Video: Watch The Epic Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial Right Here

Recent Super Bowl? As in last year's in February?

@Damo you might want to re-word the artical. I believe it's suppose to be upcoming Super Bowl.

Cool commercial.

Dat CG tho.

I can do that.

I thought the Super Bowl was still two weeks away.

That was certainly unexpected.

Super Bowl is in the middle of winter?

Will run* a special commercial during the SuperBowl. It's still two weeks away heheh

Uh yeah, but the Super Bowl has not aired yet. Commercial seems decent I suppose.

I thought it was a commercial for Pokémon GO, but it's just a general one. Assuming this is the commercial they're showing in two weeks...

um Super Bowl hasn't happened yet. GO PANTHERS!

EDIT: actual commercial looks cool... pretty much what the anime tried to portray. Makes me wonder how pokemon will be played 20 years from now...perhaps holograms? Real trainer battles?

This only makes me want a console Pokemon game.

That or at least a Xd Darkness and Colosseum HD remake

Shame it doesn't list the coming games and a only on Nintendo.....unless that isn't the whole spot because it will have Pokémon Z at the end

Super Bowls in 13 days.

Oh no! I missed the Super Bowl

Amazing.

If only this was a pokken tournament commercial too somehow.

I mean it's cool, but it doesn't really, you know, show any games coming up. If Pokemon Go was on there at all (as in actually seen on a phone), it would cause an uproar.

I'll wait until it's live. The Internet spoils the magic for watching the most awesome commercials of the year... Now If I MISS it, THEN I will go to the interwebs.

Wait, the Super Bowl already happened? I hope Peyton won.

I didn't like it

@Yorumi But they're not gonna play Soccer.

Shoulda slipped in that they have Pokken Tournament coming out at the very least. I would think that the casual tv watcher will see that and not be the least bit curious about what it means.

On the other hand it might hit some nostalgia for those that haven't heard or touched a Pokemon game in awhile, they may wonder why Lucario looks so weird and look it up.

@Spin Yeah. It's a nice advert I suppose but mentions nothing in terms of apps/games coming out for Pokemon or currently available.

Sure it gets people discussing Pokemon but not much else. All Nintendo may fuel is increased piracy of red and blue emulators on PC.

heh. recent. made me chuckle. it would make sense to promote the game in an arena similiar to the setting of the superbowl, except that they weren't promoting any pokemon game at all, not even the obvious choice of pokken tournament since it's coming out in march. pokemon is about as distant from the dudebro audience of the superbowl as you can get, but pokken would show that even pokemon can throw down.

@Spoony_Tech Good first post.

So which company is paying $10 million for a 1:10 slot during the Super Bowl that doesn't actually advertise a game? I'm pretty sure that's more money then Ntinedo spent advertising Devil's Third, Fatal Frame, XCX, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash and AC:aF this past holiday - COMBINED.

http://www.businessinsider.com/super-bowl-50-ad-rates-reach-a-record-5-million-on-cbs-2015-8

Ah, it will be a 30 second commercial so it only cost them $5, still more than Ntineod spent on advertising Devils' Third and Fatal Frame. I'm guessing more the 2nd half of this ad when they show the Pokemon, less of the first half when it looks like a generic ad for this years Olympics in Rio.

I'll bet most people when discussing the commercial Monday at work will think it as an Olympics ad w/ Pokemon in it. Or a sneaker ad. Or a sneaker ad about the Olympics. For $5 mil they needed more Pokemon. At least show some of the cards, and as amiibo or 2. And a cartoon clip of XYZ.

http://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/super-bowl-50-ad-chart-buying-big-game-commercials/301183/

Actually the first 15 seconds might be an ad or the Rio Olympics, I think the kiid saw the torch run buy and ran up to that mountaintop where that big statue is. (I'm not saying which statue, don't need the argument, but you all know.)

That guy standing in the street w/ the Pokeball is right about the 40 second mark, makes a good 30 second Pokemon commercial from there.

Fortuantley this will be the first game in awhile I'll be watching for the game, not the commercials.

@RobLucci You mean the most famous sport in the world? Have you watched other than the MLS?

Btw, I liked the commercial, maybe they should've thrown a game or two at the end. But It was fime nonetheless.

I thought that was good. Not bothered by the fact that it isn't accompanied with a game or anything like that. It was fine.

I was already gritting my teeth when I pressed play but it turned out way better than I thought. If pokemon were real, I would definitely be out there as a trainer (beats getting a job at the mall).

