History NeverTrustATrailer / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/{{Evony}}'' is infamous for this. Its original run of ads featured busty women in skimpy outfits inviting you to "come play, my lord!" Some ads didn't even show the title of the game properly, just a photo of a busty woman and a giant "Play" button. The ''actual'' game is a strategy game where you build up your kingdom and attack other kingdoms. Later ads market it as a pin-pulling-type puzzle game. A game like this ''is'' actually part of ''Evony''...as optional puzzles the player can take on to get additional resources for the strategy part of the game. Additionally, the graphics in the trailer are much better than the actual in-game graphics for the puzzle segments, which look like a game that came out in the 90s.

* Mobile game ''VideoGame/{{Gardenscapes}}'' and its various sister games are a series of house-sim MatchThreeGame hybrid mobile games, but for whatever reason, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vcc1_lJ2Gc they are advertised as]] interactive story games where the player has to help its mascot characters either repair houses or farms or escape/survive dangerous situations (while the people playing complain about [[BlatantLies how hard the games are]] as they make extremely bone-headed choices like [[SchmuckBait pouring gasoline onto a burning stove]]). Given the games already have a [[DancingBear fairly unique gimmick]], one has to wonder why they don't just advertise that instead of presenting the games as entirely different ones. At some point, Gardenscapes designed an add showing players getting frustrated of Merge Mansion misleads (recreating some takes of their adds while changing some details like changing the face of the grandma to the main character) while informing its game have the minigames feature in their other adds. Starting from late 2020, another kind of ad for those games appeared, showing soap opera-like dramatic plots with broken marriages and things like that. Not only there is nothing like that in the actual games, but the ads show characters in completely different roles than the ones they actually have in the game. One of them shows a man who is apparently the owner of the home from ''VideoGame/{{Homescapes}}'' that is having a secret relation with his housemaid. The two characters in the proper game, called Jason and Jane, are respectively a mechanic and a scientist, and the house is actually owned by the parents of main character Austin.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qk8V3VcGKk This trailer]] for ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' showed the party using an instant kill attack against the Frosts Horde, killing them all. In the final game, they are inmune to that kind of attack, and using an ineffective attack against a boss in this game isn't a smart move.

* Mobile game ''VideoGame/{{Gardenscapes}}'' and its various sister games are a series of house-sim MatchThreeGame hybrid mobile games, but for whatever reason, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vcc1_lJ2Gc they are advertised as]] interactive story games where the player has to help its mascot characters either repair houses or farms or escape/survive dangerous situations (while the people playing complain about [[BlatantLies how hard the games are]] as they make extremely bone-headed choices like [[SchmuckBait pouring gasoline onto a burning stove]]). Given the games already have a [[DancingBear fairly unique gimmick]], one has to wonder why they don't just advertise that instead of presenting the games as entirely different ones.
** At some point, Gardenscapes designed an add showing players getting frustrated of Merge Mansion misleads (recreating some takes of their adds while changing some details like changing the face of the grandma to the main character) while informing its game have the minigames feature in their other adds.
** Starting from late 2020, another kind of ad for those games appeared, showing soap opera-like dramatic plots with broken marriages and things like that. Not only there is nothing like that in the actual games, but the ads show characters in completely different roles than the ones they actually have in the game. One of them shows a man who is apparently the owner of the home from ''VideoGame/{{Homescapes}}'' that is having a secret relation with his housemaid. The two characters in the proper game, called Jason and Jane, are respectively a mechanic and a scientist, and the house is actually owned by the parents of main character Austin.

** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' had trailers showcasing lots of features and animations the game was supposed to have, but thanks to the game [[ObviousBeta not being thoroughly tested]] and [[ChristmasRushed being rushed out the door for the holiday season]], many of the features shown in the trailers are not present in the actual game. Even several pieces of animations are missing in the final build while the trailer showed them off.\\

** Both this trailer and ones for the UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} port ''Deus Ex: The Conspiracy'' heavily hype up combat with robots, and show scenes like robots being blasted away with a GEP Gun or multiple robots blowing each other up with missiles. While this does make up some part of the game, the focus is on the human enemies, and the level it showcases (Vandenberg) is hard to do in normal gameplay, as the building with the friendly security bots won't open up until you've taken out the enemy bots out front. And getting in a fight with a sentry bot usually results in a swift death unless the player has missiles or [=LAMs=].

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOvwdVp8Fvo didn't fare very well]]. The commercial has ''[[WhatWereTheySellingAgain absolutely nothing to do with the game]]'', aside from two seconds of gameplay footage tacked on at the end in a sequence that seems more about showing off [[UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance the hardware]]. It actually managed to become an AscendedMeme, with ''Dark Dawn'' making the "Chandelier Dragon" a summon.

** ''VideoGame/LegoIndianaJones 2'''s trailer said the game featured the four Indy movies and a LevelEditor, and that was true, but the trailer also stated the game was for PC, UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}, UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/NintendoWii and UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, and it didn't make clear that the Nintendo DS version didn't feature the classic adventures (''Raiders'', ''Doom'' and ''Crusade'') nor the level editor.

* Almost every UsefulNotes/PlayStation game that contained CGI cutscenes was made to look like that's what the gameplay would be like. While this wasn't exclusive to [=PS1=], the storage capacity of the CD compared to the relatively weak real-time rendering power led to this happening a lot. This problem was bad enough to the point where several game companies got in trouble for deceptive advertising (leading consumers to believe the CGI scenes was how the game would look during play) and now have to show at least one in game screenshot.

** The UsefulNotes/GameCom commercial for ''VideoGame/SonicJam'' featured sped up footage. The actual game is an [[PortingDisaster extremely slow]] compilation of levels based on the Mega Drive games.

* The promotion for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros for UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS / UsefulNotes/WiiU'' made it seem as though Lucina from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is part of the core fighter roster, when in truth she was actually a SecretCharacter the whole time. At least Sakurai was honest about [[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]] and Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog being unlockable in the previous game...

** Its UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 trailer showed the same scene, now captioned "PROBABLY STILL NOT ACTUAL GAME FOOTAGE?"

** The UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch trailer, after opening with a TrailerSpoof of [[ShowWithinAShow Mew Mew Kissy Cutie]], takes it even further with the 3D Toriel scene. This time, instead of crashing through blocks, she's flying after Mew Mew, firing lasers from her eyes that cause explosions, while the realistic Toriel in the background now has {{red eyes| take warning}} and wears a SlasherSmile as she says "My child, I shall break your heart." There's also some random trees and blocks in the background, one tree of which has Flowey's face, as well as a monster truck driving past. And the note now says "TOBY WHERE IS THIS FOOTAGE EVEN COMING FROM??"

* The promotion for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros for UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS / UsefulNotes/WiiU'' made it seem as though Lucina from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is part of the core fighter roster, when in truth she was actually a SecretCharacter the whole time. At least Sakurai was honest about [[Franchise/MetalGear Solid Snake]] and Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog being unlockable in the previous game...