Among all the games announcements and exclusive gameplay trailers revealed during the Summer Game Fest and Xbox Games Showcase,McDonald’sshadow-dropped a new video game to celebrate its purple mascot Grimace’s birthday. Grimace is the best friend ofRonald McDonaldand regularly appeared in McDonald’s commercials before disappearing for a few years. The purple mascot is now coming back under the spotlight with a variety of both online and offline elements to celebrate his birthday.
This isn’tMcDonald’s first move into gaming, as the company previously released various games to promote its fast food restaurants and even train its employees. The first game released by McDonald’s dates back to 1988, withDonald Landbeing published for the Famicom. Since then, the fast food chain published various games, including a dedicated program to train its new restaurant employees calledeCrew Development Program, exclusively available on the Nintendo DS.
RELATED:Nintendo Switch Online Update Adds SNES Classic and 3 More Games
To celebrate the birthday of its purple mascot, McDonald’s shadow-dropped a new video game, simply calledGrimace’s Birthday. This browser game looks straight out of the early 2000s, with various parodic McDonald’s-themed ads and a working Game Boy Color game where players have to help Grimace find his friends and gather birthday shakes. This game, commissioned by McDonald’s, was created by Gumpy Function, Pearacidic, and Krool Toys using the GB Studio Central open-source tool to createGame Boy Color games.
Grimace’s Birthdayis the latest element revealed by McDonald’s as part of its mascot’s birthday celebration, with fans of the fan food chain already able to try out the time-limited Grimace Birthday Meal and Shake, while the company’s social media has been taken over by the large-fingered mascot. However, this celebration doesn’t come with specific toys players can collect, unlike the recent collaboration withThe Super Mario Bros. Moviethat brought exclusive toys for McDonald’s customers.
While McDonald’s creations are rarely nominated in Game of the Year awards, the company often works with popular gaming franchises. The fast food chain regularly promotes new games by giving away toys in its Happy Meals, fromPokemoncards toOverwatch 2cosmetics.McDonald’s even created its own gaming chair, complete with chicken and fry holders and supposedly stain-proof so players don’t have to worry about eating and gaming at the same time. Fans of the company sometimes even share their love for the fast food chain online, the most recent example being aFar Cry 5player who built a realistic McDonald’s using the game’s level editor.
