Actor Paul Rudd is slowly but surely making a rather big name for himself nowadays.
After appearing in a number of successful comedies over the years, Rudd recently made the jump to superhero films as the star of Ant-Man. He even has a scene-stealing role in Captain America: Civil War, where he takes on Iron Man's team of heroes almost all by himself.
However, before he became a household name, a young Rudd had to make ends meet somehow, and that somehow was by starring in this Super Nintendo ad from the 1990s.
In the old-school advertisement, Rudd journeys to an abandoned movie drive-in to play all the latest games on the Super Nintendo. From the futuristic racer F-Zero, to city-builder SimCity and the classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Rudd plays through them all and then some, all the while furiously smashing buttons on the controller.
Soon enough, entire crowds of people are standing around watching Rudd go at it, staring in amazement. At the end of the ad, Nintendo's classic marketing tagline of, "Now You're Playing With Power, Super Power" flashes across the screen.
It's a cool look back at how far video games, and video game marketing, have come. Though Nintendo does occasionally hire actors or celebrities to promote its games and consoles, most video game marketing in 2016 revolves around letting the game (or games) do the talking.
The ad isn't just a trip down memory lane for gamers. It's also a look back at Rudd's career. The young man in the advertisement doesn't look all that different from Rudd now. In fact, he's barely aged a bit, and now, he's an Avenger. It just goes to show that great things can come from small beginnings. Who knows how different Rudd's life might have been, had he not starred in this advertisement?
OK, maybe that's a little over the top. Yet still, it's cool to see one of today's most charming actors come from such humble beginnings. It's also one of Nintendo's more tame 1990s advertisements. The company featured some truly bizarre TV ads over the years, like this one that sees an entire bus of innocent Pokemon crushed. There's also this super '90s ad celebrating Super Mario 64, which is cringe-worthy in an entirely different way. Like Rudd, Nintendo has also come a long way since this advertisement, and for that, we are eternally grateful.
