Ludography
Sneak King cover

2006 · Blitz Games · Adventure · Stealth

Sneak King

Xbox exclusive

The game is Sneak King, and the object is surprise. Now's your chance to step into the royal shoes of the King himself as you silently unleash hot sandwiches on the hungry citizens of this famished world. All of your covert gaming skills will be put to the test as you take on the role of the slickest sneaker on the planet: the Sneak King.

Released
19 November 2006
Platforms
XboxXbox 360
Genres
AdventureStealth
Developers
Blitz Games
Publishers
King Games
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
ActionStealthComedy
Country
United Kingdom
Age ratings
ESRB E

About

Sneak King is a stealth video game developed by Blitz Games and published by King Games for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles, released in 2006. Burger King sold the game with the purchase of value meals. Players take control of Burger King's mascot The King, in a stealth food-delivery themed game that spans four levels based on Burger King's commercial advertisements. On November 19, 2006, Burger King started selling it with any value meal.

It is one of three titles released by Burger King. Blitz Games was chosen to develop the games, originally for the online Xbox Live Arcade, but this was later changed to a single disc that would run the game on both the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.

Keywords

  • espionage
  • achievements
  • advergame
  • dancing
  • silent protagonist
  • protagonist's name in the title
  • ranking system
  • polygonal 3d
  • based on - brand
  • royalty
  • punctuation mark above head
  • tie-in

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player takes control of The King, the mascot for Burger King, who is tasked with sneaking around while delivering 4 different types of Burger King meals to hungry people. Sneak King's gameplay consists of four levels to explore: the Saw Mill, Cul-De-Sac, Construction Zone, and Downtown. Each level features a unique map with 20 challenges to be completed. There are two game modes, free-play mode and challenge mode.

Free-play mode occurs whenever the player is not currently undertaking a challenge or after the player changes levels. In this mode, the player can freely explore the area without noise or sight detection and use the minimap to see unlocked challenges and non-player characters (NPCs).

Development

The origin of three Burger King-themed Xbox games, including Sneak King, began when senior executives from Microsoft and Burger King met at Cannes to accept awards for their I Love Bees and Subservient Chicken advertising campaigns. Microsoft and Burger King's executives decided to produce Xbox games that would take place in Burger King-themed context that would not be reduced to blatant advertisements. Blitz Games Studios would become involved in the project after Blitz Games Studios' co-founder, Philip Oliver, discussed an interest in producing Xbox Live games with Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade portfolio manager, Ross Erickson. Oliver's interest was hampered by a lack of funding, but Erickson agreed to notify Oliver of any leads on advertisers looking for product placement.

A week or two after that, Oliver received a call from Erickson about Burger King's interest in creating three games. In the fall of 2005, Blitz Games entered into talks with Burger King and the development began in February 2006.

Reception

GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann described it as weird and poorly made, but concluded that "Sneak King is a one-trick pony that is an interesting curiosity with a subversive sense of humor." 99 price point made it the cheapest Xbox Live game. Although noting the presence of game-breaking bugs, he said the budget game was worth purchasing because of its food delivery dances. Brudvig also noted that the graphics were impressive for the cost of the game, but the interactive maps were found to be quite limited and environmentally sparse.

X-Play rated the game as one out of five, but noted that "[t]his is the game that really got the buzz going about BK's whole foray into gaming, thanks mostly to screenshots of the Burger King hiding in a garbage can, lying in wait for what appeared to be a college-age woman walking toward him. Stalking in the name of great taste." Kate Macarthur of Advertising Age noted that, "Burger King's Sneak King video game for Xbox may not have won rave reviews, but gamers still bought more than 2 million copies."

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Xbox 36019 November 2006North America
Xbox19 November 2006North America

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.