Old-School Japanese SEGA Saturn 'Sonic R' Commercial Unearthed

We all know about SEGA's crazy TV commercials in the UK and US, but little is really known about the ones that ran in Japan (outside of the Sonic ones included in Sonic Jam). Recently, a SEGA Saturn fansite uncovered a bunch of Japanese adverts featuring a weird karate hero called 'Segata Sanshiro', and one of them is advertising Sonic R!

The Segata Sanshiro character appears to go around town telling people to play SEGA Saturn, beating them up if they don't do it. The Sonic R advert has the guy chuck around several kids who just want to play baseball. According to him, they should be playing Sonic R instead. I agree!

You can watch the ad above, courtesy of Sega-Saturn.com. The website writes:

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These commercials have long been retired, but for those of you that have been lucky enough to have seen the Segata Sanshiro television commercials that were used to promote the Sega Saturn in Japan -- they will never be forgotten.

But just because you missed them when the Saturn was alive and kicking in Japan doesn't mean that you've completely lost out on all the fun. As a special treat to those of you that still love and appreciate the Sega Saturn, we have for you today more movies of the now legendary Segata Sanshiro commercials.

These are a some of the most entertaining commercials you'll ever see and if your reaction is anything like mine, you'll likely laugh until you start feeling some aches in your sides. A true Sega hero if there ever was one -- meet Segata Sanshiro!

As well as Sonic R, there's a Segata Sanshiro advert for House of the Dead, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III, Solo Crisis and more. Head to the Sega-Saturn.com website to see them all!