Some curiosities: This game has a beta version where burgers is health instead jewels and have more McDonalds restaurants references than final version. This version doesn’t have the final stage. European version is lot harder than US and JP version. Worth a try.
I ended up owning the Japanese version of this when I bought a huge lot of Mega Drive stuff about 15 years ago at an absurdly good price, and ignored it, just as I had the US release for decades. Last year, on a whim I sat down and beat it one afternoon while playing games with my oldest son, and it was pretty great fun! Way better than a McDonald's game has any right to be, and definitely has that Treasure flavor to it. Good stuff!
I am always on the lookout for odd games. Bought this game thinking at the very least that it would give my son and I a few chuckles. I was pleasantly surprised at how fun this game is.
mickey d's offered Sega a ton of money and then they offered Treasure a chance to make Gunstar Heroes if they did the mcd's game so Treasure was like ok fine we'll do it but we're gonna make Ronald jump really funny because it amuses us.
You're right: it's an extremely rare thing to have a game that's so likeable on every level, except for the main character. The backgrounds are amazing, and the music is very Sonic 3. And then Swan Lake for the bunny ballerinas!!!! Hahaha!
I almost consider this game to be a precursor to Dynamite Headdy, it's soundtrack and gameplay is remarkably close to it. The scarf mechanic is almost 1 to 1 with Headdy's head grab.
This is actually a great game, I played it back then as a rental and really enjoyed it. Bought it earlier this year so I finally have it on my collection.
I remember getting this one Christmas and being like Mom wtf? lol I didn't even play it until months later one night when I couldn't sleep... I ended up playing it all night long into the morning, so surprised it was so much fun! A surprisingly satisfying game and realizing it was from the same people that made Gunstar Heroes made it that much more fun.
I played through this game about a week ago. It has everything going for it in every department but like you said it’s very easy and I finished it in one sitting. Definitely worth a play through though. I decided to let my CIB copy go and traded it towards a Virtual Boy yesterday.
I remember hearing good things about it on EGM back in the day but seeing it in action is way better than reading about it. It looks great and seems to play well too. I just feel icky playing Ronald McDon'tTouchMe.
You're the reason I went on a hunt for the game at a decent price and that day finally game just before Christmas. It's not the prettiest copy, but the price was right and the case I thought was trash turned out to be a complete cover. This game is really a diamond in the rough. I popped the game in just to give it a shot and I couldn't stop playing.
"One of Treasure's oddest games." That's quite a claim. You are right about the characters. Fine for little kids but so unappealing for slightly older children and older. You can see why they have more or less retired the characters nowadays.
I honestly never played this game despite me owning the genesis and a bunch of games for it since 1993. I definitely have to check it now after this review. Thanks man!
I thought I recognised the music at 8:15 for 3 notes... until I realised, it sounds VERY much like the "Cave" music on Sega Master System (FM version I think).
The one off or single game reviews are the best. I've been watching you so long now, I was afraid Sega Lord was gonna run out of content, you where spitting out quick reviews for like 20 games per video! Glad you slowed it down. 1 Video - 1 Game is perfect. Should keep you busy now for years!
I like how Treasure worked their name into the title. I don't remember this one but I do remember another McDonald's game being advertised in magazines. Looking online now I think it was the Global Gladiators one.
Being a huge Dynamite Headdy fan since I was a child, it was a pleasant surprise discovering this game later in my life. It feels like a proof of concept for Dynamite. The scarf move is the same that Headdy does with Hangman, and you can see some reused assets here like vertical rolling platforms. It wasn't as great as Headdy, but it's definitely a must-play if you like Treasure stuff.
I had this game as a young kid (33 now) and man what a gem it was! All around solid port. My main issue? It was a bit too easy. Cranking up the difficulty a little took care of that. Really nice, well polished title that showed off what the genesis could do! I still wish I had my childhood copy!
I actually owned this game growing up and I loved the hell out of it. I do remember having a really hard time figuring out that whole thing with letting the boss purposely take some of your life before you could hit them. Not that intuitive.
SLX had a frightening encounter with a Ronald McDonald once as a child. Why do you think he released this vid in Oct ? Cause Ronald McDonald is freakin' frightening.
