Really good product placement games?

[Weasel]

Most of us probably already know the usual suspects (Cool Spot), a few might have fond memories of the slightly more obscure ones (Push-Over), but what are some other really good video games whose primary purpose is product placement? (Whoops, alliteration!)

I'm particularly fond of the original SPOT: The Video Game, the Ataxx game by Virgin Mastertronic. The PC version is the one I'm most familiar with, since that's the one that has the nice animations of the 7-Up Spot dancing around the screen when you move pieces around, but the Game Boy port gets a special accolade from me for having a really cool Follin-esque song (might actually be Tim or Geoff Follin, come to think of it, but there's no credits to be found) that plays if you take a really long time to make a move.

Push-Over and its pseudo-sequel, One Step Beyond, are quite interesting to me. Both were designed under the license for a snack food called Quavers (apparently only available in the UK?), and starred (in some capacity) their mascot of the time, Colin Curly. While he's the main character of One Step Beyond, he had a lesser role in Push-Over, and was all but removed from Push-Over's international releases, especially the American SNES release, where he was replaced by a rat who is looking for bags of money.

Probably the most interesting advergame, from a historical perspective, is an Atari 2600 cartridge called Pepsi Invaders (sometimes called "Coke Wins" on ROM sites). It's a modified version of Atari's Space Invaders cartridge, with the lives counter replaced with a countdown timer, and the invaders swapped for the letters in PEPSI. A Pepsi logo occasionally flies overhead (replacing the UFO) and is worth points. The reason this is interesting is because of its insane rarity; it was only released at a Coca-Cola sales convention, given to 125 sales executive attendees. The cartridge is now insanely valuable, and is probably one of the most valuable video game cartridges of all time.

I wonder what else is out there that's interesting? Mr. Pibb's bizarre zombie-burping FPS game? The remarkably-similar Taco Bell game where you squirt hot sauce at mummies? Do SuperFrog and Zool count (Lucozade and Chupa-Chups, respectively)?

[kaoru]

I never dared to play it again, so I can't vouche for it really holding up, but as a kid I thought Mick & Mack: Global Gladiators on the MegaDrive was the coolest thing. I had a lot of fun playing it at a friends house and was pretty disappointed by the MasterSystem version that I eventually got.

[Weasel]

I can't believe I forgot about Pepsiman: the greatest Metro-Cross remake ever.

[derboo]

I liked The Last Eichhoff back in the '90s when I played a lot of DOS shareware. Don't know how well it holds up, though.

There are a few cool German point&click adventures made for advertisement and I really want to blog more about them if I find the time. Victor Loomes is about the best of them, I think.

[Scylla]

Not quite what the topic is asking for, since the game's primary purpose isn't advertising, but when it comes to product placement in games, the first thing I think of is Super Monkey Ball. Always thought it was clever and cute how Sega partnered with Dole, and it's funny how later on they switched to pitching Chiquita bananas.

[Weasel]

May 26, 2015 11:45:10 GMT -5 derboo said:

I liked The Last Eichhoff back in the '90s when I played a lot of DOS shareware. Don't know how well it holds up, though.

Gameplay-wise, I wouldn't say it's anything stellar, but I'm still a fan of it just for how utterly absurd the game is in execution.

[Snarboo]

Thinking on this, I don't know of any really good advergames outside of the ones already mentioned, but I can tell you what one of the worst is:

SPOILER: Click to show

Edit:
Actually I can think of one: McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure! Outside of some McD's characters, I'm not sure it really qualifies, however, since there isn't even a single burger or french fry to be found. :p

[Feynman]

May 26, 2015 11:24:31 GMT -5 Weasel said:

I'm particularly fond of the original SPOT: The Video Game, the Ataxx game by Virgin Mastertronic. The PC version is the one I'm most familiar with, since that's the one that has the nice animations of the 7-Up Spot dancing around the screen when you move pieces around, but the Game Boy port gets a special accolade from me for having a really cool Follin-esque song (might actually be Tim or Geoff Follin, come to think of it, but there's no credits to be found) that plays if you take a really long time to make a move.

