Making small games for promotional material is pretty common these days: Simple Flash games seem to accompany almost every major movie whose budget allows it. Being that Flash games are an easy and cheap means for engaging viral marketing, they’re a practical part of the promotion engines of many upcoming releases. Obviously, elementary Flash games won’t have much appeal for hardcore gamers, especially since they’re games promoting another game. But would something with more substance do the trick?

Fable II Pub Games, the collection of mini-games set to a Fable theme, is a downloadable Xbox 360 title meant to mount enthusiasm for the upcoming Fable 2. Although most players probably won’t be quick to realize this could be a simple marketing gimmick, they will realize that it’s not a full game; in fact, compared to Fable itself, it’s not much of a game at all. Although if you’re already a fan of Fable, you probably can’t help but ignore it as it’s infinitely more interesting than the traditional trailer, desktop wallpaper, AIM icons, and other hype-building downloads.

Fable II Pub games is certainly a more clever use of the game’s advertising budget, and it does offer some carry-over value: Money and items won in this game will be available to your character in Fable 2. This is an ingenious detail, because even if Fable II Pub Games doesn’t seem interesting in itself, the prospect of building a stronger character now will do plenty to attract otherwise-unwilling players. However, these are games of chance, so whether players are able to gain much advantage is a matter of…chance. And therein lies the catch.

And then we have Bionic Commando Rearmed. As Bionic Commando is considered an absolute gold-plated classic game from the 8-bit era, remaking the original Bionic Commando (NES) in order to promote the modernized Bionic Commando (Xbox360, PS3, PC) was a good idea waiting to be executed. Reviews for Bionic Commando Rearmed are mostly favorable, so it seems that if Rearmed was in fact made as a promotional item, it’s a promotional item built with quality in mind, rather than gimmick. Let’s keep that up.

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