A series exploring Japanese video game magazine advertisements
Waking Up to Hardboiled
1. Shin Megami Tensei (SFC) — The Shock of "Cool," and the Curtain Rises on an End-Times World
Some titles overwhelm you with sheer gravity before you've read a single line of copy. Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei is one of them.
The print ad put grotesque, magnetic demons and characters from world mythology front and center, and the whole thing radiated an aura nothing like the bright fantasy RPGs sitting next to it on the shelf. A murder case in Kichijoji tangled up with a demon-summoning program — this modern, end-times dark fantasy matched the raw cool of the title itself, and it left plenty of players with an image they never forgot.
2. Landstalker (MD) — The Depth a Quarter-View Could Somehow Deliver
Talk about the Mega Drive's technical high points and Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole has to come up. The ad leaned hard into what made the game stand out: DDS520, its own diamond-shaped 45-degree quarter-view system.
Jumping and navigating elevation changes on what was still, technically, a flat 2D screen felt genuinely new at the time. The precise, almost fussy quarter-view motion reframed exploration in three dimensions, and it stamped a real sense of depth onto what an action-adventure could feel like — like you were actually moving through a dungeon, not just watching a sprite cross one.
3. Cybernator (SFC) — SF Real Action at Its Peak, Where Controls and Direction Meet
"There is no justice in this battle..." That line alone was enough to stop you mid-flip through the magazine, and Cybernator backs it up completely — a textbook case of the "SF Real Action" the ad promised.
This was never just run-and-gun. The controls carried real mechanical weight, and the booster-driven movement gave every fight a tactical edge that stood out. Add in the tense, dramatic staging of every stage's battle, and it's no wonder critics and players at the time called it the high point of mecha action — that reputation held up.
4. Another World & Super Star Wars (SFC) — Western Direction, Full Force
Brought to Japan through Victor Entertainment, Another World and Super Star Wars showed off something distinctly different: the cinematic instincts Western studios brought to the table.
Another World's ad hinted at what made it remarkable — polygon-flash animation that was genuinely radical for its time, building a sense of isolation and tension on some strange alien world without a single line of dialogue. Super Star Wars, running alongside it, pushed the Super Famicom right up to its limits trying to recreate the scale of the film's space battles, visuals, and sound. Between the two, they made a real case that games could carry cinematic weight just as well as film.
5. Sword World SFC (SFC) — Tabletop RPG Spirit, Ported to a Console
Summer 1993, and one of Japan's legendary tabletop RPG franchises finally landed on the Super Famicom: Sword World SFC. Set on the continent of Forcelia — already backed by a massive fanbase from novels and board games — the ad's illustration alone carries the weight of classic, no-frills high fantasy.
What made the original tabletop game work was rolling dice, sharing house rules, and building a story together at the table, and this port folds that same freedom cleverly into a console screen. Leading your own party of adventurers and carving out a story on a TV screen turned out to capture something that genuinely felt like the source material — not an easy thing to pull off.
From this post onward, I’ll let the artwork and advertisements speak for themselves rather than adding too much commentary. There are still many amazing pieces waiting to be unveiled, and this journey through classic game advertising has only just begun.
All promotional images used in this review are sourced from 1990s video game magazine advertisements for review and commentary purposes.
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