When it comes to marketing gimmicks to selling a video game, one idea that never works are contests, because they usually turn out to be nothing more then an excuse to make up for a really horrible game. Don't believe me? I have four games to prove it.
Action 52
My scars still remain from playing this game.
The Game: I swear to the lords above this is still the most awful game I have ever played in my life. If you've never heard of this game, imagine how horrible ET for the Atari 2600 was to play, then literally times it by 52 and increase the price of the game to $200.
The Contest: So why would anybody want to pay $200 for this abomination? Probably because they're gaming illiterates who think 52 games for the price of $200 is a bargain. They also might have been suckered by the $104,000 contest Active was running. The contest challenged you to beat the game Ooze, and if you did you would be eligible to win a $52,000 scholarship and $52,000 in cash. Seems like a pretty decent premise right?
Did anybody actually win?
With a game well known for having 52 pieces of broken unplayable gameplay, how the hell would anybody actually win this contest? In order to beat this game you need to complete Level 5, but even if you can overcome the shoddy controls, the game glitches out at either Level 2 or 3. Between the glitches, the obscurity of this title, and the company who made the game going out of business shortly, it's 100% likely nobody won this supposed contest.
Treasure Master
Wasn't this kid on Saved By The Bell?
The Game: The really odd thing about this game is that the focus of it was all about the contest they were running. Of course after the contest would be over the game would be just a regular looking puzzle platforming game. A really bad puzzle platforming game, because the puzzles are so cryptic that odds are you're going to get confused fast, and some items you collect start getting used right when you pick them up. This becomes very annoying, especially when you have a bomb and it decides to go off whenever it feels like and you have to backtrack to where you got it if you didn't use it properly. The platforming portion is dreadful because the character moves like molasses and some of the enemies are so cheap that you'll be dying from them a lot, especially the one-hit killing moving-faster-than-you sharks. On the other hand, the music is pretty neat.
The Contest: From the time the game is released in late 1991 to the start of the contest, players had to practice beating the game. After you beat the game you had to send in a registration card by April 8th. The contest would begin at 12 noon on the date of April 11th 1992, when MTV would reveal the secret code that would unlock a 6th level in the game, known as Prize World. You had to beat the game including Prize World on that day, then get the code the game gives you, then call American Softworks Corp's 900 number (kids under 18, get your parents permission!) in order to be entered into the contest. If you won the contest as a first prize winner, you got your choice of one of the following:
-Fantasy Rock Concert
-Fantasy Sports Event
-Fantasy Audio/Video Room
-$10,000.00
250 second prize winners would get an SNES, while 36,000 others would only get a certificate.
Did anybody actually win?
It doesn't seem to be known if anybody actually won from this game. It definitely wasn't as obscure as Action 52 (and definitely wasn't as bad), so odds are there had to be people who heard about this game. Unfortunately, the big problem I've seen with this game was pulling the old "kids calling 900 number" trick. This would have to involve begging your parents to let you call the company and have it charged on their phone bill, which I doubt would go over well with them. Plus the code was only obtainable through MTV, so that would leave anybody who didn't have cable out of the picture.
Swordquest
So dark the con of Atari.
The Game: Back in the Atari days you could've gotten away with murder when making video games, which ironically led to the industry getting killed by 1984. In an age where the people in the industry were creating all sorts of gimmicks, it doesn't seem surprising that somebody would create a game for the sole purpose of a contest. Swordquest was basically a puzzle game where you had to place certain items in rooms in order to get clues involving the comic book that came with the game. What makes Swordquest unique is that it wasn't just one game, but a series of games.
The Contest: Using the clues within the game, you had to make a sentence with certain words in the panels of the comic book. If you made the right sentence you would get a chance to win a $25,000 prize associated with the game's world and be entered into a final round where you can win a $50,000 sword. The prizes for each game were:
-Earthworld Talisman: Made of 18K solid gold, studded with 12 diamonds and the birthstones of the twelve zodiac signs.
-Fireworld Chalice: Made of platinum and gold, studded with 65 diamonds in addition to rubies, sapphires, pearls, citrines, and green jade.
-Waterworld Crown: Made of gold, encrusted with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, green tourmalines and aquamarines
-Airworld Philosopher's Stone: A large piece of white jade encased in an 18K gold box featuring emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and citrines.
-Grand Prize Sword: A jewel encrusted sword with an 18K gold handle and a silver blade, loaded with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.
Did anybody actually win?
Yes and No. The contest's first game, Earthworld, was won by Steven Bell, who decided to get the medallion melted down and sold it for $15,000. Not exactly the $25,000 it was supposedly valued at. Michael Rideout won the Fireworld contest and said that he had kept the chalice in his safety deposit box. As for Waterworld and Airworld, those contests didn't have any winners because when Atari was bought out in 1984, the contests were canceled. Waterworld was released only through the Atari club and nothing became of Airworld. Everyone who participated in the Waterworld contest was sent a compensatory check of $2,000, and the two previous winners were given $15,000 for not being able to participate in the finals. Where the prizes for the two last worlds wound up at is unknown, but the grand prize sword is rumored to have been taken by Commordore founder Jack Tramiel.
Advent Rising
To be never continued...
The Game: Advent Rising was one of those epic science fiction action-adventures series that was planned to be a trilogy if it was actually successful. Unfortunately, the game suffered from many issues that kept it from being the AAA title blockbuster Majesco was hoping for. There were several bugs that interfered with gameplay, the story wasn't very unique, and the controls during combat was a mess. Sales for Advent Rising became disappointing, leading to the cancellation of the trilogy and the PSP version in the works during that time.
The Contest: With Majesco hoping to turn this game into a successful franchise, what else could they have done besides giving more time to complete the game? Why have a million dollar contest of course! The way the "Race to Save Humanity" contest would work is that Majesco would hide the Advent Rising logo somewhere in the game, and you would download the location of the logo through Xbox Live. If you were the first person to find the logo, you won a cash prize. Now, unlike the last three entires, this was now taking place in a much more technological age, so you'd think the contest would be easier to run right?
Did anybody actually win?
Alas, the only thing that could have justified buying the game turned out to be a failure. The game suffered from some serious technical issues, the biggest being that not everybody would get to download the patch at the same time, which created an unfair field of play. Majesco decided to cancel the contest shortly after it began and made up for it by giving anyone who proved they participated in it two free games. Although nobody won anything directly from this game, it did convince Majesco to make games marketed towards casual players, and has found moderate success with it's Cooking Mama series. So at least something good came out of this.
