We all now know and love Paul Rudd, the MCU’s good intentioned Ant-Man and a goofy heartthrob in plenty of other movies, but one of his first acting jobs that predates anything he did in TV or film was actually an ad for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System 34 years ago. And now, the beloved actor has reunited with the Mario publisher in a new commercial for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Paul Rudd’s original SNES ad is very ’90s: high-pitched horror music introduces a boy in a black, overlong coat who enters a shadowy, foggy area to play the console on seemingly the biggest screen you can find outdoors. Silhouettes of other figures creep up from behind to watch him play F-Zero and Zelda, which isn’t at all creepy. ‘Now you’re playing with power,’ indeed.
The newly-released Switch 2 ad, more than three decades later, opens in much the same way. Paul Rudd dons the same fit, but barely looks like he’s aged a day, and that same eery music play as he slots the console into its dock with fog spewing into, this time, his house. The rest of it is far more wholesome and adorably corny, though, as Rudd just plays Mario kart World with some of his on-screen family.
I also love how unafraid Nintendo is of showing off its extremely laggy screen-sharing Game Chat feature.
Earlier this week, we learned that the Nintendo Switch 2’s US pricing will be unaffected by the government’s tariffs and pre-orders are set to go live on April 24, even though some accessories have seen a price increase to what was originally planned. Elsewhere, PEGI may have leaked a Switch 2 port of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Here’s some more upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 games to keep an eye on.