Are you from outside the US? In the US culture, clowns somehow became "creepy" by the 90s, probably in big part thanks to John Wayne Gacy and movies like It. In general, in American pop culture, it's extremely popular to make fun of clowns, implying that they are all some kind of freaks.
Despite the license, this game is fantastic. Wish I had gotten a copy I saw in the wild years ago for under 10 bucks, but I kick myself often for not striking while this version was cheap.
Dude you killed me on this one hahahaha!! Come on, man, it's Ronald! He's our buddy!! The magic of going to McDonald's as a kid in the early 80s, his happy face during the commercial breaks on Saturday morning cartoons? I know you love him!! Haha
I was always curious about this game. I remember learning that this was a Treasure game about 20 years ago, but the license left me uninterested. I'll have to give this a try some day. Great video!
I think this game is proof that it doesn't matter what the liscence is, as long as it's good. It could star any old mascot. Imagine if Bubsy was more like this?
Weird but really better than most licensed games for kids, a level below Disney classics like Alladin but is a decent game, really hard to find this cartige in Brazil at 90s.
My subscriptions feed is depressingly filled with news about politics, I love when I see your content pop up man. It’s like a breath of fresh air. Thanks.
this game is so friken fun, and the graphics and music are great. It has no right being as good as it is. The ending is weird though, like if the translation was messed up.
Interestingly enough, Ronald is known as "Donald McDonald" in Japan due to the "L" "R" thing with their language. Far more fascinating than the man's actual design.
its all about mc kids on nes. lol. i couldnt imagine if they tried to do something like that today, a mcdonalds game. it would probably end up being a shooter, run around spraying people with ketchup and throwing mcflurry grenades.
Back in the day, as I'm sure it was for you, renting games was common place, especially when your a kid /teenager. Now my folks were hard up due to the mines closing in and everyone being out of work, so I had a very small number of games, but I was given money to rent. A store has only so many games. You learn to cast prejudice aside and rent anything. Plus me personally I enjoyed the MC kids game on the Amiga and Global gladiators. Neither of those games set the world on fire, but they were fun and if you were into games you started to take note of developers that made games you liked. Of course with no Internet, magazines etc the box itself told you who made it. And having played Gunstar heroes... Nuff said.
Goes to show the studio behind a game does speak volumes. Even something as mind numbingly boring as the notion of Mc Donald's game got the Midas touch here because Treasure was behind it.
The only good thing that ever came from Ronald is the story where one day he got on a plane dressed up in the costume and make up and everything. There was only one seat left on the plane and it was seated right next to Stephen King. King says Ronald ordered a Scotch and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and smoked one with his drink. You know everyone else on the plane that day was like "I ain't seeing this, man! What did they put in our food?!"
@@nettack Or anywhere for that matter. I miss the days of going into a bar with a fresh pack of cigarettes (though admittedly I don't smoke anymore but still), ordering a pitcher of beer, getting a seat and not moving from said seat until the bar closed. Simpler times.
Quietly, Sega McDonald games in general are under rated. I played a ton of Mick and Mack Global gladiators on my fame gear and the Mega drive version looks mad plays great too. And of course this.
I see that Grimace is on the cover but is he actually in the game? It was probably a missed opportunity to have included four-armed Grimace (as seen in the early 1970s McDonald's commercials that also starred Jodie Foster) as a villain.
I have to agree with Mike from Cinemassacre in that it's a good game, but it didn't go far enough in the McDonalds theming. Where's Captain Crook? Where's Mayor McCheese or Officer Big Mac? Why don't any of the trees have burgers growing from them?
It seems Ronald himself is the only element linking the game to McDonalds. Nearly as if the game started as something else. I don’t see any Big Macs or fries so they could just as well swap him out for a different lead character... who also doesn’t jump like that.
My head was buried in my phone while this video was playing and I heard the Dancing Bunny Girls music and thought it was Castlevania SOTN for a hot second until I looked up. Similar music or more borrowed? Not sure
I'm not really the biggest fan of McDonald's all cholesterol related jokes aside, and yet they made a game based off a fast food chain and is actually good. Same with the Mic and Mac Global Gladiators game also on Genesis. And I will admit that I literally tried out the Travis Scott Meal just for the Lolz even though this is coming from someone who mostly listens to old school rap (Beastie Boys, Coolio, Nas, Ice Cube, Will Smith, Salt-n-pepe, Parappa, etc.)
