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Huh?

This week in RetroNuts, what do you do?

As a hit-driven industry centered around the new and popular, video games don't lend

themselves to big releases that cut against the grain.

The rise of independent publishing has created some leeway for iconoclasm, but even so you're

never going to see a major publisher sink tons of marketing resources into a game that

defiantly marches in opposition to trends of the times.

That was true even in the more adventurous 90s when retail releases were far more varied

and numerous than they are today.

And the advent of CD-ROM game distribution lowered production costs and encouraged publishers

to take even greater creative risks with their game creations.

Even super-weird niche releases for PlayStation enjoyed pretty respectable advertising in the

pages of game magazines of the day, even if those ads weren't quite sure what to say.

Case in point, Namco's Klanowa, a sweet, colorful 2D platform game starring a furry

animal mascot character in 1998.

You'd be hard-pressed to think of a game more poorly suited for the trends of the American

console games market right about then, as the industry had chosen the latter 90s to double

down on the hardcore bad attitude marketing Sega had initiated with its Genesis ads

viewers prior.

PlayStation Air ads were all about zombies and SNM queens and dismemberment, not fuzzy

heroes romping through candy-colored fantasy worlds.

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