Like any massive consumer brand, McDonald's has never been blind to the value of a good video game tie-in.
1992's M.C. Kids on the NES kicked off the trend, followed by Global Gladiators on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. The company has also worked with Treasure on a themed video game in the past and, more recently, teamed up with Krool Toys to create Grimace's Birthday for the Game Boy Color.
However, the process of collaborating with a company like McDonald's is not an easy one, as Treasure found out when it teamed up with the fast food giant for 1993's aforementioned McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure. It was stipulated initially that Ronald was not allowed to defeat enemies and that the lava present in the game be removed. McDonald's even went as far as to forbid Treasure from showing its hamburgers on the ground, resulting in almost all references to the company's main product – food – being expunged from the final retail release.
Taking this into account, it's easy to understand that, when faced with the prospect of working with McDoland's in the early '90s, industry veteran Peter Molyneux declined.
Speaking in an interview with EDGE magazine from 1994, Molyneux – who was then still with Bullfrog, the company he co-founded in 1987 with Les Edgar – revealed that the studio had been approached by McDonald's to do a tie-in game:
McDonald's approached us for a joint game venture, and they specified that absolutely nothing in the game must contain any share edges – because apparently the kids can imagine Ronald skewering them or something – and you must use these characters this way and paint them this colour... basically, they say, "Do this game this way and don't it any other way."
It's interesting to think about what a McDonald's game with Molyneux's input could have looked like, but sadly, we'll never know now.
Comments 13
Black & White, but your god is a 20-meter tall Grimace. And in Grimace's own milkshake, the key ingredient is people.
Ronald must not be seen to defeat anyone. Ronald must have plausible deniability.
Ronald’s hands must remain clean.
This is why they created the McCIA.
I’ve heard that type of ‘guidance’ from the corporate world of children’s literature. I think it’s stupid and hopefully outmoded these days
Molyneux: Well, when I was designing the game, I asked the question: Does the player want to be a good Ronald McDonald. or an evil Ronald McDonald? So I created a McDonalds God simulator where you play as Ray Croc himself and must fight supernatural beings, but that was later cut.
@amongtheworms Ronald McDonald has literally killed more people than Pennywise and John Wayne Gacy combined!
He's the world's most evil clown.
@Damo There were McDonalds games before MC Kids, on Nintendo hardware even.
Data East made a game Donald Land, released in Japan in 1988.
"the prospect of working with McDoland's"
Is "McDoland's" a really sketchy knock-off of McDonald's, possibly featuring as its mascot a misshapen duck that says and does vulgar things?
(suggestion: check spellings of text of this article)
I mean, it's not like mario runs around picking coins up off the ground.
@Mario500 wouldn't want any share edges at McDoland's.
heh, can't imagine it would have been great anyway. My mum bought me the NES mcdonalds game (global gladiators was it?). It was ok but passable. The amusing thing is they bought me that but refused to take me in McDonalds because the food wasn't served on plates with knives and forks. Hence we only ever went to wimpy. Hahahaha. it sounds very middle class but i can assure you we are not.
I wonder if the TV network exec who asked for the animators to round off Janine's glasses in The Real Ghostbusters (because they feared that kids might be scared of her pointed frames) used to work for McDs. Were they traumatised by a particularly acute dorito in their youth?
I absolutely loved that NES game.
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