A few new Sonic Frontiers ads have bought back the infamous Sega scream that hasn't been seen since commercials from the late '90s and early 2000s.
Over the years, Sega has changed its advertising style quite a bit. From taking the mick out of Nintendo constantly when it first came onto the scene, all the way to the iconic "Segaaaaaaaa" that's been a cornerstone of its identity for years. For a little while though, it did something a little different than singing the word Sega - it screamed it.
In an effort to show off how cool and "in-your-face" it was, Sega came up with a new way of advertising itself around the time of the Genesis' launch in 1993. For a time in the '90s, all of Sega's adverts ended with the same voiceclip of someone yelling "Sega" at the camera. Although it was pretty iconic at the time, this was eventually dropped as Sega moved into the 2000s.
After nearly 20 years of being dormant, that iconic (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) soundclip has been brought back for a series of Sonic Frontiers TV adverts. As reported by Nintendo Life, one of those adverts is a fairly standard one that features people rushing around to be able to play Frontiers again, replicating Sonic's moves as they go.
The advert only gets interesting just as it ends, where it shows a closeup of a Pomeranian that yells "Sega" into the camera, just like the old adverts. It's a neat little throwback, although those who have no idea what it's about are probably going to be a little startled at someone randomly screaming a brand name at them from their TV.
Another of the adverts is much more in line with how Sonic is marketed on social media and leans a bit more into the memes. The ad, which is called "Sonic Frontiers - Gift-Giving Infomercial", is pretty short and shows Sonic wrapping up a present. That present, of course, turns out to be Sonic Frontiers, and as the advert ends and reveals that Frontiers is currently on sale for a limited time, a hand with a drawn-on mouth looks at the camera and again screams "Sega".
Although the scream appearing in two adverts might make it seem like the voice clip is here to stay once more, it seems likely that it's just a bit of fun on Sega's part and a nice little callback to its past. We'll have to wait until its next non-Sonic Frontiers release to see if it sticks around again.
Here's hoping it doesn't, though. As someone who grew up watching old clips of gaming adverts on YouTube (don't judge me), you might think I'd celebrate the return of the Sega scream, but it used to freak the hell out of me whenever I heard it and it somehow still has that power.