Our first entry is from Nintendo of Canada for the Game Boy Micro. The Micro was a miniature version of the GBA with an improved backlit screen and interchangeable face plates. Most advertising for this system focused on the enhanced portability or the ability the personally customize the device with various face plates. Nintendo of Canada decided to take a different route with their commercial....

Most people don't know about the secret Mouse Pheromone feature of the Micro. If you press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, and Start, the Game Boy will spray a small burst of chemicals out of the headphone jack that will make it irresistible to mice. We recommend you use caution when using this feature, because excessive mouse humping may cause permanent damage to the machine.

We're not sure what demographic Nintendo of Canada was shooting for with this ad. Unless you're looking for a tool to help you breed rodents, this commercial doesn't really do anything to sell the Micro.

Our next exhibit is Dragon Quest IV from Enix. The Dragon Quest series is extremely popular in Japan, so much so that the need for advertising is minimal. All that fans need to know is when the next game is coming out and for what system and they will start lining up to by it. This should make marketing the games very easy. Let's see what Enix came up with for DQIV....

It's Michael Jackson! And he plays Dragon Quest! This commercial gets bonus points just for the extreme 80's hairstyle. But sporting that hair might make it difficult to play any games since the massive curls will end up blocking your vision. We suggest losing the Thriller-do before trying to play Dragon Quest.

If this ad was for any other game, it would be a huge flop. Random shots of people on the street coupled with just a few seconds of game play footage doesn't make a successful commercial. But since it's for Dragon Quest, it can get away with uninspired advertising.

We go from one major RPG franchise to another with an ad for Final Fantasy IV from Square. FFIV was a groundbreaking game in the series, featuring a deep storyline with memorable characters and introducing game play elements like the ATB gauge that would be used in future games in the series. With so many great attributes to choose from, there should be no problem coming up with a great commercial for this game.....

Ostriches are funny, especially when they run across a beach. That seems to be the only thing that this ad is about. Final Fantasy fans will recognize the Chocobo theme and will understand that the ostrich is supposed to represent a Chocobo. But Final Fantasy fans aren't going to need to be convinced to buy the latest game in the series. People who are not familiar with video games or only play casually would have no idea what this commercial is trying to sell.

Was this ad really done by professional marketers? Was this seriously the best they could do? We could probably come up with a better commercial with a cheap cell phone video camera in about 15 minutes. While FFIV would go on to be a huge success in both Japan and America, the only people that this ad convinced to buy the game were ostrich enthusiasts.

Our final commercial is for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening from Nintendo. Link's Awakening was the first hand held Zelda adventure and was done in the same style as Link to the Past so it had a lot going for it. How would Nintendo get people excited for the newest game in the Zelda franchise......

Dancing Puppets! Nothing says awesome next generation video game like a hot marionette dance number. In this commercial, Nintendo showcased the amazing entertainment power of puppets to sell their new Zelda game. This ad almost backfired on Nintendo because after watching it and seeing how cool puppets are, kids nearly stopped playing video games altogether and instead played only with puppets. Luckily, children soon found out that the puppets you buy in stores aren't nearly as cool as the dancing Zelda puppets from TV and they soon returned to gaming.

This ad was just the latest in a series of silly musical numbers for the Zelda games. There's just something about Zelda that inspires people to spontaneously break out into bad dancing and singing. The only thing we can say about this commercial is that we're glad that Tingle was not around back then.

Check back for more inductees in the VGC Hall of fame!