In its quest to promote the 2011 iteration of the Spike TV Video Game Awards, the network has opted to blatantly toy with our emotions.
Ladies, gentlemen, let me tell you a story.
This morning I woke up, fresh-faced, ready to start the day and as is my wont, I logged onto my Gmail account to check the daily correspondence. Spam, bills, spam, pornographic spam; for the most part, this batch of electronic mail was like any other. At least until I stumbled upon an email promising a new teaser for the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Rising.
Excited, I glanced over at the sender field, only to notice that it came from Spike TV’s PR folk. Momentarily confused, I mumbled something about Konami taking a really circuitous route in getting this thing to me. Still, I pressed on. I was gonna see cyborg ninja action! Can you blame me for my excitement?
Sadly, that excitement lasted all of 15 seconds — which, if you’ve already hit “play” on the clip embedded above, you’ll recognize as the total run-time for this “special sneak preview” of the wildly anticipated stealth-action title.
Less “in-depth view of the game” and more “straight up advertisement for the awards show,” this clip somehow proved less fulfilling than the aforementioned pornographic spam. Granted, I can’t really fault Spike here. The email described the video as a teaser, and this video certainly teased me.
I can’t really recommend watching the clip to fans of the series. Those who do will just feel used and a bit dirty. That said, it is a nice indicator of your feelings on Spike TV as a whole. If you see that clip and your prejudices toward the network’s target demographic (and its inherent allegiance to all things Axe Body Spray) is washed away in a sudden, intense desire to catch the 2011 Spike TV Video Game Awards, then congratulations, you fell for it.
On the bright side, when you do watch the awards show, and the actual trailer for Metal Gear Solid Rising appears, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief, and quip wittily to your nearest pal that despite all the emotionally-crushing build-up, the clip still delivered more actual gameplay than Metal Gear Solid 4.
