Most of the time, developers just want to sell you a game, but sometimes developers want a game to sell you something – and if they can, to sell you that game too. Here are some of the most memorable examples
COOL SPOT
This was actually the third game starring the 7-Up mascot, but the strength of the David Perry platform game template ensured that it was the most memorable. Interestingly, it dropped the soft drink branding in Europe to protect Fido Dido’s status as the local mascot – and his games got cancelled.
THE MUNCHER
Originally conceived as T-Wrecks, this was rebranded for the UK market as a game starring the mascot from the Chewits advert. Perhaps because of that, the highly destructive action is plenty of fun – the Commodore 64 version received reasonable reviews and the Spectrum version got genuinely strong scores.
PEPSIMAN
After a cameo in the Saturn version of Fighting Vipers, the freakishly faceless Japanese Pepsi mascot bagged his own PlayStation game in 1999. It’s a pretty good effort, with our thirst-quenching hero permanently running and dodging various obstacles, in a manner similar to later hit mobile games like Temple Run.
MCDONALD’S TREASURE LAND ADVENTURE
Unlike the other games based on burger chains shown here, this one had Treasure on development duties. Developed alongside Gunstar Heroes and released in 1993, it’s not up there with the studio’s best but as far as licensed Mega Drive platformers go, it’s one of the better choices available.
TAPPER
Who would have guessed that beers could land Bally Midway in hot water? People didn’t like the idea that Budweiser was being advertised to children, so Tapper became Root Beer Tapper – the better-known version today, thanks to many appearances on compilations.
MR WIMPY
An 8-bit home-computer game advertising Wimpy – you can’t really get more quintessentially British than that. Let’s just ignore the fact that it’s basically a Burger Time clone with a single extra scene to distinguish i
