You might be familiar with the famous slogan associated with the Mega Drive in Japan:
Visual shock! Speed shock! Sound shock!
But where does it come from?
It was actually used in the first advertisements for the Mega Drive. Here’s one from the 12/1988 issue of Beep!
The bottom right of the ad reads:
Power 1: Advanced graphical processing techniques – Visual shock!
Power 2: 16-bit power – Speed shock!
Power 3: FM + PSG + PCM sound – Sound shock!
And here’s the first Mega Drive TV commercial from 1988 (with English subtitles):
If you’re wondering who that weird guy in the ads is, his name is Seikou Itou. He was a TV entertainer / author / rapper (yes, really… see below) who enjoyed some popularity in the ’80s. Sega hired him to be their “image character” for the Mega Drive’s debut. He appeared in print and TV ads for the first six months after the Mega Drive’s release.
Although the Shock! slogan was used at the beginning of the Mega Drive’s life, it came back into focus when it was included in the title screen of Treasure’s 1995 game Alien Soldier:
Today, the slogan survives among Mega Drive fans (such as this site!).
