This is both hilarious and wholesome. I genuinely felt warm and fuzzy towards the end when I saw how much joy and oddly positive experiences one of the arguably silliest games in history has brought to people. It's things like this that make life collectively worth all the hassle; shared experiences, funny coincidences and laughter. It's absurd and great. Love it! Unironically one of the greatest Noclip documentaries haha 😅
Could you guys at NoClip do a documentary on one of the most underrated games, Freedom Force, by Irrational Games. Programmed in python and which, if you hacked the scripting, could go coco bonanza bugfuck nuts..
This quote from Leroy at the end really got me. "That's what life is about. It's not about becoming super successful or famous. It's about finding things that make you laugh and rushing towards them and holding onto them dearly, because we have so little time on this world and if you're not doing stuff that produces laughter for yourself and others, what are you doing?"
Yes, that quote also touched me quite a bit and I think it was the perfect conclusion to that wonderful documentary. I began watching with low expectations due to the strange topic, but this video is one of my RUclips highlights now.
I clearly remember my mother taking my younger brother and me to get these. It was such an unusual concept. I discovered that some bikes in _Pocketbike Racer_ have enough acceleration to let you jump a railing by going up a steep ramp on the parking lot map, and there's a fairly large area to explore out of bounds. I'd fill lobbies of people to show them how, and then we'd ride around outside the map, ramming our bikes into each other while talking and laughing.
I worked on these, this is a great Doc, Chris Swan is the very definition of the grown-up in the room, God bless him. I remember how hard it was to figure out and communicate the mechanics of Sneak King, like MGS but different, also happy memories of researching fairground airbrush art , that was one hell of a rabbit hole! The carmagedddon guys were a riot and grat fun to work with, boy could they drink!
I still cannot believe a bunch of grown men in a meeting room had to discuss "Burger King mascot stealth game where you surprise people with burgers" and then a team of developers had to make that game a reality in 10 months. True legends.
@@rudeboyspodcast You wouldn't believe the stuff that gets discussed in advertising meetings. I once sat in a 2 hour meeting where one of the employees couldn't understand the concept of Uber. He was a millionaire and kept asking "But... why are these people driving the cars?!"
@@BeakFoundry I worked on an Animal Planet game years ago , our team was proud of it and I think we did a pretty good job with what we were given, it was a collectible card game with some adventure , trivia, and small racing segments. A few months after Animal Planet was shipped we did an art test with EA and were bidding to work on a Need For Speed Mobile game in the future which we did well in but because of legal arguments the deal fell apart. ... Our owner ( Also a Millionaire) thought this was his big payday and because Animal Planet had Racing and Need for Speed was a racing game her thought that racing games would be our brand ( though he knew nothing of videogames or game creation). Before the deal fell apart he provided the most terrible quote I've heard in my game dev career in one of his project hype meetings for us where he loudly proclaimed that " We're going to be the Gran Turismo of Animal Racing ! " . I never use this word but it's the only one I think fits.... our team was Gobsmacked .....what the hell does it mean to be the Gran Turismo of Animal Racing games? Are you interested in customizing your 2020 Antelope or upgrading your 2015 Elephant , how about a 2022 Ostrich? It didn't even mae sense as a fun stupid game idea. Having money in no way implies having understanding of the things that could or do make you money is what I learned during that time.
Yeah except I managed sneak king, Chris mainly worked on Big Bumping and Pocket Bike Racer, with input to Sneak King for sure. Could have at least mentioned me, oh well that’s life I guess. And the reason we ended up with dodgems for big bumpin was because we were running out of concept art ideas for the ball, so we did ONE image of a bumper car. And one of the people who reviewed and had to sign off the concept art LOVED it and demanded we go with bumper cars. I could tell you some stories of that motion capture session too, the things that mo cap actor had to do without being able to see very well…..sheesh.
I also worked on one of these games - Big Bumpin'. I thought I'd hate it - being very anti-advertising in general. But I am so proud of what we came up with. Of the three games I'd suggest BB is the most fun. To add to the info - I recall that the reason it features bumper cars is because one of the producers loved bumper cars, and was adamant that one game should feature them. We were told he would have driven one to work if he could. We thought it was a stupid idea, and tried our best to get it changed, but that never happened. So bumper cars it was, and so we just made the best game we could with that limitation. Sneak King took all the glory obviously, but BB was actually much more fun to play I think. Also, what does not come across in the documentary is how little faith many of the people working on the things - myself included - had in the whole idea early on - and Sneak King especially. It was such a stupid idea. We were so wrong. (That's cool. Being wrong is good if you learn from it.) The good thing is game developers are generally really dedicated, so faith is not required - you just give it your best every time. Edit: Thank you for the video. It's lovely for folk like me to see stuff we worked so hard on discussed many years later.
I agree. My friends and I still get together and play Big Bumpin’ once a year or so. It was the best looking and had the best feel to it, genuinely fun. Sneak King was just a perfect storm of insanity, the dark concept of stalking people, but not for sex or violence, but to surprise people with fast food lol… utter brilliance. It’s the kind of thing that RUclipsrs would do for a viral video, so ahead of it’s time.
Your right about the bumper cars Mark, Bryn did A load of concept art for balls as we were just going rebrand sumo from FF. he was running out of ideas so did one of a bumper car. As soon as the producer saw it he was YES bumper cars. He even said “I’ve always wanted to drive a bumper car down the street” 😂
Thanks for carrying the banner of absurdity. I love how dumb the whole thing is. We _decide_ what has value, and fundamentally, _everything_ is equally absurd.
@@johnjarvis8480 That's incredible. With how many mascot costumes are dreadfully hot, I am surprised that this one had a cooling system at all. Though I guess it makes sense since it's huge and can easily fit one. Was it hard to wear due to the weight? Or was it well supported?
I can only imagine a darker timeline where one of them broke that head somehow and Sneak King never came out nor the other 2 games. Whole deal gone. The way they describe the agency person's reaction, that head cost more than the budget for the games. 😅
this is like the best fever dream i've ever had. unironically, this is one of my favorite docs y'all have ever done- it was so much fun all the way through. also leroy patterson is a gem and had me belly laughing every time a stack of games collapsed onto him.
