McDonald’s releases video game for 25-year-old console

The Game Boy Color was released in 1998 and today marks the 52nd birthday of McDonald’s purple furry mascot Grimace. So what has McDonald’s decided to do with this information? Make some purple pancakes in her honor? No, the fast food chain has done better than that by releasing a video game about doll birthday shenanigans for the Game Boy Color.

Honestly, a much cooler move from McDonald’s than the competition to win one of its McCrispy Gaming Chairs late last year, and almost as cool as the chicken nugget-shaped Tetris handheld McDonald’s launched in China last month. .

The Grimace game, titled Grimace’s Birthday, has been developed by Krool Toys using GB Studio (via RetroDodo). If you’re hoping to try it out but don’t have a Game Boy Color handy, you can try the game out at Krool Toys website or through mobile. Although McDonalds does not advertise it as one of the ways to play, those with a physical Game Boy Color can nonetheless download the game as a ROM file. via the Internet Archive and play it on the fly.

Grimace’s Birthday is a side-scrolling platformer that takes place on, you guessed it, Grimace’s Birthday. During the game, he will gather all of his friends (and lots of milkshakes) just in time to blow out the candles on his birthday cake. You’ll also be spinning around on Grimace’s green skateboard, and you can play around with it as you please in Freeskate mode.

One look back at Grimace’s Birthday and it’s clear that some real passion and effort has gone into developing this, and overall it’s nice to see an entirely new Game Boy Color game launching in the year 2023. Someone at McDonald’s clearly has a keen eye for retro gaming media, and I hope collaborations like this keep coming.

Those who are super fans of Grimace, or who only care about McDonald’s burgers and fries, will be delighted to know that Grimace’s birthday is accompanied by a Grimace birthday meal at select McDonalds stores. This meal comes with a signature purple ‘Grimace Shake’ and your choice of a Big Mac or 10 chicken nuggets. Perfect to accompany your time playing Grimace’s Birthday!