Before he was Ant-Man or the guy who refuses to age in Clueless, Paul Rudd was just a kid with a bad haircut and a very long coat. It’s 1991. The console wars are heating up. Sega is out there screaming "Sega!" at the top of its lungs, and Nintendo needs to prove that their new 16-bit machine isn't just a toy.
Enter a 22-year-old Paul Rudd.
In the paul rudd original nintendo commercial, we see him walking through an abandoned, foggy drive-in movie theater. He looks like he just stepped out of a grunge concert or maybe a very intense poetry slam. He’s wearing this massive black duster and a beaded necklace that he later admitted was probably his own. He walks up to a lone SNES sitting on a pedestal, hooks it up, and suddenly the giant drive-in screen explodes with colors.
It was peak nineties.
The Ad That Launched a Thousand Memes
Most actors want to bury their early commercial work. They treat it like a cringey high school yearbook photo. Not Rudd. This specific spot for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) has become a piece of gaming folklore.
Basically, the ad was meant to showcase "Power." Not just regular power—Super Power. As Rudd stares intensely at the screen, we see rapid-fire clips of F-Zero, SimCity, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The late Tony Jay, who you might know as the voice of Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, provides a booming, god-like narration.
"When you decide to get serious," Jay intones, "there's only one place to come."
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The vibe is weirdly dark. It’s moody. It feels more like a trailer for a sci-fi thriller than a way to sell a video game console to children. But that was the strategy. Nintendo wanted to capture the "older" kids who were being lured away by the "edginess" of the Sega Genesis.
What Games Were Actually Featured?
If you watch the clip closely, it’s a masterclass in 1991 hype. You see:
- F-Zero: Showing off that "Mode 7" scrolling that made people feel motion sick in the best way.
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: A quick glimpse of Link in the rain.
- Pilotwings: Demonstrating the console's ability to handle 3D-ish scaling.
- SimCity: Because nothing says "superpower" like urban planning.
Honestly, the most impressive thing isn't the 16-bit graphics. It's the fact that Paul Rudd looks almost exactly the same now as he did standing in that foggy lot 35 years ago.
The 2025 "Full Circle" Moment
Fast forward to April 2025. Nintendo decided to lean into the nostalgia. They didn't just reference the old ad; they brought Rudd back to help launch the Nintendo Switch 2.
This wasn't some subtle nod. It was a beat-for-beat recreation. Rudd showed up in the same long coat, the same beads, and even a wig that mimicked his 1991 "indie rock" hair. But instead of an empty drive-in, he’s in a modern living room.
The new tagline? "Now you're playing together."
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It was a clever pivot from the "Now you're playing with power" slogan of the nineties. In the 2025 version, Rudd is playing Mario Kart World with comedians Joe Lo Truglio and Jordan Carlos. They spend half the commercial making fun of his outfit. It’s self-aware, it’s funny, and it proved that Nintendo knows exactly how much we love their history.
Rudd mentioned in a recent interview with IGN that he "got a real kick" out of the idea. He even joked that he wasn't allowed to take the Switch 2 home after the shoot, despite being the face of the campaign.
Why This Commercial Actually Mattered
Back in the early 90s, commercials like this were the only way to see a game in motion before you bought it. There was no YouTube. You had Nintendo Power magazine, but those were just still screenshots.
Seeing the paul rudd original nintendo commercial on a Saturday morning was a genuine event. It made the SNES feel like a piece of high-end technology rather than a plastic box.
It also served as Rudd's unofficial screen debut. While he had a role in the TV drama Sisters shortly after, this commercial was the first time a national audience saw his face. It got him into the Screen Actors Guild. It paid the bills while he was still working a "regular job" and trying to make it in Hollywood.
The "Ageless" Conspiracy
The internet has a long-running joke that Paul Rudd is a vampire or a time traveler. When Nintendo re-uploaded the original 1991 commercial to their YouTube channel recently, the comments section was a mess of people losing their minds.
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One user on X (formerly Twitter) joked that the SNES gave him "immortality" because he found a secret level in Zelda. It sounds silly, but that’s the kind of engagement brands dream of. By embracing the meme, Nintendo turned a 34-year-old piece of marketing into a viral sensation for a brand-new console.
How to Experience the Nostalgia Today
If you’re feeling the itch to revisit that 16-bit era after watching the paul rudd original nintendo commercial, you don't need to hunt down a dusty console at a garage sale.
- Nintendo Switch Online: Most of the games Rudd was playing in 1991—like F-Zero and A Link to the Past—are available right now on the SNES app for Switch members.
- The Switch 2 Retro Mode: With the launch of the new hardware, Nintendo has leaned heavily into "Classic" libraries, ensuring that the games that built the brand remain playable.
- YouTube Archives: The official Nintendo channel actually keeps the high-quality remaster of the 1991 ad online. It's worth a watch just to see the cinematography, which was surprisingly high-budget for the time.
The takeaway here is pretty simple. Trends change. Haircuts definitely change. But the appeal of "Super Power" and a charismatic lead like Paul Rudd is apparently timeless. Whether he's stomping through a foggy drive-in or playing Mario Kart on a couch, the guy knows how to sell a console.
If you want to see the evolution for yourself, go back and watch the 1991 spot and the 2025 remake side-by-side. Pay attention to the lighting in the drive-in scene; it’s actually a really well-shot piece of film for something designed to sell 16-bit cartridges.
Once you've done that, fire up your Switch and head to the SNES library. Start with F-Zero. Try to imagine seeing those graphics for the first time on a giant drive-in screen. It makes you realize why we were all so obsessed back then.