@@LeroyPatterson Phew! That was a close one! Thank god you didn’t happen to have several metric tonnes of ET cartridges up on that shelf there Leroy, just narrowly avoided the great video game collapse of 2023 being a sequel to the curse of 1983! 😂 (Hopefully I haven’t spoken too soon and jinxed it, if any future archaeologists circa 2063 are dusting off this comment trying to research why the hell they just dug up 4,000 copies of Sneak King in a landfill: don’t @ me, it wasn’t my fault).
Simon & Schuster's short-lived interactive division published Darkened Skyes and I had to demo it at E3 even though I didn't work on it (I worked on a different game they were publishing which is also a good story). The S&S booth wasn't even in the convention hall, it was outside under some stairs. Something was wrong with the build and the game would lock up the Gamecube hardware. If you've never heard that happen before, it sounds like somebody opened one of those doors that says, "DO NOT OPEN - ALARM WILL SOUND".
The fact that you took a simple thing such as the Burger King games and gave them the same love and respect to their creation as any other AAA game is why I love this channel.
The collector talking about making people laugh at the end was sort of heart wrenching (in a good way). Reminded me of the Flight Sim doc when Danny talks about the place everyone flies to when the restrictions come off.
I totally agree, so often serious collecting can come across as hoarding. But his comments are genuinely funny and enlightening. I really hope some day someone sneaks up to him, does a dance and presents him a copy of Sneak King.
@@someoneelse1534 Cuz it is hoarding. Its a form of materialism. An obsession of objects because they hold sentimental and nostalgic value. All so you can get your kicks every time you stare at your objects and get a boner when someone walks into your room and sees all your obsessions. Video games are meant to be enjoyed. I prefer to play my games, and show the devs a little respect. Instead of putting cardboard and plastics on a shelf and watching it accumulate layers of dust.
This was a great documentary. Enjoyed getting insight into the behind the scenes of these advergames. Would love a full doc on the Oliver Twins and their company. Really enjoyed their presence in the doc.
I wasn't familiar with them prior to this, but after seeing that so many of their games were ones I enjoyed growing up, I'd love to see a documentary focused on them!
Blitz Games also developed Taz Wanted, one of my favorite childhood games. It had an awesome cel-shading, super stylized look, and it currently has a small speedrun community
Danny, you and the team continue to out do yourselves with the best content in documentaries. It is so important to have these oddities documented and it's always done with respect and care here. Thanks!
What a great retrospective. Thanks for making it. For 2 or 3 years after Sneak King was released, I made a point of popping it regularly into my XBox 360 simply so it kept appearing in my gamertag in the list of last played games, forcing anyone seeing it to scratch their head and wonder why I was still playing it.
i worked at gamestop for YEARS and would see these games all the time and i can confirm that there were some certain people who would get really stoked when they would find copies of it. that's not to say they would buy it, but you'd overhear some great conversations of people who would retell their experience with it, and often their surprise of it actually being great. i had a stoner coworker who would borrow Sneak King every few months (along with Naughty Bear!) and just get bonged and have a blast with it for an evening.
I know this will get buried and never seen and that is ok. I need to leave my memories here like this a vigil and place of remembrance. A few years after these games came out I was in high school. One day between classes my friend asked if I wanted to skip school to go to his house and play big bumpin. I had no idea what that was but skipping school to play games seemed fun. We left, played, and had a blast. For some reason this became somewhat of a ritual for us. We would skip school almost weekly to go to his house, play big bumpin and just goof off. We all got our own copies and would play it online too. And we played all of them, but for whatever reason big bumpin is what stuck with us. Just earlier this year we got together at my house and I bought a used 360 and bought big bumpin online so we could paly it again. Some of my fondest memories of high school were those days though and I'll cherish them forever. So kudos to the dev team and thank you for making this little documentary on it so I could relive some of the moments and learn some stuff about it as well. Big Bumpin' for life!
I absolutely loved this one. This niche topic happens to be very close to me, as I've made a handful of web-based advergames for clients like Škoda or Kaufland and making them is actually my current job. We always put so much effort into them, even though they're always made in less than a month and they're usually not super innovative gameplay-wise. Making a game that satisfies the client, reaches the most people and, ideally, doesn't turn into a huge mess in the process, is actually quite a challenge and I'm very glad that Noclip covered this industry as well!
And I thought Gerstmann’s collection of copies of Sneak King was excessive… granted, I think his was an unwilling collection of people just mailing it to him to get rid of the damned things, or it just became funny to see how many he could stack into his desk, but holy hell. 4,000 copies of Sneak King is about 3,998 more than you need. That promotional DVD is a neat piece of niche history though.
These weren'tt the only dual format discs made. We also did several DVDs with games on them ( Godzilla for instance ), as well as OXM discs for the first year or so, those contained dual format collections of demos. There was even a number of kiosk discs that contained demos and DVD videos, one that had Trump and his apprentice show.
I don't think I've said "What!?" out loud watching any other Noclip video as many times as I did with this one. Fantastic work, you guys! Hearing you all talk about this in the podcast for ages made me insanely curious to see what the end result would be. You did not disappoint!
I just got a copy of Adventures of Dizzy because I used to have it as a kid, and I also own all the Burger King games. Never would have realized they were made by the same people if it wasn't for seeing this.
One of the reasons I love this channel and its work. Something I had passing knowledge of, getting more information on backstory, appreciating the hard work of creators doing what they love.
