Based on gaming database Mobygames, officially licensed versions of Tetris have appeared on roughly 60 totally different gaming platforms, from the Oculus Quest to the Data Zapper M7000. Now, because of a brand new McDonald’s China promotion, you’ll be able to add “large plastic hen nugget with an LCD display” to that record of official Tetris ports (to say nothing of the unofficial ones).
RetroDodo has the story of this unusual promotion, which is centered across the fortieth anniversary of the Rooster McNugget’s premiere in 1983. That makes the protein-filled deal with only a yr older than Tetris itself, which was created on a Russian government mainframe computer by Alexei Pajitnov in 1984. And that, apparently, is shut sufficient to make the sport a part of an Worldwide Youngsters’s Day promotion that can “take you on the time machine resulting in childhood,” in accordance with a machine translation of the official McDonald’s China webpage asserting the machine.
A video unboxing and demonstration posted by one Chinese language McDonald’s fan reveals crisp pictures of nugget-Tetris and its unlit LCD display, in addition to the included customization stickers and carrying case. Another unboxing video features a higher look in the back of the machine, together with a detachable battery pack, speaker grate, and energy change.
Nugget-Tetris in motion!
That second video additionally consists of a welcome size-comparison shot with a real Chicken McNugget, displaying the unit is roughly 4 occasions as giant as the boot-shaped nugget on which it is based mostly. “It is a fairly sizable nug” because the video reviewer places it (although it is obtained nothing on the world’s largest Tetris, in fact).
Nugget-Tetris‘ low cost LCD display and sound would possibly call to mind the sort of cheap, unauthorized Tetris knockoffs you would possibly discover on the greenback retailer or flea market. However Retro Dodo’s sources shared a picture of the again of the unit, which incorporates full copyright, trademark, and licensing info for “Tetris logos, theme and, and Tetriminos,” in addition to the sport’s “commerce costume.” Good to know that the McDonald’s brand within the nook of the display speaks to the “official” high quality on show right here.
Get your personal nugget-Tetris, Hamburglar!
From a gaming perspective, the machine beneficial properties authenticity factors by enjoying a tinny model of Korobeiniki (aka, “The Tetris music”) at launch and by together with a “hard-drop” button that may ship a tetromino instantly to the ground. However we positively need to quibble with the machine’s cramped, 13×9 sq. playfield (far more compressed than the copyrighted 20×10 standard set by The Tetris Company) and the truth that there’s solely a single giant rotation button (clockwise). Nonetheless, so far as McDonald’s online game promotions are involved, we would positively take this nugget-Tetris over the extremely cheap Sega-themed LCD games that have been featured in American Glad Meals in the course of the ’00s.
The fantastic print on the McDonald’s web site says there’ll solely be 400,000 Nugget-Tetris machines out there at mainland China places by way of June 27, with an extra 100,000 out there to customers of the Ele.me food delivery app. Which means the unit—which is obtainable with meals buy for 30 yuan (about $4.24)—might change into one of many rarest formally licensed Tetris video games on the market, particularly within the West. Simply wait a decade or so and we’ll wager collectors will likely be sending unopened “nuggets” off to be graded by Wata Games or another authentication service.
