{"id":115624,"date":"2020-07-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2020\/07\/feature_10_of_the_most_blatant_snack_sponsorships_in_retro_gaming_history"},"modified":"2020-07-19T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T13:00:00","slug":"feature-10-of-the-most-blatant-snack-sponsorships-in-retro-gaming-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/07\/19\/feature-10-of-the-most-blatant-snack-sponsorships-in-retro-gaming-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: 10 Of The Most Blatant Snack Sponsorships In Retro Gaming History"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/6ea271d7bb0a0\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/6ea271d7bb0a0\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Last month the Philippines arm of KFC grabbed the headlines (well, our headlines at least) when it created <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2020\/06\/random_kfc_makes_animal_crossing_island_gives_visitors_free_real-life_chicken\">its own KFC restaurant<\/a> in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/animal_crossing_new_horizons\">Animal Crossing: New Horizons<\/a><\/strong> and invited its Twitter followers to visit its island, with the hope of finding Colonel Sanders and getting a voucher code for free chicken in real life.<\/p>\n<p>While Nintendo obviously had nothing to do with this and the whole thing was just a marketing ploy conjured up by KFC, it\u2019s far from the first time video games have been associated with food brands. In fact, ever since the very early days of home console gaming \u2013 we\u2019re talking the Atari 2600 here \u2013 there have been games containing product placement for snacks. Some of these are subtle, others have entire games built around them. Here are some of our favourites.<\/p>\n<p>This list is by no means complete: there are plenty of other examples. Honourable mentions go to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/games\/ps4\/death_stranding\" class=\"external\">Death Stranding<\/a><\/strong> and its infamous Monster Energy consumables, <strong>Pepsiman<\/strong> on the PlayStation, <strong>Fight Night Round 3<\/strong> (which lets you unlock the terrifying Burger King mascot to accompany you to the ring) and the strange <strong>Space Invader<\/strong>-style Commodore 64 game <strong>Weetabix Versus the Titchies<\/strong>. Two games we haven\u2019t forgotten, though, are the Chester Cheetah games for the SNES and Mega Drive, partly because even though they star the Cheetos mascot, they don\u2019t actually mention Cheetos at any point.<\/p>\n<p>That said: sit back, grab an ice cold refreshing Irn Bru\u2122, and enjoy.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Zool &#8211; Chupa Chups<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/bd73c59107104\/zool-chupa-chups.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/bd73c59107104\/zool-chupa-chups.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Zool - Chupa Chups\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>There are two examples of snack food product placement in games that many people cite all the time, so let\u2019s start with those. Probably the most commonly mentioned (especially in Europe) is <strong>Zool<\/strong>, the fast-paced platformer starring a ninja from the Nth Dimension which was originally released on the Amiga before coming to a bunch of other systems including the SNES and Mega Drive.<\/p>\n<p>The first world in Zool has a candy theme, and the stage is absolutely packed with cakes, candy games, gingerbread and chocolate as far as the eye can see. Deciding to turn this into a marketing opportunity, publisher Gremlin Graphics arranged a deal with Spanish lollipop company Chupa Chups and slapped its lollies and logo all over the stage,<\/p>\n<p>If you owned Zool on the SNES and are a bit confused about all this, you probably lived in North America. The Chupa Chups sponsorship was removed entirely from NTSC versions of the game, whereas the European PAL SNES version still has its big garish logos proudly beaming out at you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">James Pond 2: Codename Robocod &#8211; Penguin<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1717360a505e8\/james-pond-2-codename-robocod-penguin.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1717360a505e8\/james-pond-2-codename-robocod-penguin.900x.jpg\" alt=\"James Pond 2: Codename Robocod - Penguin\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The other instance of snack sponsorship that regularly gets brought up is the presence of Penguin biscuits in Millennium Interactive\u2019s much-loved platformer <strong>James Pond 2: Codename Robocod<\/strong>, which starred everyone\u2019s favourite piscine protagonist as he attempts to rescue Santa Claus from the evil Dr Maybe.