This was great! I actually went out and purchased all 3 of these from Burger King when they came out. I was in high school with an Xbox 360 and somehow, maybe it was from going to Burger King one day or maybe it was in Official Xbox Magazine that I was subscribed to, but I learned of the games. They said they would be around for a limited time and I said "this is absurd... I love it. They're only $5 each, I gotta get them." I went to a local Burger King and asked if they had it and they said "yea" and I asked if it worked on the Xbox 360 and they went "I don't know". They game me my food and I got either Pocket Bike or Bumpin. I thought there was a mistake because there was only 1 disk... but it worked in the 360 so I was content. I had a couple friends who thought it was funny and thought they'd get it too, and asked if there was a 360 version. I told them 1 disk worked in both "or so they say" but it worked in my 360. Some time later, I went to a different Burger King and asked and specifically asked if they had the games I didn't have, and I now owned both Pocket Bike and Bumpin. But Sneak King was near impossible to find... word had gotten around that these games were trash... so people wanted it as a gag gift. But word also got around that Sneak King was actually not half bad... a one off thing, but still funny. Then the bad news: the game was leaving stores... it was no more. A week or 2 later, I was on a class trip to watch a movie at an IMAX... this was before IMAX Digital (the fake IMAX) so if you wanted to see IMAX, you had to go to an IMAX-specific theater. The nearest one was in a mall. We watched the movie and then headed out... the mall was closing, the shops were shut, the teacher was pestering us to hurry up so we would make the bus. We walked past the food court and I saw a Burger King... I went "hey, I'll be right back" and ran off, asked them if they still had the games (they did) and if they had Sneak King. They did. I don't know if I order a full meal like it was originally sold, or if they just sold the game. But I got it... and I had to explain the whole thing to people on the way back for while I held up the class to get it. Needless to say, it was comically absurd and was the best of the 3. I actually got a few hours in it before I went "that's enough". Fast forward... the Xbox One came out, and with it, backwards compatibility. I simply went through the games I had and, when I got to the Burger King games, I laughed at the thought of playing it in 4K. But alas, it was not (and still is not) available. Having watched this now, I wonder if the fact it was a dual mode disk is why it isn't supported... imagine buying an Xbox Series X now in 2024 and there being a piece of code, somewhere, that would say "I need to load this disk... WAIT, this is a Burger King game... I need to read it differently..." It's not a thing that's gonna happen. But it at least makes me go "I could see that as the reason".
It's most likely that the BK licence expired, and is too difficult to renegotiate. I have the Tetris Worlds and Star Wars: The Clone Wars dual pack, which is on a single disc, and the Xbox One correctly identifies and downloads Clone Wars for backwards compatibility. (Tetris Worlds is ignored, as it's not on back compat.) The way back compat works, it only needs to identify the disc, so actually reading its contents is a non-issue.
Finally, a documentary about a game series I care about. Thank you for doing the REAL work, that the LAMEstream media is too AFRAID to cover! Bravo Noclip! I tip my hat to you.
It feels like the surprise and irony of having the "violent" Carmageddon team do stealth development on Pocket Bike Racers was worked into the story before realizing Blitz was concurrently working on the absolutely brutal Reservoir Dogs game.
I almost got up from bed and went to burger king to get some junk food after the beginning of the video... Don't do that be strong you all, RESIST THE ADVERTISING !!!
Burger king takes forever even if you're the only one ordering and even then the food is underdone and feels like its been sitting there on the counter but they do give the fattest drinks
I can’t believe an advertising game had such an interesting development and a unexpected heartwarming legacy. This has been my favorite doc since Black and White.
I had Reservoir Dogs on PS2. I hope I still have it somewhere. It was beautiful, if you're a fan of the movie. A woefully underrated classic of that generation, along with Scarface for PS2/XBox. If you want a movie tie-in game that was crafted by people who were passionate about the movies, stories carefully written as background (or with Scarface a sequel to the movie where the movie ends differently and Tony starts over from nothing, all over again; it's glorious) these are it! It's a tragedy that Reservoir Dogs didn't get much more popularity than it got. I mean, you play through the escapes of each character, even Mr. Blue who you hardly see in the movie but in the game he plays a much more important role. You have to escape the police, which involves grabbing hostages when they have you cornered -- and indeed, that's what you do! You grab hostages!
Why the hell did a documentary about a burger king game start off goofy as hell and then hit me so hard in the feels. The talk about legacy was a gut punch. Holy shit, Leoroy is the coolest dude. I wish everyone was like this guy :)
I can’t tell you how delighted I am by the gentleman who is collecting every copy of Sneak King, and if I had any I would definitely help him in his quest.
That guy at the end was really something special. I’m amazed this was prompted by a tie in game, and now have more respect and admiration for it than I ever thought possible. I’m not sure if it’s a masterpiece but it’s definitely worthy of all its accolades. This game’s going to gamer heaven.
This is legitimately up there with the Half-Life and Doom docus you guys have done It was surprising just how much of a warm fuzzy feeling a video about the Burger King video games gave me, its awesome to see the twins still getting a kick out of these games they got to be apart of, and Leroy Patterson, who just really wants to show you his favorite copy- *at least a hundred games fall*
Still to this day when I hear the word “flourish” I think of sneak king. Probably played it less than 8 hours in my life but it’s super memorable. Now I’m hungry for bk
Does anyone else remember that Captain Crunch PC game with the little furry animals you trained? There was like 4 skills you trained them in by playing the minigames for each skill and that shit was sick as a kid.
I love the Reservoir Dogs game. That and Scarface came out of nowhere because i no longer bought video game magazines and wasn’t yet big into the whole scanning the internet for future releases yet. I still play both regularly today and i might have to play both later today thanks to this
What a weird and excellent documentary - I thought this was gonna be like a 10 minute little joke bit but there’s actually such fascinating history. Bravo guys!
It was so weird as a kid living in the UK when I found out there was a literal "Burger KING" in the USA who I'd never ever heard of. I thought at first maybe it was an older marketing thing that just wasn't around anymore, but this weird plastic faced monarch was still "the brand" in the US.
He is fairly new, not really a huge part of the brand but shows up here and there. I had no idea he existed in 2006, I would’ve guessed around 2014 if you asked me. Guess I could say the inverse, that I had no idea he didn’t exist in all the countries BK operates
I was in high school when these came out, probably exactly their target audience. My friends and I thought they were hilarious, and it definitely put Burger King on our radar. Sneak King, of course, is the one that got the most attention. Most of us had the Original Xbox, but the 360 was just starting to appear in our entertainment centers. We did notice the fact that it ran on both consoles, and wondered why more games didn’t do that. I do remember thinking that it must have been a unique partnership between Burger King and Microsoft, and that it must have been a significant technical challenge considering that they were two different architectures (even as a teen, I liked the technical stuff).
In the early years of the 360, it ruled to be able to get three disc-based games for $4 each. This pre-dated the summer of arcade. These games were ALL better than anything you could get for $5 on XBLA at the time.
