A different Burger Time
April 17, 2006 1:25 PM   Subscribe

Not your older brother's Burger Time. Burger King is developing three XBox videogames starring its eponymous mascot. And not just any games: they'll be modeled after such titles as Halo, Mortal Kombat and Need for Speed. But, you know, with fast food. Confirmation of the plans came in the form of a lawsuit threatened against Kotaku, the blog that broke the story.
posted by me3dia (31 comments total)
 
Heh-heh-heh, them food guys can do whatever they want...just as long as they don't mess with my freakin' car!
posted by Smart Dalek at 1:32 PM on April 17, 2006


"The deal marks the first time any major consumer marketer has had a video game built from the ground up around its advertising icon."

Um, MC Kids? Cool Spot? Pepsi Invaders? Was this article researched in the slightest?
posted by Durhey at 1:52 PM on April 17, 2006


Yo! Noid
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:56 PM on April 17, 2006


Was this article researched in the slightest?

Heh, probably not much.
Note that I left that line out of my post.
posted by me3dia at 2:00 PM on April 17, 2006


That saidâ„¢, it is an interesting move, distribution-wise, to sell them on the cheap in the restaurant, though I doubt that the reponse will be strong, or even positive. A $3.99 game is probably about as good as a $3.99 burger.

While the rise of games in advertising is inevitable, advertising as video games already has a poor history. MC Kids and Yo Noid were actually relatively good games for the time, but no one believes a game built around a brand is worthwhile.

Maybe I'm just bitter because I tried to purchase one of the Kaboom handhelds Burger King was giving away with Kids' Meals, and they wouldn't let me buy one a la carte.

(And I think it's funny that the fighting game is described as "a little 'Street Fighter' and a bit of 'Mortal Kombat," while the racing game "borrows elements from 'Need for Speed' and 'Forza Motorsport.'" So I'm guessing the fighting game will involve two characters hitting each other, while the racing game will most likely involve cars.)
posted by Durhey at 2:05 PM on April 17, 2006


Oh Yeaahh!
posted by wfrgms at 2:06 PM on April 17, 2006


another previous work.
posted by boo_radley at 2:08 PM on April 17, 2006


I really thought this was somehow about the little BurgerTime chef being used in a first-person shooter. That would be awesome, running around shooting lettuce and buns and whatnot, and having the level be vertically-oriented instead of horizontally...
posted by davejay at 2:08 PM on April 17, 2006


Fuck Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and that's all I have to say.
posted by SweetJesus at 2:09 PM on April 17, 2006


although they could do something interesting with the character, I suppose... I mean, remember the commercial where the king wakes up in the dude's bed? I'd totally play a stealth game where the goal was to disturb sleeping people in the most nightmarish way possible and force bad food on them.
posted by boo_radley at 2:11 PM on April 17, 2006


Was this article researched in the slightest?

Yeah, it's crazy that they would write that. Are they just pulling facts out of their asses?

Someone should email the authors.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:14 PM on April 17, 2006


I just did.
posted by stenseng at 2:21 PM on April 17, 2006


Kotaku really isn't big on accuracy.
posted by eyeballkid at 2:44 PM on April 17, 2006


It's not Kotaku; it's freakin' AdAge: a pretty major publication.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:46 PM on April 17, 2006


Man, I feel out of it. I read Kotaku regularly, but have never heard of AdAge
posted by Bugbread at 3:09 PM on April 17, 2006


I know someone who did a whole lot of work on McKids.

There's some pretty interesting/tedious drug references hidden in that game, but you probably have to load the ROM data into an editor or developers emulator to see most of it, unless he managed to hide a bunch of easter egg commands in the code.
posted by loquacious at 3:25 PM on April 17, 2006


From the AdAge article: For the first time, a major consumer marketer has built a video game from the ground up around its advertising icon.

And I say again: Ah, leave it to marketers to think they've actually invented something.
posted by loquacious at 3:29 PM on April 17, 2006


Sounds great if I get to use a BFG on the King. That little troll creeps the fuck out of me...in an "Uncle Billy touched me down there" sort of way.
Ew.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:23 PM on April 17, 2006


WE ARE CLOSED NOW!!!

[/obscure?]
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:54 PM on April 17, 2006


I'm amazed no one has mentioned that that Burger King guy is FREAKIN CREEPY! I mean creepy like a clown at a cheap circus. If that Burger King guy somehow showed up in one of my HALO levels, I'd cut and run for it....no wait, first I would wet my pants and THEN run for dear life! He's just weird!
posted by BillsR100 at 5:43 PM on April 17, 2006


That little troll creeps the fuck out of me...in an "Uncle Billy touched me down there" sort of way.

Exactly. If I were a father, I wouldn't want my kids anywhere near anything to do with that... thing.
posted by mkultra at 5:45 PM on April 17, 2006


He kinda reminds me of the King of the Cosmos from Katamari Damacy.
posted by graventy at 7:44 PM on April 17, 2006



posted by boo_radley at 7:51 PM on April 17, 2006


AAAAAAAAH CAN'T SLEEP! CROWN'LL EAT ME!
posted by loquacious at 11:37 PM on April 17, 2006


Wouldn't it be amazing if they farmed these things out to a really driven developer, and we ended up with a killer app for the 360 that sold for $3.99 at Burger King?
posted by terpsichoria at 12:51 AM on April 18, 2006


Durhey

Not to mention the three "Chex Quest" games. They were FPSes using the Doom engine. And I'm pretty sure they were actually given away in boxes of cereal. That was back in the days before Jack Thompson and general video game hysteria, of course.
posted by Target Practice at 2:29 AM on April 18, 2006


Giving rise to hundreds of dorks trying to claim variations of the handle "Cereal Killer" in the multiplayer version.
posted by loquacious at 3:44 AM on April 18, 2006


Not to mention the three "Chex Quest" games.

You just reminded me of Cap'n Crunch's Crunchling Adventure, which was actually pretty fun to play. It was also given away with cereal.
posted by Otis at 5:39 AM on April 18, 2006


Does the Burger King remind anyone else of those freaky Richard James/Aphex Twin masks that everyone wears in his videos? Scares the piss out of me...
posted by longbaugh at 7:23 AM on April 18, 2006


longbaugh : "Does the Burger King remind anyone else of those freaky Richard James/Aphex Twin masks that everyone wears in his videos?"

A little. I see the Burger King, and I want to eat a hamburger. I see a Richard James mask, and I want to eat a hamburger.
posted by Bugbread at 7:49 AM on April 18, 2006


Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
Die though, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa

Cassilda's Song in "The King in Yellow" Act 1, Scene 2.
posted by clockworkjoe at 10:01 AM on April 18, 2006


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