Pokemon is coming to the Super Bowl.
The Japanese gaming company is making its Big Game debut with a high-octane 30-second ad that feels more like an inspirational Nike or Gatorade commercial than one for a video game populated with adorable animals.
That is, until a Pokemon trainer steps into the fan-packed stadium instead of Peyton Manning and his opponents are a set of real-life Pokemon creatures.
The spot, which was commissioned along with Nintendo to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary, was estimated to have cost them upwards of $10 million to make. Los Angeles ad agency Omelet created the one-minute video, which will be trimmed to 30 seconds during the Super Bowl.
The ad, which will kickoff a yearlong campaign, is not for any one particular game but rather a celebration of the longevity of the franchise in general, which began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy in 1996.