We love a good video game ad; Especially the ones that manage to melt our blackened hearts and cause salty secretions to come out of our eyes.
The latest ad to achieve this feat was a Nintendo of Australia television ad for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It opens on a surprisingly somber note, featuring a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, venturing home after what we assume was a rather grueling day at work. After saying goodnight to his wife, he sits down to play some Kingdom Tears.
What follows is simply a guy having a good time playing a video game. We see brief gameplay glimpses showing Link building a raft, battling some Bokoblins and Constructs, and glide through the skies above Hyrule. At the same time, the ad also shows off the Switch’s seemingly evergreen appeal, with the guy playing at home on the TV and via handheld mode on the bus.
What is it truly What’s unique about the ad, however, is that it easily showcases how powerful video games can be to distract us from the day-to-day hardships of life. It is subtle, but the man’s smile towards the end of the proclamation shows us how much the tears of the kingdom affected him; And that’s really what it’s about, right?
according to Kotaku, which was contacted by one of the people who worked on the ad, was actually inspired by a Japanese Amazon review of the first game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can read a rough translation of the review in the original article, but just keep in mind that Kotaku can’t say with 100% certainty that the review is indeed the one that inspired Nintendo of Australia.
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