This is exactly why I want, so much, for Pokémon to be real. It would be awesome. And if battles were shown as spectator sports like that, I would pay all of the money to watch it!

the site has zero mention of pokken, as if it didn't exist. it's the only upcoming pokemon game on the nintendo release calendar. i guess it's bandai namco's job to promote it, not tpc's or nintendo's.

i assume tpc didn't approve the spot in a bubble. they probably know what they're doing. i jsut have no idea what that is, going by the ad. i'm obviously not part of the audience this was meant for.

@RobLucci Soccer!?!?!?!?! NO NO NO! It's called football. facepalm
[SIZE=1]Also fyi football isn't a boring game (unless it is the copycat of rugby that is called American football).[/SIZE]

I wished we heard more about Pokemon Z and other games, but still it was good, (and Pokemon battles so real)!

@GloverMist that's the description i see from those who liked the ad, from twitter, nlife, and elswehere. that it's pokemon come to life. they really did know what they were doing. i feel so uncool now for not being in.

Now that's how you advertise. The people in charge of the EU adverts should take note.

I found myself actually liking the commercial. Now I don't need to try and watch the Super Bowl to see it.

Also, dat HD fur on Pikachu.

@crimsontadpoles That will not work with an EU audience. We are far more cynical. I thouht it was rather poor and I like Pokemon. The kid in the stadium looks like a stereotypical geek. This will lead to bullying of kids.

I kinda hate myself for saying this, but..... I thought it was a terrible ad :/

"So Steve, what would you say has been your biggest inspiration throughout your Football career?"

"Well, I once saw this video of a girl playing, like, 100 games of Chess at once. Ever since I saw that, I thought, "man, I'm gonna be the greatest Footballer that's ever lived""

"...Right"

"Oh yeah, and there was that video of a cat playing a piano. That was pretty inspirational too"

"...Okay"

Eh. I don't know about this, it wasn't that great. It's fine that they're pushing on their "Train On" motto, but for something around $5M dollars for the ad slot? That's a lot of money going to one OK commercial. It's not really attention-grabbing.

Seems like a great commercial.

@Gerbwmu

The not listing a game is weird but I'm sure everyone and their mom knows by now Pokemon is Nintendo.

Those crazy Brits trying to figure out our tricky NFL schedule.

Pretty decent commercial and I understand that at the end there they show "20th Anniversary of Pokemon", but what is the point in a commercial, especially a commercial like this that cost A LOT of money if is being shown during the Super Bowl....... and it isn't selling a product...
Why don't they include at the end, that "Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, are all available again on 3DS". Just seems like a wasted opportunity to me.

I would love a more "mature" Pokemon game that was set in a more realistic world (except for the Pokemon, of course). This commercial makes me think they could pull it off! Maybe on the NX?

I thought for a second that I was so distant from mainstream culture that I completely missed the superbowl! It wouldn't have been that unlikely, honestly (I never watch sports or anything), but I'd probably hear of it from somebody.

@Spoony_Tech
Stole the words right outta my mouth when I read the header. Could it be some non 'murican wrote this?!

But what are they selling?

I mean as a fan I know all upcoming games but I'm not the target of this commercial, they're already getting my money. I see what they're doing but it would be more effective if they at least mentioned one game at the end (Go seems relevant).

@Ryu_Niiyama clearly we'll genetically engineer real Pokemon by then!

It doesn't feel much like a Pokemon ad to me, just like a typical sports ad with some CG Pokemon thrown in at the end and slightly subtle placement of the immortal line "Like no one ever was" at one point. It just doesn't have the right vibe for Pokemon.

Pretty Epic! Kinda wasted as there's no imminent Pokémon releases.

@Kobeskillz - it's also 1 minute 10 seconds long which means it will be edited somehow for the spot. Maybe we will get a shortened version or maybe what we see here is only part? At any rate there will be a lot of eyes seeing it so hopefully they have some sort of product shout out in the last couple seconds.

@Nicolai For a second there I thought I missed it too. I don't watch sports either but I usually tune in for the Super Bowl.

Pretty good commercial!

That's definitely a Super Bowl commercial~

I like the idea of it being inspirational beyond just the Pokemon games. It's kind of nostalgic for the fans, and it's cryptic and mysterious enough to have [filthy casual] folks go, "Wait, Pokemon's still around?"

Maybe even raising their curiosity enough to fall back into the franchise.

I admit it was cool, but it was also a bit strange and kind of confusing.

