Developer: Blitz Games
Publisher: King Games
Release Date: 11-19-06
Since I got a whopping one view on my last 360 post I figured I would cover an even less significant game on the same console. I suppose that means it’s time to cover the Burger King trilogy. In case you don’t remember, way back in 2006 Burger King ran a promotion where they offered three Xbox (regular and 360) games which could be purchased along with a value meal for four dollars. Fast food and video games are a natural pairing, so it actually sounded like a good idea. Even though the games themselves were all ages they were obviously courting the “adult male who wants their own Happy Meal” market. How can I tell they were going for men instead of women? Well this is a racing game starring a goofy costumed mascot but they still managed to put Playboy model Brooke Burke prominently on the center of the cover. Hey you gotta remind your public that the beautiful people eat burgers too. So is the game a quality product made with care by the developers, or is it a quickie cash grab made to sell burgers with minimal effort? Well this is American capitalism we’re talking about here. Of course it’s cynical and lazy.
At first the game shows signs of effort. The menu screen shows three difficulty levels with four different modes of play each. Hey that’s twelve contests! That’s a lot of programming oh wait they all use the same tracks. Yeah the game only has five tracks that have to be raced over and over. This might be more forgivable if the tracks themselves were better, but it has three okay ones and two very annoying ones. Unsurprisingly the flatter and more traditional tracks are the better ones. The backyard and construction site tracks are full of ramps and sharp turns which are more infuriating than anything. There’s nothing worse than having a good race only to get stuck on a partially overturned fence and having no way to get off of it. Games should not have leaning fences to get stuck on. That does not make the game more challenging, just more infuriating. Then the construction site is full of jumps and pitfalls that are very hard to miss even after a dozen races. It’s just so poorly put together that ramps pop before you can build up enough speed to properly jump them. Luckily the AI is programmed in such an aggressive way that they will fight with each other instead of racing meaning that different racers will place differently each time. Even on the most difficult setting I only had to come in first on a couple races to guarantee a victory.
However I will concede that I did enjoy it at times. I liked that they had to fill out their roster of racers despite not having many memorable characters. This leads to commercial b-listers like Subservient Chicken and Whopper Jr. showing up. There’s always going to be some fun to be had by playing as a guy wearing a giant burger costume. The racing is also decent before it gets tedious. Before the realization set in that there were only five tracks I thought I might actually enjoy the whole experience. All the racers drive the same but at least the bikes are different so there is a little strategy involved with picking the right bike for the right situation. I had to try a few different strategies before I could finish the 150cc races which would usually be a good thing, but by that time I was so sick of the same tracks that I put the game down and didn’t get around to finishing it until a year later. I will give it some extra points for at least being a moderate challenge however.
Just to show you how much I have to dislike a game to put it into the red section I am actually going to move this into the purple. I thought it was going to be red when I started writing, but even with only five tracks it’s less repetitive than Wild Gunman, and it had clearer goals too. Still it was only moderately amusing so it’s only going to 35th on the list. Of course since it was only a couple of dollars to begin with just sort of okay is a victory. Now I need to review the other two Burger King games so my journey through the least significant X-Box games can continue.
X-Box 360 quality percentage: 1/2 or 50%
1. Super Mario Odyssey
2. Galaga
3. Donkey Kong
4. Exodus: Ultima III
5. Pac-Mania
6. Wrecking Crew
7. Super Pac-Man
8. Pac-Man
9. Viva Pinata
10. Dragon View
11. Excitebike
12. Drakkhen
13. Arc the Lad
14. Clu Clu Land
15. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX
16. Mickey’s Racing Adventure
17. Metro-Cross
18. Ice Climber
19. Gaplus
20. Dragon Spirit
21. Pinball (NES)
22. Ninja Golf
23. Super Soccer
24. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)
25. Red Sea Crossing
26. Baraduke
27. Tennis
28. Hogan’s Alley
29. Gamma-Attack
30. The Legend of “Valkyrie”
31. Galaxian
32. Evoland
33. Cosmic Commuter
34. Hot Pixel
35. PocketBike Racer
36. Wild Gunman
37. Defunct
38. Gyruss (2600)
39. Looney Tunes Racing
40. Squidlit
41. Baseball
42. Birthday Mania
43. Bad Street Brawler
44. Burly Men at Sea
45. X-Men (HyperScan)
46. My Name is Mayo
47. Marvel Heroes
48. Ben 10
No comments:
Post a Comment