<\/p>\n<p>For those not familiar with Penguins, they\u2019re a brand of chocolate biscuit that have been a part of British tea-drinking culture since they were first produced in the early 1930s. For a certain generation of Brit the marketing slogan \u201cp-p-pick up a Penguin\u201d is widely recognised, even though most people don\u2019t actually get what that means. In fact, most don\u2019t know why they\u2019re called Penguins in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, because Robocod involves finding penguins at various points, large Penguin biscuit wrappers can be found in certain stages in 90s versions of the game (they were removed for the GBA, PlayStation and DS versions released in the 2000s). It\u2019s a pretty tenuous link, but it\u2019s reported that Penguins outsold Kit-Kats in the UK for the first time after Robocod launched. We\u2019re not sure we believe that, mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Bubba \u2018n\u2019 Stix &#8211; Bubbilicious<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e830c48f802e4\/bubba-lnr-stix-bubbilicious.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e830c48f802e4\/bubba-lnr-stix-bubbilicious.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Bubba \u2018n\u2019 Stix - Bubbilicious\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>If you live in North America and are starting to feel a bit left out, here\u2019s one for you. <strong>Bubba \u2018n\u2019 Stix<\/strong> is a puzzle-platformer that was developed by Core Design. Although Core also published the game in most regions, when it came to the Mega Drive version (or Genesis, if you will) Tengen took over publishing duties in America.<\/p>\n<p>Tengen also negotiated a sponsorship deal with Bubbilicious bubble gum, with a big sticker on the cover telling people they could win a Sega CD console if they bought special packs of Bubbilicious and entered the competition on the wrapper. To make sure the deal went both ways, the game\u2019s bonus stage included large packs of Bubbilicious which could be collected for bonus points.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re sitting in the UK and scratching your head at all this, that\u2019s because none of this happened in Europe. There was no Bibbilicious tie-in in PAL regions, and the Bubbilicious collectibles were nowhere to be found in the bonus stages. It wasn\u2019t any great loss, though, so don\u2019t worry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Superfrog &#8211; Lucozade<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/019d739fe6069\/superfrog-lucozade.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/019d739fe6069\/superfrog-lucozade.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Superfrog - Lucozade\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>This Team17 platformer came to the Amiga in 1993 and told the story of a handsome young prince who\u2019s turned into a frog by a witch, who then kidnaps his girlfriend for good measure. As he sits by the side of the river feeling sorry for himself the frog spots a bottle of (famed UK energy drink) Lucozade floating downstream, so he picks it up and takes a drink and, lo and behold, becomes the heroic <strong>Superfrog<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Lucozade doesn\u2019t just feature in the intro sequence: bottles of the stuff can be found dotted around each of the game\u2019s levels and will restore Superfrog\u2019s health when he picks it up. Which makes sense, given that back in the day Lucozade was traditionally what you were supposed to bring as a gift when you were visiting sick people in hospital.<\/p>\n<p>A number of years later Lucozade teamed up with another British gaming icon, and this time it was a biggie: a TV ad campaign saw Lara Croft drinking the stuff, and the drink was renamed Larazade for a limited time. It never actually appeared in any <strong>Tomb Raider<\/strong> games, though, which is why we\u2019re going with Superfrog instead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Pushover &#8211; Quavers<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e62b057b62fe1\/pushover-quavers.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e62b057b62fe1\/pushover-quavers.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Pushover - Quavers\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s becoming pretty clear by now that Britain in the early \u201890s seemingly had some sort of obsession with putting snacks in video games, and Ocean Software\u2019s puzzle game <strong>Pushover<\/strong> didn\u2019t really do anything to change that. This time the brand in question was Quavers, the floaty crisp snack that tasted like cheesy air, and also included Quavers\u2019 then mascot Colin Curly.