There was a short period of time between the launch of the 360 and the end of new development on original Xbox games when the Official Xbox Magazine demo disc in the US would run on both systems. Of course each would only be able to play its own respective demos. I don't know of any full games outside of the King Games that used that tech.
It wasn't mentioned in the video, but I think the reason why these games are so well remembered is that it was something you bought in a Burger King. If these same games were only available in a Best Buy or something I don't think they would be as well remembered.
One thing that wasn't touched on - which to me was the funniest thing of Sneak King - the FMV beginning of Sneak King (I think it was part of the menu). In a darkened yard, the giant headed King creeps around in the dark, peeks in windows, falls into shadows in the yard again all in silence. It's really horror movie-esque and hilariously unsettling. The giant grinning, staring head of a peeping, creeper King is fantastic a quirky BK nod to the edgy style that Burger King once was.
Burger King released a mobile game as well: "BK City" I'm still waiting for the cancelled movie announced in 2006. One pitch was tentatively called "The Burger King" to give the king a real backstory. The other pitch was called "Above the King" where a teenage outcast who lives above a Burger King befriends the king. Trying to appeal to Napoleon Dynamite fans, allegedly.
I applaud the level of brilliance on display with Leroy Patterson wearing a shirt that is referencing the I think You should Leave "egg game" sketch while also paying homage to Dizzy Egg, whose developers made Sneak King!
I played Reservoir Dogs early for market research, and I remember saying when asked for feedback that the game shouldn't exist. It was such a weird proposition.
So many memories are tied to these games for me. Christmas 2006 is when me and my brothers got our Xbox 360 and we each got one of these games and another game. Youngest brother: Pocket Bike Racer and Gears of War, middle brother: Big Bumpin and Dead Rising, and me: Sneak King and Oblivion. The fact that it was 17 years ago now makes me feel so old! 😮💨
The Burger King games are weirdly good. I did a video about them on my channel like a million years ago as well as possibly the first 100% completionist Sneak King vid on RUclips.
Throwing this onto the pile: The little vending machines in Theme Hospital had the KitKat logo on them! And my little eight-year-old mind was blown away by the concept of a machine that dispensed kitkats
This was so much fun! Everyone knocked it out of the park. Keep making weird stuff that shines a light on the most random corners of the gaming landscape. Also I love Leeroy saying "if he ever dies" implying he's gonna last forever. Just like Sneak King.
As someone who developed IP branded games, clients wanting to approve every piece of art but also wanting to take 2-3 weeks to do it is VERY COMMON and VERY STUPID
I remember getting this one time from my grandma for my birthday, we didnt have much money but she still bought us games when she could. Of course, I put off playing it forever thinkin it would be stupid, then one night me and my friend and my brother sat down to play the pocket racers and sneak king. Must say, we formed core memories.
I’m so old I saw Titan A.E. That years Father’s Day in theaters with my pa. He passed last year, miss him a lot. He got me into pc’s and gaming, as did his mom before him, my grandma who passed in 2009.
Absolutely killer noclip doc. There are so many great stories behind games, regardless of what type or scope they are. Really love getting to hear stuff like this that probably otherwise never would have been known.
Absolutely need to make a doc about the finances he mentions here and interview other studios for the financial horrors of Publishers, Self Published and 1st party.
It's so cool to see someone delve into the behind-the-scenes aspects of these games. I'm still reeling from the crazy revelation of there only being one King mask at the time!
This is both hilarious and wholesome. I genuinely felt warm and fuzzy towards the end when I saw how much joy and oddly positive experiences one of the arguably silliest games in history has brought to people. It's things like this that make life collectively worth all the hassle; shared experiences, funny coincidences and laughter. It's absurd and great. Love it!
Unironically one of the greatest Noclip documentaries haha 😅
CoRpOrAtIsM iS AwEsOme....... no.
@@dylanTOP5ALIVEyou must be great around people
Could you guys at NoClip do a documentary on one of the most underrated games, Freedom Force, by Irrational Games. Programmed in python and which, if you hacked the scripting, could go coco bonanza bugfuck nuts..
But you can only get those moments from the context of a rigid structure of despair
This quote from Leroy at the end really got me.
"That's what life is about. It's not about becoming super successful or famous. It's about finding things that make you laugh and rushing towards them and holding onto them dearly, because we have so little time on this world and if you're not doing stuff that produces laughter for yourself and others, what are you doing?"
It's all true!
Yes, that quote also touched me quite a bit and I think it was the perfect conclusion to that wonderful documentary. I began watching with low expectations due to the strange topic, but this video is one of my RUclips highlights now.
@@LeroyPatterson LEGEND
I clearly remember my mother taking my younger brother and me to get these. It was such an unusual concept. I discovered that some bikes in _Pocketbike Racer_ have enough acceleration to let you jump a railing by going up a steep ramp on the parking lot map, and there's a fairly large area to explore out of bounds. I'd fill lobbies of people to show them how, and then we'd ride around outside the map, ramming our bikes into each other while talking and laughing.
I worked on these, this is a great Doc, Chris Swan is the very definition of the grown-up in the room, God bless him. I remember how hard it was to figure out and communicate the mechanics of Sneak King, like MGS but different, also happy memories of researching fairground airbrush art , that was one hell of a rabbit hole! The carmagedddon guys were a riot and grat fun to work with, boy could they drink!
I still cannot believe a bunch of grown men in a meeting room had to discuss "Burger King mascot stealth game where you surprise people with burgers" and then a team of developers had to make that game a reality in 10 months. True legends.
@@rudeboyspodcast You wouldn't believe the stuff that gets discussed in advertising meetings. I once sat in a 2 hour meeting where one of the employees couldn't understand the concept of Uber. He was a millionaire and kept asking "But... why are these people driving the cars?!"
@@BeakFoundry I worked on an Animal Planet game years ago , our team was proud of it and I think we did a pretty good job with what we were given, it was a collectible card game with some adventure , trivia, and small racing segments.
A few months after Animal Planet was shipped we did an art test with EA and were bidding to work on a Need For Speed Mobile game in the future which we did well in but because of legal arguments the deal fell apart. ... Our owner ( Also a Millionaire) thought this was his big payday and because Animal Planet had Racing and Need for Speed was a racing game her thought that racing games would be our brand ( though he knew nothing of videogames or game creation). Before the deal fell apart he provided the most terrible quote I've heard in my game dev career in one of his project hype meetings for us where he loudly proclaimed that " We're going to be the Gran Turismo of Animal Racing ! " .
