"Sonic Heroes", 2003.

Ah, SEGA. It takes some guts to go into the belly of the beast -- the very pages of a superhero comic -- and put forward the thesis that costumed superheroes are a tired and worn-out trope. The position isn't that controversial, but certainly the choice of locale to set up this soapbox is conspicuous.

IT'S TIME FOR
SOME NEW HEROES

It's Sonic Heroes, the all new game with an all new way to play. A revolutionary team-based system will have you switching characters on the fly. Twelve different heroes, four different teams and three different consoles make for one new game that never gets old.

Typically being released for three consoles isn't an explicit selling point -- it tells you "instead of focusing on making the game great on one platform, we allocated resources to finding a lowest common denominator on three." And then they cut more corners by selling all three with the same ad!

In any case, in 2003, Sonic wasn't exactly a fresh new flavour of hero. (Nor unknown to comics himself -- Archie published a long-running Sonic series.... speaking of milieus in desperate need of a breath of fresh air! All right, let's be fair -- when's the last time anyone in the Sonic universe had a gay marriage?)

(Final note: isn't it uncanny the way those extreme new heroes have mouths twisted into Nike swooshes?)