Promotional Consideration: Resident Evil Crossing ... 4!
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
Many of the commercials for Nintendo-published DS titles in Japan or Korea follow the same formula -- alternating shots between in-game clips and reactions from the player, typically a celebrity. It's an effective approach, as game and system sales can attest, but what happens when a bored video editor decides to mess with the recipe, replacing the cheerful game scenes from a Korean Animal Crossing ad with much more violent footage? Follow us past the post break to find out!
Advancing zombies. Incendiary grenade. Unfortunate cow.
The tranquil Animal Crossing audio track really adds to the goofiness. While the impossible fantasy of playing Resident Evil 4 on the Nintendo DS is reason enough to post this pastiche, it's Song Hye-kyo's performance that makes this piece. As in the original commercial, the South Korean model and actress reacts to the game clips with a range of appropriate expressions, ranging from delight to to disappointment. She even puts her pouty lips to work when a mean villager slashes at Leon! We also love the way she giggles towards the end, after she headshots a villager.
Mashup-artist GTstyle did some great work matching each RE4 scene with the tone of her reactions, but we were surprised to find out that the videos also parallel Song's commentary of the on-screen events:
Leon finds a Red Herb - "I have to water my flowers."
Leon shoots at two villagers - "Oh, I meet this guy again! They're both so cute."
Leon fires away at another villager, but misses - "Aw ... I missed it."
Leon scorches an innocent cow - "I caught it!"
Villager attacks Leon with a sickle - "Hmm ... Maybe this doesn't match here very well?"
Leon blows a villager's face off with a shotgun - "Ah! There's a four-leaf clover!"
We're impressed that GTStyle took the time to make the commercial work with the substitute footage. Song Hye-kyo would be proud! We want to see more of these remixed commercials, now, but who will bother to make them?
Before we close up shop, we will leave you with another parody commercial from DS Fanboy reader Naiyeli. She put together a bunch of anime clips from Lucky Star (and a few from Naruto) to push Ubisoft's upcoming casual titles, My Life Coach and My Weight Loss Coach.
You can tell from her voice-over that she's very enthusiastic about promoting the games! If by promoting, you actually mean, uh, well, not promoting.
[Thanks for the Korean translation help, Nick!]
