McDonaldland (MC Kids)

NES Game Reviews # 42 – McDonaldland (MC Kids)

In the 80s it seemed McDonalds couldn’t do any wrong. There was no Super Size Me, no social media and only a handful of hippies flying the flag for vegetarianism. Kids loved McDonalds, I loved McDonalds, it was just the norm!
Also the norm was McDonalds being everywhere.

Ronald-the scary ass clown-McDonald and his bumbling sidekicks were common place in advertising, packaging and toys. Sometimes you’d even find them in McDonald’s joints, crashing kids birthday parties and generally scaring the living shit out of the kids (well Ronald anyway). It isnt a surprise they ventured into gaming, what is surprise, is that it isn’t a bad game!

If you take Super Mario Bros, add a bit of Super Mario Bros 2 then mangle the controls a bit your pretty close to McDonaldland. There’s some pretty wild mechanics going on throughout the levels that make for a very original, fun and sometimes frustrating platformer.
There’s switches that flip you upside down making the sky a bottomless pit, arrows that will send you hurtling back in the opposite direction till you hit a wall and even Ronald’s magic zipper to climb inside! If Mario is a jolly romp round the Mushroom Kingdom, this is definitely a heavy trip into Acid land!

After learning Ronald has lost his bag of black magic, you and some other kid are tasked with scouring McDonaldland in search of hidden cards. Completing levels is rarely greeted with much cheer if you failed to find a card! Cards are hidden well. Future worlds cards are sometimes hidden in previous worlds meaning backtracking is necessary. The depth is a good thing though it can be annoying to potentially have to search every level for a single missing card!

When you make it to the Moon things really get crazy. Moon gravity means jumps launch you into the stratosphere making precision difficult. It gets old quick!

Eventually I face up with the Hamburgler, who cowers at the Satanic evil leaking from Ronalds Bag. I have to defeat Ronalds Possessed items before I can return the bag. He offers me some secret levels, but as I’m sure he just wants to offer me to some Hell Demon, I’ll pass.

Very fun game if a little rough in places!