PocketBike Racer
| Pocketbike Racer | |
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Cover art (Xbox 360)
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| Developer(s) | Blitz Games |
| Publisher(s) | King Games |
| Platform(s) | Xbox, Xbox 360 |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
Pocketbike Racer is an advergaming title developed by Blitz Games for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles. On November 19, 2006, Burger King started selling it for an additional $3.99 USD ($4.99 in Canada) with any value meal. It is one of three titles released by Burger King.
The game, based on pocketbike racing, features customizable bikes and drivers. Players can choose one of five tracks to race on: a Burger King restaurant parking lot, a construction site, a neighborhood, the King's garden or the fabled Fantasy Ranch set. The game can be played solo, with up to four players in split-screen set-up, or up to eight online using Xbox Live. The game contains a track from Miami retro-punk band The Dead Hookers' Bridge Club.
Brooke Burke is featured on the cover of PocketBike Racer, as well as being a playable character within the game.
PocketBike Racer, Sneak King, and Big Bumpin' were all created in just seven months and were considered to be of such high quality that they were pulled from Xbox Live Arcade to be sold as a 'box product' directly in Burger King stores (they are currently only available in America and Canada).
The origin of three Burger King-themed Xbox Games came about in Cannes when senior executives from Microsoft and Burger King met at the awards for the I Love Bees and Subservient Chicken advertising campaigns. Microsoft wanted the Xbox games to be fun for the players and that the environment would be a Burger King-themed context not be reduced to simply pushing its brand. In the fall of 2005, Blitz Games entered into talks with Burger King and the development team began work in February 2006. In an interview with Gamasutra, Philip Oliver stated that he was talking with Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade portfolio manager, Ross Erickson and had an interest in developing Xbox Live games, but lacked funding as an independent developer. During Oliver and Erickson's talks, Erickson agree to notify Oliver of any leads on advertisers looking for product placement in video games. A week or two after that, Oliver received a call from Erickson about Burger King's interest in creating three games. Gamasutra's interviewer, Brandon Sheffield, noted the odd choice of an American company using a British developer, but Oliver explained that Burger King was familiar with their first Xbox release Fuzion Frenzy.
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