Had League of Legends been released in the 90s, it might have been released on a floppy disk. Okay, make that a ton of floppy disks.

Forget the cornball romance and creepy action figure fixations and excruciating store clerks. Seems someone, somewhere at Nintendo remembers how to make a good video game trailer.

Say what you will about Call of Duty's diminishing returns as games, but even those unmoved by perks and tangos can usually enjoy the ridiculously OTT trailers Activision puts together to sell the series.

The guys at Blur aren't the only studio making top-shelf commercials for the video game business. The team at visual effects outfit The Mill have worked on loads of them as well, including some of this year's best and most prominent.

During the boom years, when both the DS and Wii were killing it, Nintendo used to make pretty good commercials. Or, at the very least, serviceable ones. A few years back, though, something changed.

When Breaking Bad finished, I rounded up some of dorkier roles lead actor Bryan Cranston had been in over the years, from Power Rangers to anime. One role I completely missed, though, was one of his best.

Okay so, regardless of whether or not this Extra bubblegum commercial makes you tear up, you gotta admit, most gum ads don't try to hit the notes that this does. As far as I can tell, most gum goes for humor.

These are so terrible I'd tell you not to watch them, but screw it, if I had to, you have to as well.

This commercial for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance really gets it. Many of us want to play the game to enjoy the delights of dicing everything up, and that'll feel particularly cathartic after an awful day. Not that the feature can't be a blast even when you're not having a bad day, but still. Sweet, sweet release.

Well, this didn't end like I thought it would.

It's really, really intense. EVERY DECISION COUNTS. THIS IS LIFE. THIS IS DEATH. FIRE EMBLEM: AWAKENING.

It's not the most obvious way to market a game (especially since it can't really mention Borderlands 2), but where Gearbox (or their British PR helpers) miss out on conspicuousness they more than make up for with wardrobe authenticity.

Video game historian Patrick Scott Patterson writes, "Anyone who claims video games cause child obesity might had more of a case in the 1980s." Here's more than eight glorious minutes' worth of commercials that explain why we were fat in the 1980s.

The pretty damn amazing Mario Kart 7 ad currently showing looks pretty damn amazing. So amazing that it'd be easy to assume the entire thing, actors aside, was computer generated. But it's not!

Kristen Schaal's web ads were the highlight of the launch of the Xperia Play, the device previously referred to as the PlayStation Phone. Sony Ericsson prolongs the magic with a series of outtakes from the actress and comedienne's commercial shoot.

One thing you can count on in the NCAA basketball tournament, playing now, are the CBS promo spots for The Masters, full of pomp and grandeur, with Jim Nantz invoking the Tradition Unlike Any Other. That's what makes this spot for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters so fantastic.