I never use this word but it's the only one I think fits.... our team was Gobsmacked .....what the hell does it mean to be the Gran Turismo of Animal Racing games? Are you interested in customizing your 2020 Antelope or upgrading your 2015 Elephant , how about a 2022 Ostrich? It didn't even mae sense as a fun stupid game idea.
Having money in no way implies having understanding of the things that could or do make you money is what I learned during that time.
@@BeakFoundryI’m asking myself that question all the time :D no idea why anyone would do that it’s crazy inefficient
Yeah except I managed sneak king, Chris mainly worked on Big Bumping and Pocket Bike Racer, with input to Sneak King for sure. Could have at least mentioned me, oh well that’s life I guess. And the reason we ended up with dodgems for big bumpin was because we were running out of concept art ideas for the ball, so we did ONE image of a bumper car. And one of the people who reviewed and had to sign off the concept art LOVED it and demanded we go with bumper cars. I could tell you some stories of that motion capture session too, the things that mo cap actor had to do without being able to see very well…..sheesh.
I also worked on one of these games - Big Bumpin'. I thought I'd hate it - being very anti-advertising in general. But I am so proud of what we came up with. Of the three games I'd suggest BB is the most fun.
To add to the info - I recall that the reason it features bumper cars is because one of the producers loved bumper cars, and was adamant that one game should feature them. We were told he would have driven one to work if he could. We thought it was a stupid idea, and tried our best to get it changed, but that never happened. So bumper cars it was, and so we just made the best game we could with that limitation. Sneak King took all the glory obviously, but BB was actually much more fun to play I think.
Also, what does not come across in the documentary is how little faith many of the people working on the things - myself included - had in the whole idea early on - and Sneak King especially. It was such a stupid idea. We were so wrong. (That's cool. Being wrong is good if you learn from it.) The good thing is game developers are generally really dedicated, so faith is not required - you just give it your best every time.
Edit: Thank you for the video. It's lovely for folk like me to see stuff we worked so hard on discussed many years later.
I agree. My friends and I still get together and play Big Bumpin’ once a year or so. It was the best looking and had the best feel to it, genuinely fun. Sneak King was just a perfect storm of insanity, the dark concept of stalking people, but not for sex or violence, but to surprise people with fast food lol… utter brilliance. It’s the kind of thing that RUclipsrs would do for a viral video, so ahead of it’s time.
Your right about the bumper cars Mark, Bryn did A load of concept art for balls as we were just going rebrand sumo from FF. he was running out of ideas so did one of a bumper car. As soon as the producer saw it he was YES bumper cars. He even said “I’ve always wanted to drive a bumper car down the street” 😂
I'm still having tower falling nightmares from this shoot. Gotta protect the games!
The legend himself! Love your energy man
Thanks for carrying the banner of absurdity. I love how dumb the whole thing is.
We _decide_ what has value, and fundamentally, _everything_ is equally absurd.
You'll never get your mitts on my copy of Sneak King!
I still have my Sneak King copy... you can't have it, lol.
you legend 🤙
I can't believe that the developers got to act out Sneak King with the real Burger King head while developing it.
How many people do you think have worn “the” Burger King head since it’s origional creation
I'd like to think every dev on the project wore the head at least once.
Not for very long, I have a picture of me wearing the head still though 😂 It had a cpu fan in the top of the head to keep the actor in the suit cool.
@@johnjarvis8480 That's incredible. With how many mascot costumes are dreadfully hot, I am surprised that this one had a cooling system at all. Though I guess it makes sense since it's huge and can easily fit one. Was it hard to wear due to the weight? Or was it well supported?
I can only imagine a darker timeline where one of them broke that head somehow and Sneak King never came out nor the other 2 games. Whole deal gone. The way they describe the agency person's reaction, that head cost more than the budget for the games. 😅
this is like the best fever dream i've ever had. unironically, this is one of my favorite docs y'all have ever done- it was so much fun all the way through. also leroy patterson is a gem and had me belly laughing every time a stack of games collapsed onto him.
I still have nightmares of every collapse!
@@LeroyPatterson Phew! That was a close one! Thank god you didn’t happen to have several metric tonnes of ET cartridges up on that shelf there Leroy, just narrowly avoided the great video game collapse of 2023 being a sequel to the curse of 1983! 😂
(Hopefully I haven’t spoken too soon and jinxed it, if any future archaeologists circa 2063 are dusting off this comment trying to research why the hell they just dug up 4,000 copies of Sneak King in a landfill: don’t @ me, it wasn’t my fault).
@@annix493 weird
@@LeroyPattersonyour ending monologue was wholesome AF dude. Thank you
Lmao. I think we all bought a video game from burger king at least partially for the irony of buying a game from burger king.
Simon & Schuster's short-lived interactive division published Darkened Skyes and I had to demo it at E3 even though I didn't work on it (I worked on a different game they were publishing which is also a good story). The S&S booth wasn't even in the convention hall, it was outside under some stairs. Something was wrong with the build and the game would lock up the Gamecube hardware. If you've never heard that happen before, it sounds like somebody opened one of those doors that says, "DO NOT OPEN - ALARM WILL SOUND".
Was it this sound? ruclips.net/video/miIT-athguI/видео.html
outlaw golf
The fact that you took a simple thing such as the Burger King games and gave them the same love and respect to their creation as any other AAA game is why I love this channel.
I got them when i was in school. Beat them and thought it was fun
The collector talking about making people laugh at the end was sort of heart wrenching (in a good way). Reminded me of the Flight Sim doc when Danny talks about the place everyone flies to when the restrictions come off.
I totally agree, so often serious collecting can come across as hoarding. But his comments are genuinely funny and enlightening.
I really hope some day someone sneaks up to him, does a dance and presents him a copy of Sneak King.
@@someoneelse1534 Cuz it is hoarding. Its a form of materialism. An obsession of objects because they hold sentimental and nostalgic value. All so you can get your kicks every time you stare at your objects and get a boner when someone walks into your room and sees all your obsessions. Video games are meant to be enjoyed. I prefer to play my games, and show the devs a little respect. Instead of putting cardboard and plastics on a shelf and watching it accumulate layers of dust.
