Retro Nintendo Ad Introduces Dragon Ball’s Goku to Mario

It has become something of meme for Goku to join the roster of Super Smash Bros., but the Saiyan is still out of luck. The anime legend has no plans to join the Nintendo title, but Goku can at least say he’s met Mario. After all, the pair were introduced decades ago in South Korea, and it was all thanks to a very complicated NES commercial.

If you head over to Youtube, you will find the heralded commercial where Goku and Mario meet. The video can be found above, and despite its grainy quality, you can see how the encounter plays out.

The video begins with Mario conducting a group of singers, but the people singing come from a mash-up of franchises. You can spot familiar faces like Chun-Li, Bowser, Tien, Michelangelo, and more. And as the commercial goes on, things get even weirder.

Some of the highlights include the Mario gang racing in karts while Bugs Bunny goes around hopping. At one point, a chorus line begins with Goku and Mario shoulder-to-shoulder, and all of these characters are present to hype the debut of the South Korean Comboy.

Now, when you look at the game console itself, you will see it is the NES. The console is pretty hard to confuse given its place in history, but South Korean consumers weren’t eager to nab the console. In fact, the country had an unspoken ban on most Japanese brands and items given the nation’s occupation of South Korea. To this day, tensions between the two countries are high, so Nintendo had little way of introducing the NES to South Korean audiences.

Ultimately, the company ended up licensing NES consoles in South Korea through Hyundai. The tech giant sold the game console as the Hyundai Comboy, and this commercial was released to promote it to consumers. And despite all the odds, this advert marks the first time Goku and Mario were introduced to one another.

What do you think of this wacky commercial? Did you know about the NES’ history in South Korea? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.