5-something-AM while riding the Yamanote line home (the main train line that circles Tokyo) I spotted the left screen switch into a Super Mario Galaxy commercial. I fumbled to grab my phone and snapped a horrible picture since it was stuck in “wallpaper” size mode. Blurry picture yes, but the message is clear: Nintendo is advertising Super Mario Galaxy in Japan beyond occasional TV ads. This is the only time I’ve ever seen the ad though and riding the Yamanote line is a daily activity.
Video ads on the train are nothing unusual. Sony did it for Crisis Core and Namco Bandai is doing it for Ace Combat 6. Nintendo runs train ads quite frequently too. I often see sequences that start off with a manner quiz, possibly from their Common Sense Training DS game. However, all of these sequences end advertising titles in their Touch Generations series. Previously the ads featured Theta, now they moved on to DS Bungaku Zenshuu.
