McDonald’s Launches Grimace-Themed Game Boy Color Video Game
It may come as a surprise that McDonald’s has released a retro game this year, especially if you were asked to guess which company would do so. The fast food giant has partnered with Krool Toys to create a 2D platformer reminiscent of Game Boy Color, in honor of Grimace’s 52nd birthday. The game can be played on modern PCs or mobile devices, and follows Grimace on a skateboard as he searches for his lost friends and collects enough milkshake for his guests before his birthday celebration.
Although I fumbled a bit trying to control the purple mascot as he jumped over obstacles and slid over handrails, I can only blame my own clumsy handling of the game’s controls. The game ran smoothly on PC, and you can even expand the screen if you don’t mind the blurry graphics that really look like they were created on an old Nintendo handheld. The game was likely created using Nintendo’s drag and drop tool for handheld games called GB Studio. Indie developers like Krool have used the program to create retro games, as doing so from scratch is typically very time- and resource-consuming. As a nice nostalgic bonus, even the game’s website is a throwback to an era marked by the colorful and busy websites of Angelfire, Lycos and Geocities.
McDonald’s only officially released Grimace’s Birthday as a fun little game you could play on PC and mobile, but people were quick to find and share a copy for you to download. Although not an official release, it allows you to play the game on a Game Boy emulator if you have one.