The sidescrolling platformer Cool Spot is pretty good, too! The 7-up mascot managed to be in not one, but two good videogames, which is fairly impressive for a simple advertising mascot.

There's a thoroughly uninspired PC action/adventure game called Darkened Skye that has some of the most blatant and out of place product placement ever seen in a game. It's a fantasy-themed game, and in order to cast magic you have to collect... Skittles. No, really. Different Skittles give you access to different spells and can be combined, and mechanically it's like the one thing the game did that was actually kind of cool, but it is ruined on account of the fact that you're collecting freaking Skittles. A game like Cool Spot can get away with the shameless product placement because it's sort of surreal and just a simple platformer, but Darkened Skye tries to have a real plot... it's tongue in cheek, but not enough to make the Skittles aspect any less weird.

[alphex]

There's Dunkle Schatten (Dark Shadows), a German point & click adventure about nationalist youth groups and neo nationalism in general. You play as... Carsten, I believe, a teenage boy who wants to help his friends to fix up the local youth centre and encounter various troubles along the way (nazis attack members of the centre's crew, you discover some of your friends are friends with troublesome people etc.). Given its subject matter and intention (it was financed by the interior ministry I believe?), it's not as preachy as you'd expect. Part 1 is strictly VGA and rather short, but has nice music and is charming in general.

Part 2 I never completed. It's a Win95 game in SVGA, but loses quite a bit of its charm for that.

There's also this, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit:


(This is part 2 of the series as far as I know, part 1 was on the Amiga)


ETA: There's also America's Army, which absolutely qualifies for this thread IMO.

[lurker]

Chex Quest series?

[Deleted]

Yumi Kojo: Doki Doki Panic was made to promote a Fuji TV broadcast event. From what I can ascertain, it was mostly animated bumpers featuring Imajin and his family, so hardly a licensed adaptation. (Dunno if All-Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. counts, but it does feature exclusive levels)

Dokomodake is the mascot of a Japan-only mobile phone service

Chex Quest, the kid friendly Doom

The orginal Tapper has you explicitly serving Budweiser

I'd nominate Darkened Skye as the queen of advergames:



Edit: can't believe I spent nearly an hour collating this stupid list

[cambertian]

May 26, 2015 13:10:38 GMT -5 lurker said:

Chex Quest series?

/thread

Do tie-in games count at all? Because for some reason, my mind skipped over the fact that Dune and its sequel were adaptions of the sci-fi novel of the same name.

As for product placement, Pikmin 2 is a good example, simply because you forget its even there. Do you remember picking up a Duracell, for instance? How about the lid to a Vlasic pickle jar?

[Deleted]

May 26, 2015 13:00:45 GMT -5 alphex said:

There's also this, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit:


(This is part 2 of the series as far as I know, part 1 was on the Amiga)

Same developer of this game?



Edit: nope, Factor 5 of all people. Still eerily similar

[ZenithianHero]

I used to play M.C. Kids a lot.



And who can forget the rebranded localization Yo! Noid based on the misadventures of the then Dominos Pizza mascot.

[alphex]

Speaking of food jump & runs, there's also this:



Although, looking back, I guess it's not quite "really good".

Plus a couple of adventures I've never played, advertising banks and chocolate brands, among other things.
(Overview in German: www.adventuregamesite.de/werbesp.php
Titel = title, Webender = advertising company, Hersteller = developer.)

But I agree with you, the Kellog's and the Nesquick game look EXTREMELY similar. The design of the UI, the gameplay elements (invisible platforms that you must jump on for them to appear), the look of the tiles... very strange indeed.

ETA: There's also this list: www.kultboy.com/index.php?site=specials/werbespiele

I had no idea that there were THAT many of these games!