McDonald's: The Video Game

McDonald's: The Video Game
I ain't lovin' it.
Platform(s): Internet Release Date: 2006 Developer(s): Molleindustria.org Publisher(s): Molleindustria.org

McDonald's: The Video Game is a simulation flash game developed and published by Italian developer molleindustria.org (the same developer behind Operation: Pedopriest and Phone Story) in 2006. It was meant to denounce shady business practices and actions carried out by the fast-food chain McDonald's.

Why We Ain't Lovin' It

1. The game is a little misleading. It is apparently disguised as a normal restaurant simulator, but as you play the game you will realize that there is a lot of disturbing content. See point 3 for more details.
2. The game is very hard, and often for the wrong reasons. If you decide to play in a "clean" way (as in, without making use of shady practices), you'll realize that nearly every action has some way of siphoning money out of you, making it very easy to go into negative balances at the end of each month. You start out with six land plots you can use to cultivate soy or grow animals, but you will quickly find out that it's barely enough to go by for a month, and your gains are so little compared to the money you spend to not count anymore. On the other hand, engaging in shady practices results in you saving a lot more money, but it shows another issue with the game...
3. Only three complaints actually affect your company; "Organized workers" (by firing too many people at once) which stalls your customers for a bit, and "Obesity association" (which is preventable via the food pyramid) as well as "Consumer's associations" (by slaughtering diseased/mad cows) involve fines. "Environmentalists" (by destroying many forests within a short period of time) and "Anti-globalization movement" (which is indicated by low customer rates but rarely through destroying forests) do absolutely nothing to the company.
4. The game takes itself extremely seriously, to the point of being offensive and/or disturbing, and even the "cleanest" acts have some kind of dark moral implication. Among the actions you can perform, there are:
   • Destroying forests labeled as "thousands-of-years old rainforests";
   • Destroying native villages, with the locals being heavily implied to be killed;
   • Diluting food for your farm animals with several kinds of waste, resulting in a higher likelihood of them catching illnesses and dying;
   • Mobbing factory employees, cooks, and servers to work at the best of their potential, even if they're unhappy (due to several factors like low pay, long working hours, or strict company standards);
   • Even the commercials/advertisements for your fast food joint, depending on your actions, can count as misleading or outright false advertising at best or have some extremely disturbing implications at worst;
   • Last but not least, you have a whole department dedicated uniquely to bribing law enforcement and public officials (Public Relations Office).
5. Due to this being a flash game, there is no way of saving your progress, meaning that every time you play the game, you're going to have to start the game over.
6. The game can get boring and pretty soon, due to having to restart it over and over again.
7. There is little to no music in the game, except for the title screen. The title screen song is a short loop that plays continuously.
8. Mediocre sound effects.
9. While the game's mechanics are actually pretty good, it's still too little to differentiate it from other simulation games like The Sims or SimCity.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The game has a lot of content for a Flash game.
2. The gameplay mechanics are, surprisingly, pretty refined.
3. The graphics are pretty decent for a Flash game.
4. Overall, despite its flaws, the game is impressive for a satire Flash game.
5. Since the 2019 update, the translations are better, and the game is slightly more polished.

Trivia

• An alternate version called Burger Tycoon exists, which removes references to McDonald's.
• A fast-forward button is shown in the Help button, which apparently has been cut due to unknown reasons.

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