Mega Blast from the Man’s Past: Ad for Dr. Wily’s Revenge

Remember a long, long time ago, when the way to find out all the latest information on upcoming video games was through print magazines? Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, Game Players, and so many more, each packed with new screenshots, previews, and other information on what to buy, and what to pass by?

Of course, those aren’t the only things those magazines were packed with. Naturally, the majority of those magazines featured advertisements, and just as one might expect, given the nature of their very theme, many of those ads were for video games.

In fact, in North America, those were by and large the only advertising one would see for Mega Man titles the vast majority of the time, with only a few odd exceptions (namely Mega Man 3, Legends, and the infamous “Blue! Blue! Blue!” set). While not every game received a televised commercial, it seems the vast majority received their spotlight in print.

And today, we bring you a bit of nostalgia with one such advertisement.

Courtesy of Retro Gaming Life comes the following magazine advertisement for the Blue Bomber’s first on-the-go Game Boy adventure, Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge:

Click for a larger view.

As you can see, the ad itself is fairly basic, yet effective enough. While it lacks the original artwork seen in ads for other titles such as Mega Man X3, there would certainly be no mistaking what you are looking for as you pore over the shelves of your local retailer in search of this latest release.

Of further interest may be the ad’s tendency to avoid using any of the enemies’ actual names; Big Eye is merely referred to as a “stompin’ cyclops,” while Bladers were rechristened “copterheads.”

Finally, they do an interesting job of enticing those who are already familiar with the Nintendo Entertainment System games into checking it out; the Game Boy games are mostly known for recycling the same enemies and Robot Masters from previous titles found on the big screen (with even the image of Mega Man on the box taken from Mega Man 3, whose characters would not appear on Game Boy until the next installment), but they still tease the appearance of the original Mega Man Killer, Enker.

For any long-time Mega Man fans reading this, have any of you ever been enticed into picking up this, or any of the other games in the series from a print advertisement? Tell us about it in the comments.