@@floatingshoppinglist5193 why are you acting so insecure
@@davebob4973😂 the irony
This was a great documentary. Enjoyed getting insight into the behind the scenes of these advergames. Would love a full doc on the Oliver Twins and their company. Really enjoyed their presence in the doc.
This, they both seem like really interesting people
I wasn't familiar with them prior to this, but after seeing that so many of their games were ones I enjoyed growing up, I'd love to see a documentary focused on them!
Hopefully this retrospective presentation that the Olivers did last year will be of interest ruclips.net/video/FVqfA5cK3z8/видео.html
Blitz Games also developed Taz Wanted, one of my favorite childhood games. It had an awesome cel-shading, super stylized look, and it currently has a small speedrun community
Danny, you and the team continue to out do yourselves with the best content in documentaries. It is so important to have these oddities documented and it's always done with respect and care here. Thanks!
What a great retrospective. Thanks for making it.
For 2 or 3 years after Sneak King was released, I made a point of popping it regularly into my XBox 360 simply so it kept appearing in my gamertag in the list of last played games, forcing anyone seeing it to scratch their head and wonder why I was still playing it.
i worked at gamestop for YEARS and would see these games all the time and i can confirm that there were some certain people who would get really stoked when they would find copies of it. that's not to say they would buy it, but you'd overhear some great conversations of people who would retell their experience with it, and often their surprise of it actually being great. i had a stoner coworker who would borrow Sneak King every few months (along with Naughty Bear!) and just get bonged and have a blast with it for an evening.
I know this will get buried and never seen and that is ok. I need to leave my memories here like this a vigil and place of remembrance. A few years after these games came out I was in high school. One day between classes my friend asked if I wanted to skip school to go to his house and play big bumpin. I had no idea what that was but skipping school to play games seemed fun. We left, played, and had a blast. For some reason this became somewhat of a ritual for us. We would skip school almost weekly to go to his house, play big bumpin and just goof off. We all got our own copies and would play it online too. And we played all of them, but for whatever reason big bumpin is what stuck with us. Just earlier this year we got together at my house and I bought a used 360 and bought big bumpin online so we could paly it again. Some of my fondest memories of high school were those days though and I'll cherish them forever. So kudos to the dev team and thank you for making this little documentary on it so I could relive some of the moments and learn some stuff about it as well. Big Bumpin' for life!
I absolutely loved this one. This niche topic happens to be very close to me, as I've made a handful of web-based advergames for clients like Škoda or Kaufland and making them is actually my current job. We always put so much effort into them, even though they're always made in less than a month and they're usually not super innovative gameplay-wise. Making a game that satisfies the client, reaches the most people and, ideally, doesn't turn into a huge mess in the process, is actually quite a challenge and I'm very glad that Noclip covered this industry as well!
And I thought Gerstmann’s collection of copies of Sneak King was excessive… granted, I think his was an unwilling collection of people just mailing it to him to get rid of the damned things, or it just became funny to see how many he could stack into his desk, but holy hell. 4,000 copies of Sneak King is about 3,998 more than you need. That promotional DVD is a neat piece of niche history though.
These weren'tt the only dual format discs made. We also did several DVDs with games on them ( Godzilla for instance ), as well as OXM discs for the first year or so, those contained dual format collections of demos. There was even a number of kiosk discs that contained demos and DVD videos, one that had Trump and his apprentice show.
This guy mentioning Fusion Frenzy blew me away, one of my absolute favorite Xbox games. Phenomenal documentary I love the details and the history.
I don't think I've said "What!?" out loud watching any other Noclip video as many times as I did with this one.
Fantastic work, you guys! Hearing you all talk about this in the podcast for ages made me insanely curious to see what the end result would be. You did not disappoint!
I just got a copy of Adventures of Dizzy because I used to have it as a kid, and I also own all the Burger King games.
Never would have realized they were made by the same people if it wasn't for seeing this.
One of the reasons I love this channel and its work. Something I had passing knowledge of, getting more information on backstory, appreciating the hard work of creators doing what they love.
As a long time speedrunner of Sneak King, thank you for making this. Sincerely.
We had Orange Box - now we need the King Box.
This was great! I actually went out and purchased all 3 of these from Burger King when they came out. I was in high school with an Xbox 360 and somehow, maybe it was from going to Burger King one day or maybe it was in Official Xbox Magazine that I was subscribed to, but I learned of the games. They said they would be around for a limited time and I said "this is absurd... I love it. They're only $5 each, I gotta get them." I went to a local Burger King and asked if they had it and they said "yea" and I asked if it worked on the Xbox 360 and they went "I don't know". They game me my food and I got either Pocket Bike or Bumpin. I thought there was a mistake because there was only 1 disk... but it worked in the 360 so I was content.
I had a couple friends who thought it was funny and thought they'd get it too, and asked if there was a 360 version. I told them 1 disk worked in both "or so they say" but it worked in my 360. Some time later, I went to a different Burger King and asked and specifically asked if they had the games I didn't have, and I now owned both Pocket Bike and Bumpin. But Sneak King was near impossible to find... word had gotten around that these games were trash... so people wanted it as a gag gift. But word also got around that Sneak King was actually not half bad... a one off thing, but still funny. Then the bad news: the game was leaving stores... it was no more.
A week or 2 later, I was on a class trip to watch a movie at an IMAX... this was before IMAX Digital (the fake IMAX) so if you wanted to see IMAX, you had to go to an IMAX-specific theater. The nearest one was in a mall. We watched the movie and then headed out... the mall was closing, the shops were shut, the teacher was pestering us to hurry up so we would make the bus. We walked past the food court and I saw a Burger King... I went "hey, I'll be right back" and ran off, asked them if they still had the games (they did) and if they had Sneak King. They did. I don't know if I order a full meal like it was originally sold, or if they just sold the game. But I got it... and I had to explain the whole thing to people on the way back for while I held up the class to get it. Needless to say, it was comically absurd and was the best of the 3. I actually got a few hours in it before I went "that's enough".
