platformer with gimmicky gameplay

Released in 1990, this game represented the avalanche of ho-hum side-scrollers being pushed out of every corner to take advantage of the Nintendo craze. Sadly, like a lot of titles of the era, it was not a good product. Graphics were below average and music was obnoxious and the whole game rested upon the concept of you freezing your enemies and then spearing them to death.

Street Fighter 2010 for NES (1990)

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

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An average game with some nice publicity

This was just an average side-scroller until someone at Capcom decided to market it as a sci-fi spin-off of the original Street Fighter. In the North American release, the protagonist is named "Ken", just as the famed martial artist of the arcade brawler. Not until that, it was subtitled "The Final Fight" to complicate matters more.

Turbo Express (1992)

Original featured in the July 1992 edition of GamePro magazine.
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A luxurious portable system with a personality disorder 

You can't blame NEC for not trying.  During the late 80s and the beginning of the 90s the Japanese electronic giant promoted aggressively its video game products. The outcome would not be favorable, yet gamers still remember the company for its particular set of consoles and handhelds. The Turbo Express, which you see here, was the absolute king of the entire 16-bit generation.

Nano Breaker for PS2 (2005)

Original ad published in the April 2005 edition of EGM (no. 190)

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A sea of red for a Castlevania clone 

The early to mid-2000s saw a new concept of video game previously controversial that now became commonplace. About this time we saw extremely violent games that reveled in their obscene depiction of human death, such as Manhunt, Hitman, Postal and of course The Grand Theft Auto series. This was a strong departure from the survival horror and fighting games games of yesteryear. Violence was now a complete game experience, not a highlight point or a cheap gimmick. Nano Breaker falls somewhere in this mix.

GameShark for 32-bit consoles (1997)

Original ad published in the January 1997 edition of GamePro (no. 100)

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Risqué advert for a risqué product 

During the latter half of the 90s, a curious device called the GameShark appeared for 32-bit consoles. A direct successor to the GameGenie, this new contraptions would let you modify the code of practically every video game to achieve more lives, stamina, ammo, etc. Its printed add followed that same devious path.

Xenosaga Episode II for PlayStation 2 (2005)

Original ad published in the April 2005 edition of EGM (no. 190)

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Beautiful artwork for an overly ambitious game

Long-time RPG fanatics hold the Xenosaga series in high esteem. The story was supposed to encompass an amazing six games, but ended up only crossing three. The second installment of the series is arguably the worst, but you can’t blame Namco for not making the game an attractive proposition to gamers that got to know about it inside the magazines of the era.

Xenosaga Episode II Jenseits von Gut und Böse (Beyond Good and Evil) was hammered for its repetitive gameplay, below average music and really unbalanced voice acting. It was a step back from those of us who played the first Xenosaga, which managed to capture sci-fi fanatics with its clunky graphics yet deep story, filled with interesting, complex, characters.

D-Force for SNES (1992)

Original ad published in the April 1992 edition of EGM (no. 31)

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One of the worst shoot-em-ups for the SNES accompanied by terrible marketing material

This is basically just an 8-bit game with some some polish. Graphics are average, music is average and gameplay sucks. And even though it was one of the first "schmups" for Nintendo's console, it was a far cry from other first-batch games of the era, such as the fantastic Axelay.