@DTFaux
Yep, this aims high. I like it quite a bit. For all who know of Pokemon its signifying something big going on and one might even notice the 20 year anniversary symbol. Hopefully this is just the starting point for an ongoing ad campaign over the year. Is Kimishima-san loosening the purse string on advertising in the US? I'm just gonna go ahead and be optomistic that his business background is telling him to invest in some old fashioned brute force advertising to go with all the other more targeted stuff.

@crazyj2312 You can do that.

@Kylo_Ren The name "soccer" comes from England, where it distinguished one form of football from the other major form of football, which was called "rugger." Unqualified use of "football" to refer to the association game actually dates to the 80s.

"Train On"
love it.

The CGI on the Pokemon is terrible! They look like PS1-era cinematics, gross!

Definitely feels like a Super Bowl commercial lmao! I love it though, it's so out there and over the top and when the Pokemon stuff starts happening it's so unexpected - I don't know if anybody else plays this game when they watch Super Bowl commercials but I like to guess what type of product (car, laundry detergent, beer, etc) is being advertised, and I never would have guessed Pokemon from the way this starts up - that people will definitely be talking about it in those Top 10 recaps that they do every year. I don't think it matters that they don't mention a game because it's all about the anniversary of the brand as a whole and if a person is intrigued they are just going to Google "Pokemon" on their smartphone right there as the ad plays.

You know, in two weeks, when the Super Bowl actually is.

I don't get it. Lol

I have to say I like it, and it's got a good message.

We all know it's a Pokémon commercial, but the average Super Bowl viewer may initially not. There are some subtle clues in the first part of the commercial that some may pick up on, but the payload comes in the latter half that yeah, this is actually a commercial for Pokémon.

This is sort of a commercial for the current Pokémon fan, but I feel it's geared more toward the people who initially played it in the '90s, but fell off as they grew older. Nearly all the references apply to Gen 1, and it's no coincidence that the commercial ends with a knowing parent telling their kid they could get in on this too. It's practically screaming, "Remember when you thought this was cool, mom and dad? It still is, and the kids you now have could love it too!" It's not advertising specific, upcoming products because it's advertising the whole concept of Pokémon and its lasting power. The droves and droves of games and merchandise practically sell themselves after that. That's how I take it, at least.

They spent around 10 million on this commercial.

@DekuOnion Yeah, that Gyrados looks hella doofy, it's hilarious.

@Shiek If the do that, the battle system should be simular to XBX.

@amiiboacid
...WHY? HOW? Most of it was live action! It's very little CGI!

Lol I forget the StuperBowl even exists. Oh I guess I'll remember now that we have the Rams.

Cool commercial. One of those odd ones that advertises nothing really, just saying "Hey, look at how awesome our brand is!"

And yes, your brand is awesome indeed Pokemon.

I like that the advert was obviously trying to play off nostalgia and cool visuals to get more adults interested. Would have been a good opportunity to advertise Pokken seen as that has more mature visuals.

@Yorumi Maybe with NX we'll get it!

Interesting. I like it but the CGI on the Pokémon looks somehow awkwardly between being cartoon-ish and real. I'd have rathered either or. That being said, it's got a good, positive message behind it. I liked the Rhydon chess piece most

I just watched it again and spotted some other cool references. Just before the football players leave their dressing room, many will have their eyes drawn to the words "Like no one ever was" but the players there have numbers 19 and 96 on their backs. Also, you can spot Moo-moo milk be advertised, haha!

@HawkeyeWii

"...especially a commercial like this that cost A LOT of money if is being shown during the Super Bowl....... and it isn't selling a product..."

Think of it like they're selling all their products.

I thought it was fine. Plus throwing a tag out there about the original games coming to VC is a bit misleading once the customer finds out they need to buy a $200 3DS to play them. If they're really interested, they'll look into it.

I think its a good spot and it serves its purpose. Obviously the point is to dip their toes in with people who played the original games and haven't come back (hence the reason 3 out of the 4 pokemon are from gen 1). Rather than it being a full frontal assault with games, cards and amiibos, they took a subdued approach, and I respect that.

Times like this I love the tech age we live in since I wouldn't watch the superbowl (much less any sports) even if they have a few ads I want to see. Now I can wait a bit and watch it straight online, like so.

@HyperSonicEXE @HyperSonicEXE The cost to air the commercial during the Super Bowl is that.

Jajajaja Now people complains on advertising? Jesus...