Lost Mario Browser Games for McDonalds Toy Promotion

Looks like somebody made an article on the main site! I don’t know how to check who created it, but thanks to whoever made this article! Happy to see someone was interested enough in this topic to go through the trouble.

lostmediawiki.com/Jammin%27_With_Mario_and_Mario%27s_Driving_Range_(lost_promotional_McDonald%27s_browser_games;_2006)

Looks like somebody also recently made a page for the Mario’s Driving Range game on IGDB.

www.igdb.com/games/marios-driving-range

Since not much is known about the Driving Range game, I thought I would add more information to the best of my ability. Keep in mind, I haven’t been able to see or play this game in almost 18 years, so I’m probably misremembering some details. Since I’m going off faulty memories, I don’t know how helpful it would be for an article or the search, but I figured I’d give it a shot anyway.

When the game starts, there is an arrow that follows the direction of your mouse. A power meter would increase/decrease to determine the strength of your hit when you finally clicked the mouse button. After Mario swings and hits the ball, the ball would then move in the direction the arrow was facing/the direction of the cursor.

The game had a main menu. I want to say the title of the game appears on a golf ball. Here, you could start the game like normal or enter the cheat for level 3.

The game was a side-scroller, but wasn’t a platformer. Mario would hit the ball and the camera would scroll horizontally to follow the ball. I think the ball could go above the camera, but the camera would only move horizontally, so the ball could go offscreen if you hit it high enough.

I’m pretty sure Mario’s sprites were made of pre-rendered images of 3D Mario holding a golf club. Something similar to how he looks on the cover art and promotional images of games like Super Mario Sunshine and Toadstool Tour. I feel like I remember Mario’s swinging animation being pretty jerky, since it was made up of just a few frames of these pre-rendered sprites.

After you hit the ball, the ball could hit other objects on the course. I think these objects used pre-rendered images of various items like coins and mushrooms. I think the coins could be collected by the ball. and the ball would bounce off the mushrooms to help you get further distance. I think hitting the mushrooms would make the “power-up” noise; the same one you’d hear when collecting a mushroom in the original Super Mario Bros. I feel like pipes might have been there, too? I think they could block the ball and ruin your distance. I don’t remember for sure, though.

I wanna say the goal of the game was to get a certain distance or score. I don’t think it was like a traditional golf game where you’d get the ball in the hole. I think your distance and the coins you get would add on to the score. If you reached a certain score, you could move on to the next level. I remember having a hard time getting to the next level when I initially played it, and I think it was for this reason. Not getting a good enough distance or score.

I think there were other themes. The first level is grass themed. Like I said, I remember struggling with the game, so I didn’t progress often when I played, but I feel like I remember the second level being desert themed. Using the cheat code to get to level 3, I think that one was snow themed.

Jammin’ with Mario, this one I remember even less. I wanna say it was sorta like a rhythm game where you’d have to time your button presses when the moving symbols would overlap with a shape in the center of the screen. I think certain keys on the keyboard corresponded with the different symbols that would come off the right side of the screen. I think the game had a purple background and I feel like Mario was on the top of the screen with an instrument or he may have been a disc jockey. I didn’t play this one as much as the Driving Range game, so my memory is even more hazy on this one.

In other news, I found out that a Youtuber by the name of ShaiiValley did a video mentioning this forum post! I am grateful for that and hopefully this video will get more eyes on this search.

youtu.be/G6_d_Tj6bLM?si=HpJjNktnF5bxFtmp&t=1463

It’s not much, but here’s another forum post that mentions the games. It’s mainly people talking about the contest at the time, but it does confirm what I said about the cheat code for Mario’s Driving Range

www.cheapassgamer.com/threads/take-the-mario-challenge-win-a-ds-mario-hoops-and-mario-vs-dk-games-ages-4-12.80769/

For anyone interested in the search for these games, I think I may have found a potential lead.

I went to the archived Mario Happy Meal site, hoping to find any information about who might have made the site or the games. I had the idea to use Google’s Inspect Element to see some of the code behind the site. Something I found interesting was this url I found in the code: “hm.creatainteractive.com.” I tried visiting this site and just “creatainteractive.com” on the Wayback Machine, but didn’t find anything that seemed to be relevant to what I was looking for. Google didn’t have much on “Creata Interactive,” however, I did find a company named “Creata” that has worked with McDonalds before.

Here’s a page on their website that caught my interest.

www.creata.com/who-we-are/

“For over forty years, we’ve found the connection between brands and play. We’ve put that connection to work for the world’s leading marketers such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Nestle and others”

“Our goal is to find new ways to deliver fun for your brand. We’ve created pioneering toys-to-life technology, using digital play to add value to real-world products. Creata’s digital strategy practice identifies the intersections of technology and consumer behavior. Our creative group delivers new and delightful executions in games, websites, and apps.”

Looks like they have worked with McDonalds and they have experience with games and web development.

“We deliver exceptionally compelling point-of-sale creative for all kinds of promotions and sweepstakes.”

This part is relevant because during this promotion, there was a sweepstakes to win a Nintendo DS, so they may have played a role with that, too.

And then there’s this…

“Creata probably made the last toy you found in your kids meal or cereal box.”

So with all this in mind, I think this company may possibly have played a role in the Mario promotion and may have helped design the Mario-themed Happy Meal web page and the games I’ve been looking for.

So to anyone reading this or interested in this search, does this sound promising? Could I be on the right track? Too early to tell? If this does sound promising, what could I do next? I don’t have much experience with trying to search for lost media, so if anyone wants to chime in with their own thoughts or advice, I would greatly appreciate it!

Update! I got a response from Creata! Unfortunately, they are not able to provide any media about the game due to copyright issues. However, it looks like they did make the games after all. Here's the reply I got:

"Glad to hear that you have fond childhood memories of those games.
It’s truly impressive to see the nostalgia and reach of McDonald’s Happy Meal and the long history of impressive work that went into it.
While I would love to share pictures, videos, or even a playable game with you, unfortunately, licensing and copyright restrictions prevent me from doing so. McDonald’s and Nintendo have very strict and limiting agreements on how, when, and how long assets can be used.
We always appreciate a loyal fan, however, and I hope you are not too disappointed."

Yeah, I'm glad to have confirmation that they worked on the games. I agree, it is frustrating knowing they're so close yet so far, in a sense. I'm kind of stumped on where to proceed from here as its unlikely both Nintendo and McDonalds would agree to rerelease these obscure flash games from 17+ years ago for one random person.

The person I spoke to said he didn't personally work on the games since the games were made before he joined the company, so maybe someday I can find someone who worked on the game to provide more details on what the games played like. With enough details, maybe someone could potentially remake the games.

If anyone has any other ideas on what I could try next, I would greatly appreciate it!

He replied! Here’s what he said:

“Yes, we created those games at the Marketing Store for McDonald’s back in 2010. We worked with a great game developer in Chicago and Dreamworks on that project.

Same response you received from the other agency – the games are copyrighted, so they are owned by McDonald’s and we aren’t able to share them. Thanks!”

So unfortunately, he can’t share anything either. I wonder if it would be worth a shot to reach out to someone at McDonald’s?

I’m curious about the developer as well. I know Activision developed the minigames you could claim as a prize, but I wonder if they had a hand in developing the games on the site as well. On his portfolio he says they partnered with “one of the best game developers in the business.” Activision is headquartered in Santa Monica, but maybe they had a Chicago location at one point.

That’s true, no matter who we contact we’ll run into some copyright issues. I’m not sure where we should go from here. Maybe there’s a chance these games are preserved on a flash game archive somewhere, but of course that’d be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.