Toyota’s latest Japanese commercial for its C-HR subcompact crossover invades the world of video games to showcase testimonials from the stars Capcom’s landmark arcade fighting game Street Fighter II.
Fighting game enthusiasts will recognize many winking references to the 1991 arcade classic and Queen fans will enjoy an accompanying rendition of Keep Yourself Alive, making for an effective promotion of the vehicle’s promised crossover appeal.
The 2018 Toyota Coupe High-Rider, originally intended to launch as part of the company’s Scion brand, debuted in Japan at the end of 2016 after appearing at the Geneva Motor Show and the Los Angeles Auto Show. The four-door vehicle promises to bridge the gap between compact cars and SUVs with a slim profile and features like a seven-inch display screen placed on its dashboard.
While the C-HR’s latest commercial doesn’t exactly showcase the vehicle’s finer points, Street Fighter II‘s competitors are obviously fans of Toyota’s new approach. Series mainstay Ryu is seen hopping into the C-HR at the commercial’s outset for a trip around the world, seemingly in a bid to make competing brawlers jealous of his new purchase.
Over the course of his worldwide trek, Ryu manages to get a free car wash at E. Honda’s bathhouse before earning the approval of fellow fighters Ken, Guile, Blanka, Dhalsim, Zangief, and Chun-Li. Even the game’s bosses are fond of Toyota’s latest production, as the commercial features wordless testimonials from Balrog, Vega, and Sagat.
Shadaloo dictator M. Bison (known as Vega in Japanese versions of Street Fighter II) stops Ryu dead in his tracks upon reaching Thailand, however. The commercial ends with a showcase of how the C-HR handles itself in a fistfight against Street Fighter II‘s final boss before cutting to an epilogue featuring a revised version of the game’s famous car-crushing bonus stage. Naturally, the C-HR ends up being showered with praise, avoiding the destructive fate that normally awaits bonus stage vehicles in Capcom’s classic arcade games.
The Toyota C-HR is available in Japan and will launch in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America in early 2017.
