This blog has sold out! We can’t stop talking about advertisements! And now we’re going to rank baseball game TV ads?
Let’s award some superlatives:
Best Thumbnail
The internet-infamous ’98 Koushien features a bloody thumbnail that makes for the perfect YouTube thumbnail. That’s why I made it the thumbnail for my whole baseball game commercials playlist.
Most Popular and, coincidentally, also Most Full of Anime Girls
The commercial on my channel with the most views is the horrid Derek Jeter/Jazz Chisholm MLB The Show 23 ad. Second behind that is a Japan-only 1997 PS1 visual novel and baseball management game. I wonder what makes it so popular? [picks up my copy of the game and flips to the back]
Oh, okay.
Best Actor
Tim Lincecum and Randy Johnson both inexplicably deliver their lines perfectly in this ad for MLB 2K9. I have seen plenty of other ads with baseball players talking in them, and nobody nails it like this one.
Most Godzilla
Best Humans
Human Baseball dressed a bunch of kids up to look like NPB managers. Even without being able to recognize any of them, this rules.
The Love Award
I’ve brought this up on the blog before, but I can’t get over that Justin Verlander and Kate Upton met while filming an ad for a 2K game. This is a commercial where Kate Upton implies that by throwing a perfect game in the video game, you will get to have sex with her.
Earwormiest
I have said “It’s so reeeaal” out loud every time I have played an ugly-looking video game (apologies to High Heat) since I first saw this ad.
Most Influential
This George Plimpton ad campaign launched the first real console war, between Atari and Intellivision. Intellivision knew that Home Run looked like a joke compared to their baseball game, and they rubbed everyone’s faces in it. Atari had to develop a new baseball game to fight back, with their own ad making direct reference to Plimpton, and a business war was waged.
I don’t know of any other baseball game ads that actually moved the business needle like this one, so I have to put it on this list.