I've been a huge fan of the Streets of Rage series since the first time I got my hands on it on the Sega Genesis. I had already gone through Final Fight on the Super NES and was somewhat let down by the edited port, but Sega knew what I was looking for, and Streets of Rage was everything Capcom's brawler should have been and more. It was followed up with Streets of Rage 2, a fantastic sequel that was all but ignored in the wake of Street Fighter II on the Super NES. Obviously by the time Sega got around to Streets of Rage 3 something had gone horribly wrong, because this commercial is just the start of this franchises problems.

Why do I bring all this up? Mostly because I really don't have a clue what to say about this Streets of Rage 3 advertisement. Every time I look at it I'm hit with another batch of confusing, yet worthwhile questions. Things I'll never get an answer to, but I'd like to ask anyway. Questions like, why is that guy flying through the air with rollerblades? Would a brick wall really leave that mark if you threw somebody through it? Who is this O'Bricks guy, and what do they have against the Irish? Oh, and why did they have to beat up the stand up comedian, now who is going to make this audience laugh?

Of course, if you spend too much time looking at this commercial, chances are you will start to come up with more statements than questions. For example, I'd like to warn those people that there's a guy behind them that seems to be harnessing the power of a star! Oh, and did you guys see that kangaroo? They look all cute and cuddly on the TV, but I assure you that they are mean and will cause serious damage if you aren't careful. Even to you, Mr. Arm on Fire! These are the kinds of things I would like to yell at the people in the advertisement, but they won't hear me. They never hear me. Instead I have spent my time figuring out who they are going to replace that stand-up comedian with, and you will find out who it is on the next episode of Commercial Break ...

FROM: Who Shot Bad Advertising? (Part One)