Anilrgowda

n their constant quest to dominate every facet of your life, Microsoft has decided to strike up a partnership with the second largest hamburger chain in the world and deliver something that we haven’t seen for quite some time: French fries and video games. That’s right folks, for the low-low price of $3.99 – supposing that you’re purchasing a value meal, of course – you can be the proud owner of what will assuredly be a collector’s item in due time. There are three games in all, each with its own gameplay and mini games to toy around with. Rest assured, these games won’t unseat Gears as this holiday’s most saught after Xbox game, but if you’re looking for a few hours of cheap fun, then look no further than the Burger King collection.


Gameplay

Up first on the chopping block is Sneak King, easily the most simplistic of the three titles, which sadly also means that it’s got the least amount of depth. The point of the game is lurking around different populated environments – as the Burger King himself – and delivering Burger King food products to hungry people before they pass out from starvation. The environments all have specific hiding places that The King can crawl into, only to wait for the unsuspecting hungry avatar to walk on by. Pop out, tap the ‘A’ button once to bring up a building meter, then tap ‘A’ again to stop it when it fills. All of this in an effort to beat assorted challenges and earn the all-important points that drive Sneak King. Delivers can be chained together for heightened point values, and multipliers like hunger and “flourish” (there are three attainable flourish levels on the filling meter that we mentioned earlier) levels increase your total score.

In case you haven’t guessed by the name, there is an element of stealth required in Sneak King. Each of the wandering characters you see has a blue vision cone that must be avoided. Fall into their gaze and whatever challenge you’re attempting will end.

The cool thing about Sneak King, and all of the Burger King games for that matter, is that they aren’t blatant advertisements for BK products. Sure, there are Meat-Normous sandwiches and Croissan’Wiches throughout, but they’re not thrown at you with barren disregard. It’s clear that Blitz Games (the developer of all of the games) took these titles as seriously as possible, considering the main character is a life-sized Burger King mascot. We’re not saying that Sneak King is necessarily a good game, but at least it takes itself seriously.

Unlike the other games, Sneak King has no Xbox Live functionality, nor are there any other game modes available. The change in scenery is about all the variation you’ll get, which significantly hurts the depth of the game. As it is Sneak King is hilarious and fun, but only for a very short while. Once you get a little further into the game the monotony really starts to shine through.


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Overall Gameplay Impressions

Let’s face it, for $3.99 you really can’t expect much more than what Sneak King delivers. That is, until you play the two other BK games. With only one mode of play, and a complete lack of any type of multiplayer, Sneak King is hurting for some more depth. It might have helped if the single activity was a blast to play, but that’s not the case. The best part of the game is the novelty of lurking around as The King, but that wears thin very quickly.

Graphics and Audio

As visually unimpressive as you’d expect a sub-four-dollar game to be, we’ve actually seen much worse than Sneak King. The King character model is nicely detailed, though the rest of characters in the world don’t stay the course, nor do the environments. Granted, the game is compatible with both the Xbox and Xbox 360, so it’s understandable that this isn’t a visual powerhouse. What isn’t understandable is the myriad of crash bugs that the game contains. The King gets stuck in environmental pieces, and occasionally the game just outright crashes.

Aurally the game is disappointing. There isn’t much to listen to, but what does come out the speakers won’t tickle anyone’s fancy. The NPCs speak in a Sim-like manner, and the sound effects feel like they’ve been pulled from other generic titles.

The Bottom Line

Sneak King is easily the worst of the trio of games, and functions best as a marketing tool, despite the fact that it tries hard to be taken seriously. Gamers probably will be done with the title before they discover any of the bugs that pop up. Maybe it’s best to think of the monotony as a blessing in disguise.






Sneak King gets stale ridiculously fast. At least the achievements are easy.






Not necessarily ugly, but not a looker on either system.






Muddled effects and other generic sounds populate this one.






You’ll be done with this one in a hurry.






Have we ever seen a game like this before? Nope.






Overall Score NOT an averag