Wickedly genius (clever) joke ad, not just for its apparent authenticity, but for the synthesis it represents; a capital culture concoction of self aware corporate social media, populist post-modern humor, and a fierce retro gaming nostalgia that has been slowly getting more socially refined into a broadly palatable entertainment taste (don't bother thinking of it as art, however).
All of these ultra modern qualities would surely give you a soul ache if the joke game itself was of such immediately disposable quality like Date Colonel Sanders and Torture the Jack in the Box (two online flashesque games I'm positive exist).
But this is a much deeper (more effortful, seemingly innocent) joke than similar ilk.
Released in tandem with a real life and as-of-writing currently relevant McDonald's ad campaign entitled "Grimace's Birthday Meal", it exploits hard on our fractured contemporary communication which makes it purposefully distinguishable as a product of the Now, lamenting the style of the past without aping the past's sincere modern-modern banality. The exquisitely meme friendly re-evaluation of Grimace^, who uses abbreviated internet slang in cutscene speeches to his bestie cohorts, is forced hard enough to attract mainstream attention while being sparse enough for it to make a positive immediate impact. It's quite deviously charming how much effort was put into amplifying the advertisement's messaging, that we the corporation seem to miss the fanciful corporate creativity of the past, too (and you should buy 30 Grimace shakes before the Pete Davidson meal comes around, we got a PG rated Dress Up Pete game ready for the girlies on that one).
It works on a real GameBoy Color^^- err Analogue Pocket, fitting its entire design/art philosophy into the ancient constraints of the GBC, and as such has a nebulous 1999-2001 vibe that can capture the heart of any terminally online consumer millennial (almost everybody that this was targeted towards).
The remarkable simplicity of its gameplay doesn't elevate it in the way that the one-made-by-Treasure does, but that's because it is, of course, a novelty, revolving around shallow solitary gimmicks used quickly enough to get onto the next phase of the meta joke. Levels include: a skateboarding + collecting combo reminiscent of Tony Hawk games^^^. Hop-n-bop style platforming ala Mario (somehow with even less complexity). A Balloon Kid-ian section. Random mini-game. The end. 15 minutes total, maybe. A fleeting, semi-ironic loveletter to the shovelware of old, with all the unhealthy fat of such (chunky padding with obtuse controls) removed and forgotten about^^^^.
^the second banana friendly oaf archetype there to juxtapose against the well rounded leader Ronald, who used to command the previous McDonalds games as either omnipotent wizard God or powerful ability wielding protagonist. Us zoomers don't much care for the Ronald ego trip like previous generations, choosing to associate better with the cool dude(s) on the side of the spotlight.
^^why make this /specifically/ for the GameBoy Color? Well, I get /why/ it went for the authenticity of actually /being/ a GameBoy Color game instead of simply mimicking the style for a probably much easier to make a flashesque game with similar overall quality, but the reasoning behind this platform over any other?
Sure the McDonaldland fantasy universe thrived during the GBC's appropriate time of relevancy, but that whole thing was around since the 2600 days and was only fully phased out around the end of the 360 era. So, scarily advanced social media marketing from McD's or dorky sponsored project from kitsch loving indie devs or both? Who knows = Good joke. I will now consume one (1) Grimace shake.
^^^the best ones released during that precious, highly regarded post-Phantom Menace, pre-9/11 period of time.
^^^^Just, y'know, try not to forget that the Grimace Birthday Meal is 1490 calories(!). Yeeshikes!
<me and Grimace share the same bday btw>
All of these ultra modern qualities would surely give you a soul ache if the joke game itself was of such immediately disposable quality like Date Colonel Sanders and Torture the Jack in the Box (two online flashesque games I'm positive exist).
But this is a much deeper (more effortful, seemingly innocent) joke than similar ilk.
Released in tandem with a real life and as-of-writing currently relevant McDonald's ad campaign entitled "Grimace's Birthday Meal", it exploits hard on our fractured contemporary communication which makes it purposefully distinguishable as a product of the Now, lamenting the style of the past without aping the past's sincere modern-modern banality. The exquisitely meme friendly re-evaluation of Grimace^, who uses abbreviated internet slang in cutscene speeches to his bestie cohorts, is forced hard enough to attract mainstream attention while being sparse enough for it to make a positive immediate impact. It's quite deviously charming how much effort was put into amplifying the advertisement's messaging, that we the corporation seem to miss the fanciful corporate creativity of the past, too (and you should buy 30 Grimace shakes before the Pete Davidson meal comes around, we got a PG rated Dress Up Pete game ready for the girlies on that one).
It works on a real GameBoy Color^^- err Analogue Pocket, fitting its entire design/art philosophy into the ancient constraints of the GBC, and as such has a nebulous 1999-2001 vibe that can capture the heart of any terminally online consumer millennial (almost everybody that this was targeted towards).
The remarkable simplicity of its gameplay doesn't elevate it in the way that the one-made-by-Treasure does, but that's because it is, of course, a novelty, revolving around shallow solitary gimmicks used quickly enough to get onto the next phase of the meta joke. Levels include: a skateboarding + collecting combo reminiscent of Tony Hawk games^^^. Hop-n-bop style platforming ala Mario (somehow with even less complexity). A Balloon Kid-ian section. Random mini-game. The end. 15 minutes total, maybe. A fleeting, semi-ironic loveletter to the shovelware of old, with all the unhealthy fat of such (chunky padding with obtuse controls) removed and forgotten about^^^^.
^the second banana friendly oaf archetype there to juxtapose against the well rounded leader Ronald, who used to command the previous McDonalds games as either omnipotent wizard God or powerful ability wielding protagonist. Us zoomers don't much care for the Ronald ego trip like previous generations, choosing to associate better with the cool dude(s) on the side of the spotlight.
^^why make this /specifically/ for the GameBoy Color? Well, I get /why/ it went for the authenticity of actually /being/ a GameBoy Color game instead of simply mimicking the style for a probably much easier to make a flashesque game with similar overall quality, but the reasoning behind this platform over any other?
Sure the McDonaldland fantasy universe thrived during the GBC's appropriate time of relevancy, but that whole thing was around since the 2600 days and was only fully phased out around the end of the 360 era. So, scarily advanced social media marketing from McD's or dorky sponsored project from kitsch loving indie devs or both? Who knows = Good joke. I will now consume one (1) Grimace shake.
^^^the best ones released during that precious, highly regarded post-Phantom Menace, pre-9/11 period of time.
^^^^Just, y'know, try not to forget that the Grimace Birthday Meal is 1490 calories(!). Yeeshikes!
<me and Grimace share the same bday btw>
4 Comments
I think the reason it was made for gameboy in particular is because it was made on gb studio which is probably the easiest to use engine for homebrew stuff on any retro console.
Damn lousy logic and reason.
Distinction between entertainment flavors and media as arts is gonna be something I think about a lot down the road. Good review
WaffulSyrup
11 months ago