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M.C. Kids
By Leroux

As unexpected as it may sound, a few companies having nothing to do with Nintendo went out and got some developers to make an NES game about, you guessed it, their company. While such acts may be deemed egotistical, or worse, unethical, the results were usually pretty good, such is the case when Domino's Pizza created Yo Noid, and in this case, when McDonalds went out and created M.C. Kids. While these games were both side scrolling platformers (who'd of guessed), they both were unique in more ways than the fact that they had their trademark logos scattered throughout the game. This is one scenario where something good came of games that have licenses - a rare one indeed.

M.C. Kids was originally supposed to be a give away with Happy Meals or something, but to my understanding it never worked out, probably because it would have cost too much. So out onto the market went M.C. Kids without anyone really caring. Let's face it, unless it's jammed down your throat, who's going to even give a video game based on McDonald's a try, much less purchase it.

M.C. Kids does feature a story, although a weep inducing one at that. These two kids, Mick and Mack, are in a tent reading about Ronald McDonald or one of his scary relatives. I don't know how it happens, but Ronald's sack of magic is stolen by the Hamburglar (I thought he only wanted hamburgers, unless that magic was the recipe to secret sauce (oh, so many puns I could make about this game)). Needless to say, Ronald goes to the safest, not to mention the most reliable, option to get his bag of magic back - two random kids in a tent (I assume). But hey, if that scary clown asked me to get his magic back for him, I'd do it to.

The levels themselves seem simple at first. Most of them are straightforward, and the majority of them can be bested in less than one minute (there's no time limit by the way). But you can't just beat the level though, you have to explore the level, and not only because it's fun, but because it's a necessary part of beating the game. You see, many of the levels are stacked to the sky with depth, literally. You'll have to explore up, down, left, and right rather than just take a straightforward path to the goal as in most cases.

Why do you explore? For one thing, you have to find golden McDonald's arches, which seem to be similar to the coins you would find in Mario games. Also, you have to find cards in the levels. If you don't find the cards, you can't move onto the next world. While you don't have to find every card in the game, you do have to find enough of them in order to move on to the next world.

Luckily, M.C. Kids uses a world map almost exactly like the one found in Super Mario Brothers 3 (hey, at least they steal from the best). This helps you backtrack to levels with relative ease. And unlike in Super Mario Brothers 3, you can actually travel between worlds, and you'll have to, because sometimes you'll find getting one of the cards impossible and need to find an easier one. For this reason, many levels beg to be played over and over again.

The levels have a lot of running and jumping, as one would expect. Rather than take the lazy approach and have you kill enemies by jumping on their heads, M.C. Kids challenges you to throw blocks at the enemies to kill them. Blocks can come in handy for other reasons too, mostly just to reach higher places in various ways. Enemies seem to regenerate once you leave the screen though, which can be a problem when you're trying to explore. A lot of the levels have some difficult, but necessary, nooks and crannies which make things a lot tougher.

The graphics and audio have a bright look and a cheery feel. The colors are vibrant and will get your attention, and the animation is fluid. The level designs are impeachable for their time, although the textures and backgrounds that make them up could have been more detailed, although it might have lost it's cheer if this was done. The audio doesn't always set the mood of the level, but it will keep you happy and entertained, perhaps without you even knowing it.

M.C. Kids is a game that was never given its fair share of credit. How many times can you use the term innovative to describe a license game, especially one featuring a fast food restaurant? It's hard to not appreciate the formula M.C. Kids used to success, taking ideas from other games and building upon them, and with near flawless execution nonetheless. It's hard to believe that to this day this game goes virtually unknown, just because of some scary clown, a purple blob, and a bunch of golden arches.

My Score: 8/10

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