<\/p>\n<p>Colin\u2019s lost his packets of Quavers down a giant anthill so it\u2019s up to a soldier ant called G. I. Ant (hah) to enter said anthill and retrieve said curly potato puffs, which he did by knocking over a bunch of dominos in what\u2019s actually a fiendishly difficult puzzler.<\/p>\n<p>After a stint on the Amiga, Pushover came to the SNES with all the Quavers branding removed. Colin Curly, meanwhile, would go on to star in another Amiga game called <strong>One Step Beyond<\/strong>, which was also packed with Quavers branding. Hardly anyone seems to eat Quavers these days, and we\u2019re putting that directly down to the lack of an HD remaster of Pushover.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Cool Spot &#8211; 7 Up<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/9cf1b9ad62a43\/cool-spot-7-up.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/9cf1b9ad62a43\/cool-spot-7-up.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Cool Spot - 7 Up\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Here\u2019s one that\u2019s subtle (at least until you reach its bonus stage). <strong>Cool Spot<\/strong> is an entertaining platform game starring \u2013 get ready for this \u2013 the red dot on the 7 Up logo. Yes, slap a pair of sunglasses and some arms and legs on that dot and you have one of the funkiest mascots in town. Or something.<\/p>\n<p>For the most part, Cool Spot is a fairly innocuous platformer: you have to explore the game\u2019s numerous stages in search of your fellow Spot pals, who\u2019ve been imprisoned in cages, presumably due to their comparative lack of coolness. It isn\u2019t until you reach the bonus stage \u2013 where you\u2019re trapped in a giant 7 Up bottle and have to bounce off bubbles to reach the top while spelling out its marketing slogan UNCOLA \u2013 that the tie-in reveals its true form.<\/p>\n<p>The European versions of the game had all the 7 Up branding removed (starting to see a theme here?), mainly because 7 Up\u2019s mascot in Europe was another character called Fido Dido and it was decided not to confuse things. In the bonus stages, instead of UNCOLA you had to spell out VIRGIN. Stop laughing, that\u2019s who published it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">M.C. Kids &#8211; McDonalds<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/34022d01520b9\/m-c-kids-mcdonalds.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/34022d01520b9\/m-c-kids-mcdonalds.900x.jpg\" alt=\"M.C. Kids - McDonalds\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>If you thought McDonald&#8217;s wasn&#8217;t going to try to get involved in this useful new way to market directly to children, we admire your na\u00efvety, but no. <strong>M. C. Kids<\/strong> (known as the slightly less subtle <strong>McDonaldland<\/strong> in Europe) was a serviceable platformer that contained more big M&#8217;s than Mario&#8217;s hatstand.<\/p>\n<p>Ronald McDonald&#8217;s magic bag has been stolen, so it&#8217;s up to two plucky young tykes called Mick and Mack to enter McDonaldland and try to get it back. Along the way they encounter other characters from the McDonald\u2019s Cinematic Universe\u2122 including Grimace, Birdie and the notorious Hamburglar (who\u2019s the one responsible for stealing the bag in the first place).<\/p>\n<p>Mick and Mack returned in <strong>Global Gladiators<\/strong>, an environmentalist Mega Drive game in which they had to use a water gun to clear up slime and various other types of toxic gunk in order to clean the world up. While collecting more golden arches, obviously.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Chase the Chuck Wagon &#8211; Purina<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/20b92111b0824\/chase-the-chuck-wagon-purina.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/20b92111b0824\/chase-the-chuck-wagon-purina.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Chase the Chuck Wagon - Purina\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>If you think snack tie-ins were mainly a \u201890s phenomenon, you\u2019re in for a surprise: in the early \u201880s the humble Atari 2600 had its fair share of sponsored games too. These included strange collect \u2018em up <strong>Kool-Aid Man<\/strong> and the extremely rare <strong>Pepsi Invaders<\/strong>, a <strong>Space Invaders<\/strong> clone created by Coca-Cola to be handed out at its 1983 sales convention.<\/p>\n<p>The oddest example of the Atari 2600 era, though, is possibly <strong>Chase the Chuck Wagon<\/strong>. If you were an American citizen in the \u201870s and \u201880s you were probably aware of a TV commercial for Purina dog food in which a dog chases a little chuckwagon (it was referenced at the start of This Is Spinal Tap as well, and Family Guy spoofed it at one point because <em>of course<\/em> it did).