 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Blitz Games |
| Publisher: | King Games | |
| Genre: | Adventure | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Available only at Burger King 11/19/06 - 12/24/06, $3.99 with purchase of a BK Value Meal Xbox 360 & Xbox versions on same disc |
Companies have teamed up with video game developers to promote their products before (most famously Chase the Chuck Wagon on Atari 2600), but this line of games from Burger King is of particular genius. Carefully crafted to appeal to the young adult males that frequently partake of fast food, the games star BK’s creepy marketing star in roles typically reserved for some of gaming’s biggest heroes. In this review we’ll take a look at Sneak King, which sees the King going Sam Fisher on us.
The goal in Sneak King is to stealthily deliver Burger King meals to hungry people, without scaring them away with the King’s hideously frozen face. The people roaming about the game’s five different areas all follow predictable patterns, with blue cones denoting their line of site. Avoid those lines of sight without making too much noise, and you’ll be able to sneak up on and deliver food to just about anyone. Don’t wait too long however, or those hungry zombies (who apparently don’t know how to fend for themselves) will faint from the hunger pains.
Honestly, there’s a surprising amount of depth to sneaking up on people, even though on the whole it’s still pretty simplistic. It’s not as simple as making it to your unsuspecting mark undetected however, for when you’re ready to surprise someone and press the A button the King’s flourish meter will activate. Press the A button again at the right time, and depending on the current level of the meter the King will either simply hand the meal over or perform an elaborate dance to go along with the delivery. The better the flourish, the more bonus points earned. Bonus points are also earned for being closer at the time of delivery, delivering directly from a hiding place, the hunger level of the target, and finally the number of consecutive deliveries pulled off without being spotted.
Hot spots around the map can be used as hiding places, including things like boxes, piles of leaves, trash cans, etc. Movement to these places is done via a short in-game animation, meaning you simply press A when you get to one you want to hide in and don’t actually climb in yourself. So they work a little too well, since there’s no chance you’ll botch it up unless you simply reveal yourself too early.
Missions are found while roaming around each area, with one of several different types of objectives to accomplish in each. Despite some slight variations, most missions quickly fall into one of several basic patterns of delivering to a certain number of people or doing so while adhering to a specific guideline (ex: use a hiding spot). The inhabitants also follow the same routes while walking around each area in each mission, resulting in much less of a challenge once you accomplish a few missions. Looking for new missions can also be tedious, since the markers for them are scattered around the area. After a mission is complete you start back at the beginning of the area, making for some long walks to later missions in that area.
I was pleasantly surprised with how good the graphics and sound are in this $3.99 marketing tool. While by no means one of the best-looking games on the system, they manage to hold their own with shadowing, particles, and some decent character animation. The King’s dances can be rather elaborate on the better delivery flourishes, but after you’ve seen them a few times you’ll wish you could skip the longer ones and just move on. In fact, when the flourish didn’t really matter I had to fight the temptation to intentionally mess the delivery up just so I could get the shorter animation and move on with the game. The music is also surprisingly catchy, with a couple of subdued, light-hearted tunes complimenting the absurdness of it all.
Bottom Line:
Make no mistake, if this game was regularly priced (or even budget-priced at $29.99), I would give it a much lower score than what I have. The gameplay becomes repetitive after a few missions, and in the end there's not a lot of variety to the game's many different missions. But since they're practically giving these things away, even though Sneak King’s repetitive mission structure eventually wears thin, there’s enough gameplay and hilarity here to make this an excellent value. He may not be the King of all Sneaking, but BK’s creepy mascot definitely has some impressive stealth (and dance) moves of his own.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 7.2 |
Posted: 2006-11-27 14:24:52 PST