Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Creepy Burger King on Xbox 360

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Water Cooler Games

Water Cooler Games served as the web's primary forum for "videogames with an agenda" — coverage of the uses of video games in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment.

The site was maintained at watercoolergames.org from 2003-2009, where it was edited by myself and Gonzalo Frasca. It is now archived here in full.

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Creepy Burger King on Xbox 360

by Ian Bogost November 20, 2006

categories: Advergames , Console & PC Games

Thanks to Brian over at Kotaku for reminding us that the Burger King Xbox 360 advergame / promo games are now available.

All three feature the creepy King BK mascot. Pocket Bike Racer is a kart-style racing game, Big Bumper is a bumper car game, and Sneak King is a ... strange stealth action game wherein the player sneaks up on unsuspecting people and delivers them lunch. The games cost $3.99 a piece.

One Kotaku commenter notes that they are "worth the price you pay for them," which is to say "they suck for the most part." Another offers positive, short micro-reviews of each, "Maybe my expectation were low, but these games rock!" I haven't picked mine up yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this experiment in high-end "pure" advergaming turned out.

Comments (4)

I wish the best of lucks to BK on this one.

They have taken a risk and I definitely salute to that.

There's always time to improve in the future.

Cheers!

Mariano Suarez Battan on November 21, 2006 3:36 PM

Ok, I got the games! Reviews pending...

Ian Bogost on November 23, 2006 1:29 AM

I picked up the games and played around with each. While they have received somewhat favorable reviews from some sources (i.e. from IGN.com), I don't think they are worth 'what you pay for them' (I ended up eating 'dinner' at BK while purchasing them too... bleh ;). Each separate game is little more than a single mini-game as seen in some party-type titles and elements, like the character-creation module, is simply recycled in each one. These games should have been released on a single disc but then, their purpose, is to get people into Burger King and hand over money. There are some interesting design elements but it is hard to decide if these are campy or creepy. The developer has worked on a multitude of games based on film or animation and I suspect they just recycled existing gameplay elements and wrapped them in BK skins. I would suggest to not buy the games, just wait a few weeks until they start showing up in secondhand stores and garage sales.

David Clearwater on December 6, 2006 9:18 PM

Here's some more commentary, with a review of the history of advergames:
http://theculturalgutter.com/videogames/do_you_want_fries_with_that_.html

andrewstern on September 25, 2007 9:58 PM

About the book