Fast forward... the Xbox One came out, and with it, backwards compatibility. I simply went through the games I had and, when I got to the Burger King games, I laughed at the thought of playing it in 4K. But alas, it was not (and still is not) available. Having watched this now, I wonder if the fact it was a dual mode disk is why it isn't supported... imagine buying an Xbox Series X now in 2024 and there being a piece of code, somewhere, that would say "I need to load this disk... WAIT, this is a Burger King game... I need to read it differently..." It's not a thing that's gonna happen. But it at least makes me go "I could see that as the reason".
It's most likely that the BK licence expired, and is too difficult to renegotiate.
I have the Tetris Worlds and Star Wars: The Clone Wars dual pack, which is on a single disc, and the Xbox One correctly identifies and downloads Clone Wars for backwards compatibility. (Tetris Worlds is ignored, as it's not on back compat.) The way back compat works, it only needs to identify the disc, so actually reading its contents is a non-issue.
@@3dmarth plausible
Finally, a documentary about a game series I care about. Thank you for doing the REAL work, that the LAMEstream media is too AFRAID to cover! Bravo Noclip! I tip my hat to you.
It feels like the surprise and irony of having the "violent" Carmageddon team do stealth development on Pocket Bike Racers was worked into the story before realizing Blitz was concurrently working on the absolutely brutal Reservoir Dogs game.
I almost got up from bed and went to burger king to get some junk food after the beginning of the video... Don't do that be strong you all, RESIST THE ADVERTISING !!!
Sounds like a skill issue.
I'm too lazy to get food.
Can't diabetic since corona vacination
Burger king takes forever even if you're the only one ordering and even then the food is underdone and feels like its been sitting there on the counter but they do give the fattest drinks
I fell for it. that zesty sauce and chips got me
I can’t believe an advertising game had such an interesting development and a unexpected heartwarming legacy. This has been my favorite doc since Black and White.
I had Reservoir Dogs on PS2. I hope I still have it somewhere. It was beautiful, if you're a fan of the movie. A woefully underrated classic of that generation, along with Scarface for PS2/XBox. If you want a movie tie-in game that was crafted by people who were passionate about the movies, stories carefully written as background (or with Scarface a sequel to the movie where the movie ends differently and Tony starts over from nothing, all over again; it's glorious) these are it!
It's a tragedy that Reservoir Dogs didn't get much more popularity than it got. I mean, you play through the escapes of each character, even Mr. Blue who you hardly see in the movie but in the game he plays a much more important role. You have to escape the police, which involves grabbing hostages when they have you cornered -- and indeed, that's what you do! You grab hostages!
Why the hell did a documentary about a burger king game start off goofy as hell and then hit me so hard in the feels. The talk about legacy was a gut punch. Holy shit, Leoroy is the coolest dude. I wish everyone was like this guy :)
Sounds good on paper, but we'd all be fighting over copies of Sneak King, and Marvel movies would be sold out for months.
@@LeroyPatterson Oh, crap don't you take my copy of Sneak King, it's mine! Back away right now, somebody HELP ME!!! 💀
I didn't know this was the documentary I needed but I'm so glad it's here.
Man Leroy's speech at the end got me a little bit what a great dude!
Thanks Wizard!
I can’t tell you how delighted I am by the gentleman who is collecting every copy of Sneak King, and if I had any I would definitely help him in his quest.
Thank you so much Sock! I appreciate it!
That guy at the end was really something special. I’m amazed this was prompted by a tie in game, and now have more respect and admiration for it than I ever thought possible. I’m not sure if it’s a masterpiece but it’s definitely worthy of all its accolades. This game’s going to gamer heaven.
OMG. I completely forgot about the cat in the hat chains. Holy nostalgia
This is legitimately up there with the Half-Life and Doom docus you guys have done
It was surprising just how much of a warm fuzzy feeling a video about the Burger King video games gave me, its awesome to see the twins still getting a kick out of these games they got to be apart of, and Leroy Patterson, who just really wants to show you his favorite copy- *at least a hundred games fall*
I used to see big piles of those games at the 99c stores all over LA in 2016/17
I entered this doc unsure what to expect. I left with my life being profoundly changed. What a wild ride.
Still to this day when I hear the word “flourish” I think of sneak king. Probably played it less than 8 hours in my life but it’s super memorable. Now I’m hungry for bk
Does anyone else remember that Captain Crunch PC game with the little furry animals you trained? There was like 4 skills you trained them in by playing the minigames for each skill and that shit was sick as a kid.
Cap'n Crunch's Crunchling Adventure
@@lookatdemijipers yesss, thank you
I love the Reservoir Dogs game. That and Scarface came out of nowhere because i no longer bought video game magazines and wasn’t yet big into the whole scanning the internet for future releases yet. I still play both regularly today and i might have to play both later today thanks to this
fuzion Frenzy is our Christmas time family battle game. We really enjoy those moments in our family.
What a weird and excellent documentary - I thought this was gonna be like a 10 minute little joke bit but there’s actually such fascinating history. Bravo guys!
It was so weird as a kid living in the UK when I found out there was a literal "Burger KING" in the USA who I'd never ever heard of. I thought at first maybe it was an older marketing thing that just wasn't around anymore, but this weird plastic faced monarch was still "the brand" in the US.
He is fairly new, not really a huge part of the brand but shows up here and there. I had no idea he existed in 2006, I would’ve guessed around 2014 if you asked me. Guess I could say the inverse, that I had no idea he didn’t exist in all the countries BK operates
I was in high school when these came out, probably exactly their target audience. My friends and I thought they were hilarious, and it definitely put Burger King on our radar. Sneak King, of course, is the one that got the most attention. Most of us had the Original Xbox, but the 360 was just starting to appear in our entertainment centers. We did notice the fact that it ran on both consoles, and wondered why more games didn’t do that. I do remember thinking that it must have been a unique partnership between Burger King and Microsoft, and that it must have been a significant technical challenge considering that they were two different architectures (even as a teen, I liked the technical stuff).
In the early years of the 360, it ruled to be able to get three disc-based games for $4 each. This pre-dated the summer of arcade. These games were ALL better than anything you could get for $5 on XBLA at the time.
There was a short period of time between the launch of the 360 and the end of new development on original Xbox games when the Official Xbox Magazine demo disc in the US would run on both systems. Of course each would only be able to play its own respective demos. I don't know of any full games outside of the King Games that used that tech.
