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Cow slaughtering with Ronald McDonald

Neha Tiwari Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Neha Tiwari is a CNET News.com associate producer.
Neha Tiwari
2 min read

If you dig mad cows, cartoon characters that look like Fisher-Price little people jumping up and down, and business management 101, you'll love this McDonald's video game.

When I first got ahold of this link on Addicting Games, I looked at the page and thought: What a cute little cartoon game, must be easy. I was dead wrong. The figures and noises are adorable, but the game is much harder than it looks. It's a McDonald's parody game in which you basically have to coordinate four locations: the pastures, the slaughterhouse, a McDonald's restaurant and McDonald's corporate office. The game, made by Italian game creator La Molleindustria, belongs to a new genre known as "anti-advergames," which satirize big companies and question corporate policies ranging from how cattle are raised to low pay for workers.

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Video: Fries with that video game?
Neha Tiwari tries her hand at a satirical game that lets you play a McDonald's business manager.

Reminiscent of "Sim City" but with a more pessimistic outlook, the game does have fun sound effects and interesting music, so I suggest you play it with the sounds on. I went through the tutorial (which is uber-important), and figured out a semi-efficient way to run Neha's Super Mickey D's for a short period of time. Then all of a sudden, an angry Ronald McDonald came out of nowhere and pointed the finger at me. It's pretty demoralizing, and I sadly have yet to win. So, if someone succeeds, will they please post what happens? Are there balloons and exploding Happy Meals as the Hamburglar does chest bumps with Grimace? That's how it is in my head, at least.