In the latest of a long line of celebrity tie-ups, Penélope Cruz has joined forces with her sister, fellow actress Mónica Cruz, to star in a new campaign for New Super Mario Bros. 2.
Nintendo teased us yesterday with a picture of the star without revealing who it might be. Our readers had lots of good guesses including Zelda Williams, Selena Gomez, Kiera Knightly and even a make-up clad James Newton.
The new TV ad will see Mónica and Penélope taking a bet on which sister will reach the Goal Pole at the end of the course first – with a rather unusual forfeit for who finishes last.
“Teaming up with the Cruz sisters is a perfect fit for us. Not only because New Super Mario Bros. 2 lets two players enjoy the entire adventure playing as brothers Mario and Luigi simultaneously but because these sisters have been genuine fans of the series for many years”, said Laurent Fischer, Nintendo of Europe Managing Director of Marketing and PR. “The co-op mode really brought out their competitive side and they had a lot of fun trying to collect as many coins as possible while racing to finish each level first.”
Nintendo invites you to watch the full advert at the official Nintendo 3DS UK YouTube channel and find out how the Cruz sisters settle a score after a romp through the Mushroom Kingdom: or you can watch it below and then browse the official channel, if you like.
So, who guessed right?
[source youtube.com]
Comments 61
That's a surprise! I had no idea!
As George Takei always says "Oh My"
I'll affectionately think of them as The Super Cruz Sisters from now on
“Teaming up with the Cruz sisters is a perfect fit for us. "
Right, because a non-sensical company like Nintendo needs to get completely unrelated celebraties to do the advertising for them.
@Luigifan141 they've worked with far worse, but agreed - it's not strictly necessary!
Yep, I told you so. ^_^
I thought it was Penelope Pussycat when I first read this. LOL
That was awesome. I honestly laughed out loud. I love Penelope Cruz.
I still think it's James.
@Philip_J_Reed Both of them?
Btw they REALLY tried to make that accent very spanish-ly.
Wow.... Ummmm... Okay Penelope... What's going on? I don't care how hot you and your sister are! Mario is a man! He has brown hair and BLUE eyes! Sheesh! C'mon Nintendo! If you're gonna have someone dress up as Mario then stick to his image.
@Luigifan141 Dude, I totally agree!!! They are super random!
But hot women sell games or pretty much anything. There is no denying that fact, Medicham.
@SMEXIZELDAMAN This guy sort of has a point...
“Teaming up with the Cruz sisters is a perfect fit for us."
Er, not really...
Anyway, I like Penelope Cruz and at least there's a humorous element to the ad to offset the usual aspirational lifestyle corniness, but I still do not understand Nintendo UK/Europe's obsession in the last 3 or 4 years with celebrity advertising (and basically just doing the same bland lifestyle commercial over and over again for every game). It has kind of coincided with their massive sales decline, so they've obviously been a bit of a waste of money.
To be fair though, there is a NSMB2 ad currently running on UK TV that is just solid game footage, so at least that's something. And their print ads are proper old-skool Nintendo-y fun, so Nintendo UK have clearly still got it: http://twitpic.com/ahrq6t I just wish they'd show it a bit more often these days.
@SMEXIZELDAMAN True, true...
@WingedFish Which guy? XD
MY FIGHT MONEYYYYYYY!!!!!!
(Man, I didn't even know she had a sister, and I didn't think of that possibility. All those years of watching Law & Order, for nothing. )
This is kind of weird. Those accents are difficult to understand. What's with the end part with all the gibberish?
i actually thought Emma Wattson
"Ladies with Moustaches" lol.
@Haywired Well you guys are lucky since NOE has celebrity commercials, NOA has weird commercials with these little kids, I frankly think it's an embarrassment... Whenever I'm watching T.V with someone and that commercial comes on, they start making fun of Nintendo. -_-
Mmm, well that got my coins rushing...err...um. Yeah.
@MetalMario I'm surprised it took 22 comments to spot that tag!
