Like many people at the time, I was one of the kids who bought and played this game. Of course, it might be better to say that my dad bought the cereal, and I played the game. This was probably my second year with an actual computer, and the only thing I really wanted to do on it was play games. Us kids had to get them in any way we could, and most of the time the main method used was begging. In this case, the game's price was extremely reasonable.
Here is a copy and paste of the game's story:
Chex Quest begins with an emergency meeting of the members of the Intergalactic Federation of Cereals. In it, it is brought to everyone's attention that a volcano exploded recently on the surface of Bazoik, a peaceful mining planet renowned for its quality nutritional products. The Chex Squadron captured fragments from the explosion, and discovered that they contained strange, slimy larvae of a creature from another dimension. When exposed to nutritional substances, these larvae abruptly grow into huge, slimy creatures with the capacity to launch slime as a weapon from their bodies. When a member states that there has been no trouble reported, the Commander addressing the members states that communications with Bazoik have been interrupted, and the Federation cannot contact anyone.
Luckily, the scientists from the Federation have found a way to counter the threat. Although conventional weapons do not affect the slimy invaders, the scientists have modified the "zorchers", the main weapon of the Federation, to effect a transportation of any object into another dimension, and this is demonstrated to those present.
With this new weapon the Federation believes that it can subdue the threat by sending a lone volunteer to the surface of Bazoik. The crowd discusses this for a moment, and a warrior from Chex Squadron declares he is willing to take the rescue mission. Taking his ship, he flies to the planet and begins his quest.
So as you can see, the whole game is a marketing gimmick to promote their cereal. It's extremely silly and obviously marketed towards children. That makes sense since it was delivered in a method that mirrored the toys originally included inside cereal boxes. But here's the weird thing... the game was actually really fun.
The reason for this was that "Chex Quest" was actually a re-skin of another game that was popular around this period... "Doom." Everything about this game just screams "Doom", but clearly everything is different. All the violence is gone. In fact, the story even suggests that your weapons are not killing the enemies but rather transporting them to another dimension. And yes, it does look like that in the game. It never looks like you are killing anyone. But for some reason, the game still feels very tactile and engaging, and the transportation effect for the enemies is actually kind of well-animated.
A lot of the fun of the game probably comes from the whole novelty of playing a cereal game. I'm not joking when I say that this may be one of the best marketing tactics ever devised by anyone ever. They probably sold more cereal that year then ever before, and it may have even kept them successful for years to come. People from that year remember what they did, and some of them still play this game. The whole idea is just really cool and shows that love can and probably should be taken even in the marketing of a product.
That said, the game is not perfect, although its flaws are rather negligible. For one, some of the weapons, called "zorchers" in the game, are a little hard to aim. "Doom" always had their weapons facing straight ahead to give you a sort of "iron sight" feel. But some of these zorchers are tilted slightly at an angle which confuses me as to where I should be aiming. Also this game is kind of short. It's only five maps long. Those maps are all good though and vary the environments enough so that you feel like you traveled to different places. Personally, I wish they had made it at least as long as the original "Doom" release (nine maps), but I'm just nitpicking.
"Chex Quest" has a rather disappointing final boss. It's just a wall that occasionally fires a slow-moving snot ball at you. They give you the "Laz Device" here, the game's equivalent to the BFG9000. You pretty much can just hit it twice with that weapon, and the game is beaten. That said, the map leading up to that point was very good. It also ends on a story cliffhanger and mentions a sequel that is going to come out.
The sequel did actually happen, but it was released as an online download. Back then we were all on dial-up internet, and the time it would take to actually download a full game was not always something we were willing to put up with. The same applied for me. I have never actually played "Chex Quest 2," but that is about to change.
Despite the fact that "Chex Quest" is completely silly, non-violent, and really just a marketing gimmick, it showed an amount of love that was hard to come by through the soulless marketing companies of the world. I do so absolutely recommend it. If you want to play it, there are several versions of it available in the mod browser of the excellent "Doom+Doom II Remaster from NightDive Studios. Remember, the game is a Doom mod, so why wouldn't you find it there? Go play it, and honestly it wouldn't kill you to buy a box of Chex while your at it. Not joking.
This blog was written on April 7, 2025.
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An entire playthrough is available for viewing. The game is nearly an hour long. That is very generous for what is basically an interactive commercial. Yes, the DOOM engine is obvious, but the aesthetics and ambience are quite distinct... and silly but fun.
ReplyDeleteIt should not be as good as it is.
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