<\/p>\n<p>Purina commissioned game publisher Spectravision to make a game based on this commercial, and it was programmed in a mere three days, so yes, it was awful. It was a mail order game, and could only be bought if you sent in proof of purchase labels for Purina dog food products. Which sort of defeats the purpose of the game if people are already buying the stuff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Biker Mice from Mars &#8211; Snickers<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/bcdaba092d3c6\/biker-mice-from-mars-snickers.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/bcdaba092d3c6\/biker-mice-from-mars-snickers.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Biker Mice from Mars - Snickers\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The <strong>Biker Mice From Mars<\/strong> game is something of a hidden gem on the SNES: it\u2019s an isometric racing game developed by Konami and it\u2019s packed with power-ups and all that good stuff. It\u2019s also notorious, however, for being the only game in this list that\u2019s a TV show tie-in with a snack tie-in included. We believe the phrase is \u201cyo dawg, we heard you liked tie-ins\u201d, or at least it would be if it was 2008.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, not only did the Biker Mice game have a snack sponsorship \u2013 in just one region, naturally \u2013 it was also a rare case of a sponsorship that actually affected the gameplay. The PAL version of the game had Snickers branding slapped all over it, but you could also pick up a Snickers power-up which was by far the most powerful in the game: it makes you invincible, speeds you up and makes fireworks appear.<\/p>\n<p>In keeping with the general theme of this article, the North American version of the game didn\u2019t have any Snickers sponsorship. This meant that it also didn\u2019t have the power-up, however, making it a slightly harder game as a result. Oh Snickers, you rascals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Kaettekita Mario Bros. &#8211; Nagatanien<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"picture embed img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/184622b3d560f\/kaettekita-mario-bros-nagatanien.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/184622b3d560f\/kaettekita-mario-bros-nagatanien.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Kaettekita Mario Bros. - Nagatanien\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Finally, it may shock you to learn that not even our good pal Mario has been able to resist the clutches of snack sponsorship in the past. The culprit in question was <strong>Kaettekita Mario Bros.<\/strong>, an enhanced port of <strong>Mario Bros.<\/strong> for the Famicom Disk System that made some notable improvements including new levels and the ability to change direction in mid-air (which, if you\u2019ve played Mario Bros, you\u2019ll know is a literal game-changer).<\/p>\n<p>However, it also added advertisements in between some of the levels. Some of these ads were for other Nintendo games, most notably <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/super_mario_bros_3\"><strong>Super Mario Bros. 3<\/strong><\/a> (which had just been released on the Famicom a month earlier). Others, however, were for food products created by Nagatanien, a Japanese company who specialised in premixed and instant food (miso soup mix, sushi toppings and the like).<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, it included a special Nagatanien World mode, which adds a slot machine when you get Game Over which gives you the chance to continue playing. If players scored 100,000 or 200,000 points in this mode, they\u2019d also be given a promotional code that they could mail in to Nintendo to try to win a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 or some playing cards. We\u2019re not angry at you, Mario; we\u2019re just disappointed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Have these blatant snack sponsorships left you feeling a little peckish? Let us know which other brand deals you&#8217;ve noticed in games with a comment below&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last month the Philippines arm of KFC grabbed the headlines (well, our headlines at least) when it created its own KFC restaurant in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and invited its Twitter followers to visit its island, with the hope of finding Colonel Sanders and getting a voucher code for free chicken in real life. While [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}