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Five-ish Games with Interesting Branding

Games have had an interesting relationship with product placement and branding since almost their very inception, with Coca-Cola commissioning a modification of Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 way back in 1983 that had you shooting the letters PEPSI instead of an alien horde.

Some titles blatantly had their goods on display for all to see like that Coca-Cola title, Pepsi Invaders, and some were more subtle, like an interesting under the fold review of wsop rather than having a huge headline bringing attention to the fact.

Whether the games were made purely for promotional purposes or had related imagery incorporated after the fact, here are some interesting titles that were either produced to sell another product or that use product placement in interesting ways.

Chex Quest

1996) Digital Café

Toys in cereal boxes have always been a popular promotional tool, but giving away a computer game was a real novelty and that’s what the General Mills cereal Chex did with Chex Quest. The self-proclaimed “first ever CD-ROM cereal game”.

The game was a non-violent total conversion for id Software’s Doom changing Doomguy into the Chex Warrior taking on an invasion of ‘Flemoids’. Weapons now teleported enemies away rather than killing them. Interestingly, the game only consists of five levels (essentially replacing the first five levels of the first episode of Doom) but the vast majority of The Ultimate Doom’s levels are accessible using level skip cheats, although in a neutered form as a lot of the non-Chex artwork is removed leaving many enemies and power-ups invisible..

Chex Quest proved extremely popular with sales of Chex cereal seeing massively increased sales, this prompted the creation of Chex Quest 2: Flemoids Take Chextropolis the following year provided via their website. That game ended on a cliffhanger that was resolved in 2008 by the original creators in Chex Quest 3.

Pepsiman

1999) KID

Only released in Japan, Pepsiman is based around the titular Japanese Pepsi mascot. It’s an endless runner that sees you collecting cans and avoiding obstacles across four different stages based on real world locations like New York City.

Each stage ends with Pepsiman being chased by objects including a giant Pepsi can. Some sections involve being stuck in a steel drum, reversing your controls. It’s a very simple game that has gained some popularity in recent years because of its quirky humour, being ran quite frequently in charity speedrun marathons.

Pepsiman himself also made an appearance as a secret fighter in the Japanese version of Fighting Vipers on the Sega Saturn.

America’s Army

(2002-2014) United States Army

Designed as a marketing and recruitment aid, America’s Army is a technology platform as much as it is a game. Used to showcase various aspects of the army via videos during loading screens as well as more in-depth training in other areas of the game.

The current iteration of the title, America’s Army: Proving Grounds features a variety of scenarios including Battle Drill Exercises designed for 6 vs. 6 play and Forward Line Operations which are larger 12 vs. 12 experiences.

A new entry is currently in development that utilises Unreal Engine 4.

Doritos Crash Course and Harms Way

(2010) Behaviour Interactive and Bongfish GmbH

Both of these were produced as a result of the Doritos-sponsored “Unlock Xbox” competition. Doritos Crash Course is a obstacle course platformer where you have to beat a variety of obstacles against the clock and Harms Way is a racing game featuring dune buggies and other extreme vehicles avoiding fire in a Mad Max-esque environment.

Both games were conceived of as entries in the aforementioned competition that invited entrants to think of a game concept. Doritos Crash Course won, with its creator, Jill Robertson, winning $50,000 and the game being created. Harms Way came in second place but that game’s creator was also awarded $50,000 and the game was also given life.

Both games have very little in the way of obvious branding (outside of Crash Course’s title) and are fun little titles in their own right. Both games are also available via the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility feature and are free to download.

Zool: Ninja of the ‘Nth’ Dimension

(1992) Gremlin Graphics

A traditional platformer in every sense of the word, Zool: Ninja of the ‘Nth’ Dimension was created as an Amiga rival to Sonic the Hedgehog with a focus on speed. It was later ported to almost every platform that existed at the time.

It’s most well known for its prominent Chupa Chups brand sponsorship, with the lollipop manufacturer’s logo popping up everywhere. It didn’t have any effect on actual gameplay as it was purely visual but it was extremely noticeable.

The original Amiga version is fondly remembered but most of the console ports were criticised for unfair speed leaving you unable to anticipate enemies amongst other things.

So there you go, a selection of games that tried to get you to buy something to own them, or that tried to get you to buy other merchandise.

Do you have fond memories of these games? Let us know in the comments!