It wasn't mentioned in the video, but I think the reason why these games are so well remembered is that it was something you bought in a Burger King. If these same games were only available in a Best Buy or something I don't think they would be as well remembered.
The dual format stuff is wild! I had no idea they had gone about that for these cheap little marketing contract games.
Omg Fusion Frenzy is one of my favorite childhood games! I spent countless hours with my siblings on that. Some of my favorite memories
Honestly the part of this video that had the most emotional impact for me was the fact that British people call bumper cars DODGEMS?? what in the fuck
The dual boot thing is fascinating and to think they only ever used it for the Burger King games of all things is bizarre.
This is the last thing i expected from Noclip (also remember Energizer batteries in Alan Wake)
The Sneak King Collector! I am at a total loss for words.
I hope they are good words when you find them!
One thing that wasn't touched on - which to me was the funniest thing of Sneak King - the FMV beginning of Sneak King (I think it was part of the menu). In a darkened yard, the giant headed King creeps around in the dark, peeks in windows, falls into shadows in the yard again all in silence. It's really horror movie-esque and hilariously unsettling. The giant grinning, staring head of a peeping, creeper King is fantastic a quirky BK nod to the edgy style that Burger King once was.
Severely under rated channel here, you should have 10x as many subs. With content like this it's just a matter of time.
Burger King released a mobile game as well: "BK City"
I'm still waiting for the cancelled movie announced in 2006.
One pitch was tentatively called "The Burger King" to give the king a real backstory.
The other pitch was called "Above the King" where a teenage outcast who lives above a Burger King befriends the king. Trying to appeal to Napoleon Dynamite fans, allegedly.
I literally played Fusion Frenzy with my siblings last week. The Twisted System game is still legendary. This documentary was great!
Brilliant. I have a demo of Titan A.E. and a mate of mine who worked on it came to work with me after it was cancelled. Crazy days.
I applaud the level of brilliance on display with Leroy Patterson wearing a shirt that is referencing the I think You should Leave "egg game" sketch while also paying homage to Dizzy Egg, whose developers made Sneak King!
Clearly the most Important documentary that No Clip has ever produced.
I played Reservoir Dogs early for market research, and I remember saying when asked for feedback that the game shouldn't exist. It was such a weird proposition.
Smiling ear to ear. The nostalgia deepdive is so appreciated. You definitely earned a subscriber.
So happy you guys made this.
So many memories are tied to these games for me. Christmas 2006 is when me and my brothers got our Xbox 360 and we each got one of these games and another game. Youngest brother: Pocket Bike Racer and Gears of War, middle brother: Big Bumpin and Dead Rising, and me: Sneak King and Oblivion. The fact that it was 17 years ago now makes me feel so old! 😮💨
These games were actually good. I used to unironically play the racing one when I had friends over.
I still have all of these games. They were the some of the first games I could play on the 360 besides halo 3 lol.
The Burger King games are weirdly good. I did a video about them on my channel like a million years ago as well as possibly the first 100% completionist Sneak King vid on RUclips.
Incredible documentary! Thanks!
Throwing this onto the pile:
The little vending machines in Theme Hospital had the KitKat logo on them!
And my little eight-year-old mind was blown away by the concept of a machine that dispensed kitkats
Amazing documentary. Literally knew nothing about these games and I’m glad I watched this.
The Clair de Lune score during the Sneak King segment is absolutely killing me.
I remember Need For Speed Underground 2 had Burger King and Best Buy littered about the city. You know, it kinda made it feel a little more real.
I was brought here by AGDQ. Great stuff guys.
Frank did a fantastic job here. Impeccable!
Agreed!
That is such a great doc, really unique story and great characters all around ! Thanks
This was so much fun! Everyone knocked it out of the park. Keep making weird stuff that shines a light on the most random corners of the gaming landscape.
Also I love Leeroy saying "if he ever dies" implying he's gonna last forever. Just like Sneak King.
Thank you for sharing this quirky story in such a polished professional way.
These guys made Fuzion Frenzy, THE game of my childhood?
I take it back I love British people now
Best doc you guys have done in a while! Absolutely fantastic!!
hearing about fuzion frenzy unlocked a core memory for me, i loved that shit when i was a kid.
I have been preaching the Good Word of Sneak King for years - no idea anyone else loved it so much!
I played these a ton. Particularly Sneak King and Pocket Bike Racer. I really appreciate the backstory.
This doc was amazing. So great hearing from the people behind it all. I find the Oliver twins story so genuine and humble.
As someone who developed IP branded games, clients wanting to approve every piece of art but also wanting to take 2-3 weeks to do it is VERY COMMON and VERY STUPID
I remember getting this one time from my grandma for my birthday, we didnt have much money but she still bought us games when she could. Of course, I put off playing it forever thinkin it would be stupid, then one night me and my friend and my brother sat down to play the pocket racers and sneak king. Must say, we formed core memories.
This is incredible, I was just trying to explain to someone what Sneak King was the other day!
this just actually made my night better and put me in a good mood. incredible work as always but this one is especially a joy. thank you.
I’m so old I saw Titan A.E. That years Father’s Day in theaters with my pa. He passed last year, miss him a lot. He got me into pc’s and gaming, as did his mom before him, my grandma who passed in 2009.
Absolutely killer noclip doc. There are so many great stories behind games, regardless of what type or scope they are. Really love getting to hear stuff like this that probably otherwise never would have been known.
this was one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen relating to video games. Bravo.
I was this today years old when I realized that I absolutely needed this documentary.
Thank you for taking me back! I was so excited to get these cheap games back in the day. Sneak King was super freaking hard from what I remember.
Absolutely need to make a doc about the finances he mentions here and interview other studios for the financial horrors of Publishers, Self Published and 1st party.
Holy fuck dude there was a complete Titan A.E. game? There was a complete Reservoir Dogs game? My rage is immense and all consuming
I have both ;-)
It's so cool to see someone delve into the behind-the-scenes aspects of these games. I'm still reeling from the crazy revelation of there only being one King mask at the time!
I remember seeing Leroy on an episode of neighborhood game club. Great episode! It's good to see him and his collection again!
Thanks! That was a fun one!