Filed Under » retro

The holiday season is upon us, and everybody knows the best part of the holidays is all the new games. Remember repeatedly seeing the commercials for games you REALLY wanted? It was painful, but it was also kind of great. In a perfect world every commercial made before the year 2000 would be included on this list, as they're all glorious in their own way, but this site isn't made of unlimited space, so we had to opt for 15 instead of 15 thousand.

15.

Before we had Rock Band or Guitar Hero (or any music game for that matter), we had PaRappa the Rapper, the lovable dog who taught us all how to believe. This commercial really helped to convey the consummate weirdness of PaRappa the Rapper to the general public. To this day, people who have never played the game still know about the part where the weird stoner lizard sings about having to pee.

14.

Truthfully, this is a pretty standard commercial for the time period. I mean, I like it, but I don't love it. But what sets this apart from any other commercial of the era is a young Paul Rudd, blown away by the powerful graphics generated by the Super NES. It makes you wish that Paul Rudd would do another commercial for Nintendo today, charming us all by simply talking about Wii Sports Resort or the new Donkey Kong. Now that, I can get into.

1. Duke Nukem

When the world decided it didn't need Mr. Nukem's chauvinistic, bullet-spitting ways, it cast him aside like a spent shell casing. Disgruntled and disillusioned, Duke sought an outlet for his machismo-fueled rage. He entered himself in a series of mixed martial arts competitions- but was quickly thrown out of the league due to a liberal use of brass knuckles and lit cigars. After a few years of unemployment he finally landed a job as an umpire for little league t-ball games. He has been known to instigate fights among the childrens' parents- simply so he can throw a few punches. For entertainment he frequents the Detroit area "Chubby's," a topless bar with more "ample" employees.

2. Doctor Eggman

Ever since protests by PETA and allegations of animal cruelty got his doctorate taken away, Dr. Eggman has been attempting to stage a return to the scientific community. Unfortunately, there is no immediate need for devices that "suck up rings" and large, levitating demolition contraptions. These setbacks have forced Eggman to change the direction of his comeback. Using his odd physique, Dr. Eggman is currently developing a line of clothes for pregnant women and obese mad scientists, aptly titled "Bigger-Einstein's".