If you can stomach being forced to hear Fall Out Boy’s music for an extended period of time, this Oregon Trail-replica advergame is a pretty faithful and fun adaptation of everyone’s favorite edutainment classic.
A couple weeks ago I got a peek at the new Oregon Trail game on iPhone, and reported that it’s a somewhat radical deviation from the classic game we all know. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing in my eyes, but if you were hoping for a more faithful recreation of the old game, you might be surprised to find it in this promo game for the band Fall Out Boy, the aptly named Fall Out Boy Trail, which simulates a national tour a la Oregon Trail.
Well, it’s not really that similar – the basic formula and old-school graphics are the same, but there are some major differences. You start off at the merchant, and instead of choosing between Banker, Farmer, Doctor, etc, you chose what level at which you want to be a “sellout,” which’ll net you different amounts of starting money. Then you buy supplies: oxen for towing your tour bus, lasers for hunting food and fighting zombies (yes, zombies), McNuggets for food (and only McNuggets) and Vitamin Water for, uh, because you should buy Vitamin Water.
Then you hit the trail. You can make your oxen go faster, hunt for food (bears and sheep explode into MgNuggets), or drink Vitamin Water, because, uh, Vitamin Water is great. Along the way all sorts of random events will occur that add or subtract points to your score. During my playthrough, one of the band members saw 2 Girls 1 Cup and I lost points, but later someone “took a huge dump” and I gained points.
Instead of landmarks, you hit US cities and play shows, which basically are Rock Band-style minigames and actually pretty damn difficult. After a show, you can party with your choice of cliques, which may net you more points or do the opposite. I had one of my party members party with some rednecks and they got along fine, but another one tried to hang out with some frat boys and got his head dunked in a toilet.
You can also party with Barack Obama when you get to DC, but you need to answer three questions about current affairs and US politics before you do. After that, I don’t know what happens, because two of my band members died of sadness and the other two were already dead from when my wagon/tour bus sank while crossing a river infested with evil river zombies.
[Via Offworld]
Published: Mar 12, 2009 11:14 pm