@redclow
Oh right, do you mean these ones from NOA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC5r0OlSXcI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjqJ80PSfrY
Because I think these are frigging awesome and exactly how Nintendo commercials should be.
With this ad, I'm buying it for sure ! xD
I like their accents.
Anyway, was planning on buying this no matter what, but the ad doesn't hurt.
@contrary: I don't think their accents are that hard to understand. As for the gibberish at the end, idk what that was — just Mario maybe grumbling to himself? lol...
When one of the sisters said, "You know what you have to do," I was like:
When she dressed up like Mario, I was like:
It's nice to see cousin Penny and cousin Moni are into gaming too.
Strange, but you know, as long as Nintendo is doing some actual advertising I am fine.
I really like both the NOE and NOA trailers...
@Philip_J_Reed Haha! James is looking rather fine in those pictures
"Ladies with Moustaches" epic tag.
Penelope Cruz pulls off being a man pretty well.
Shame can't be said for me.
Was it not Brain Training which started the whole celebrity/casual/family orientated adverts?
first it was kim cattrall, now penelope cruz. i actually think it's great to see these celebs in these ads and of whom are huge fans of nintendo.
@misswliu81
When the marketing guy says the standard "they have been genuine fans of the series for many years", it usually translates into "they have played a Mario game at least once".
@Dazza #3 ''I'll affectionately think of them as The Super Cruz Sisters from now on''
'Liking your comment so much right now. ^___^
"Right, because a non-sensical company like Nintendo needs to get completely unrelated celebraties to do the advertising for them"
I think Nintendo doesn't even need celebrities! That's something for Microsoft/Sony!
But I have to admit: Nice choice! Those are some good, sexy girls!!
Waaaaaaay better then those Jedward fakers!!
It takes a gorgeous and confident woman to be able to pull off a 'stache, and I'd say Cruz managed to do so admirably.
I'm kinda jealous of how well her facial grows out, actually.
The ad was pretty cute and funny. Honestly, though, I'm not a fan of rich, gorgeous women trying to sell me make up, clothing, hair products, diet plans, etc. and I'm not really a fan of them trying to sell me video games...
At least the ad was tasteful and quirky, though, so I can forgive them.
I was right! ^^ DUH!
I don't know which one I want to play with first!
@Happy_Mask I was originally planning on saying it was Adam West, only to notice you already said that.
@theblackdragon Thanks for clearing that up. I was wondering if I was the only one who couldn't understand it.
@moomoo Hahahahaha! Also, why are there so many candles on their table??
Personally, I have a sweet tooth for Penelope Cruz and of course love Nintendo. So seeing the two working together is just a thin slice of heaven And the sister is the icing on the cake ;p
I prefer the kawaii Japanese commercials
Penolope Cruz dressed as Mario? I'm so confused right now.
Its particularly easy to understand that accent for me, being native speaker of spanish, but I dont like it at all, I got used to the american accent on games and the WWE
They are infinitely better than Jedward. Infinitely. I'd say Nintendo is getting better at this. Team them up with Nonspecific Action Figure and they'll conquer the universe.
For those who've forgotten the awesomeness that was Jedward:
I will never forgive Nintendo for funding terrorism: aka Jedward.
This advert does not make me want to play Mario.
Kinda cheesy and a bit forced but the end was slightly funny.
I liked this one, pretty cute and maybe appealing to more than just men and kids.
@The_FoxThis genderbend and confusing situation does call for the Boy George classic, "The Crying Game", from the film of the same title. [youtube:GMTRfjNspFw]I'm trying to reconcile things by remembering that on the outside it's Mario, but take off all the clothes and it's all Penelope Cruz. And I want her to do just that. You know, JUST to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it ISN'T Keira Knightley.
Never heard of her, but mama mia!
she's not hot enough to be emma watson. i honestly thought it was Danny Devito you know,because plumbers are stereotypically tubs of lard
They should just get Robin and Zelda Williams to do every single advert. I loved those Ocarina ads.
@Zaphod_Beeblebrox
Okay, I totally want to play that game now, and I want bunny ears on my character
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