It's fairly common to see video games based on popular movies and comic licenses, but occasionally a manufacturer or retailer also tries to dip into the gaming world and make a game based on its products. These games are often ridiculously obvious marketing ploys, but sometimes they're also fun. Here's a quick roundup or some of the most outlandish video games based on corporate mascots.
Burger King
While most kings have to worry about invading nations and starving inhabitants, the Burger King prefers to hide out inside garbage cans and surprise people with lunch. In 2006, Blitz Games designed three Burger King-based games for the Xbox and the Xbox 360: Pocketbike Racer, Big Bumpin', and Sneak King. With a name like Pocketbike Racer, Blitz Games was forced to make it a racing game. Big Bumpin' was a series of bumper car-inspired mini-games. Finally, Sneak King had players sneaking around, delivering Burger King meals to hungry people. The marketing company behind the games won several awards and Burger King was showered in money. While money won’t get you clean, it will buy you clean shirts.
Chester Cheetah
Since the stereotypical gamer in the ‘90s ate nothing but Cheetos, Mountain Dew, and shame, it made since that those companies would want to appeal to their core clientele. Cheetos wanted to get their orange-tinged fingerprints on the game's industry, so it teamed up with a defunct Japanese developer named Kaneko to publish two Chester Cheetah games: Too Cool to Fool and Wild Wild Quest, both of which were 16-bit platformers. The first game had Chester jumping through a psychedelic world and collecting Cheetos Paws. The sequel had Chester exploring the less-trippy environments of the U.S.A. Chester Cheetah may be one chill cat, but don’t try to fool him; he’s too cool for that.
Chex Quest
Doom was a fun first-person shooter, but everyone who played it thought, “geez, this game would be better if it had a strong marketing tie to a popular cereal brand.” Digital Café’s Chex Quest was so innovative that it took Doom’s exact gameplay and throwing a Chex cereal theme on top. Set in the distant future, the game follows an alien from the planet Bazoik as he battles an army of green slimes while wearing a giant piece of Chex cereal as armor. Chex Quest is notable for being the first video game to be included in cereal boxes. After the game released, the U.S. army began testing Chex armor in tactical hostage and rescue operations.