World Cup online games
Posted by DavidM in World Cup | 29 June 2006
With any major event companies love to launch websites and virals related to it to encourage people to buy their products. And as the World Cup is just about the biggest event, almost every large company has some sort of World Cup presence.
I've had a look at some of the many simple online games companies offer - are they any good, were they worth the effort and do they make me want to buy new boots, a drink or dinner?
PJ smoothies' goal scoring game is light-hearted. You slide your player left and right and hold then release the mouse button to kick. It takes a little getting used to but it's fun when the defender gets a strawberry in the face. The highest score each month wins some smoothies. The game works, the fruit theme is in keeping with the product and the style made me smile.
Wagamama's similar shot-on-goal game is a bit easier to get the hang of, but doesn't have such cute graphics (or ripe fruit). It works well and each time you play you are entered into a draw to win a meal for six at Wagamama's. The game doesn't have the relationship to the product that PJ's did though.
MSN's World Cup site has a range of World Cup games, including spot the ball (which doesn't seem to link to anything), their fantasy World Cup manager game and annoyingly a link to a Kick'n'Rush game that is a download of a trial version of a football sim that you can buy. The 'name that player' picture quiz is the best bit - a clever, simple game that's quite funny as you work them out. But for a company the size of Microsoft who have obviously spent a lot of money on their WC presence, failed links don't make me warm to them.
The Pringles keepy-uppy site had promise,. They show lead scorers by country and you can create your own league and challenge your friends to beat you. The 100 highest scres go into a draw for a trip to London which may be more attractive to non-UK players. You have to register to play the proper version but Pringles let themselves down by asking for too much info - I couldn't be bothered so stuck with training mode. And that was bad enough. After all the build-up the game was really poor - i could only slide to 3 positions across the screen and the timing was hard to get right. I lasted about 10 seconds and shut the site down.
Puma have a number of interesting things on their WC site including 'adopt a German'. The only game is 'Where's Buffon?' a penalty taking game where you have to score goals against the Itailan keeper. It's quirky and different as it uses real video. Buffon's persnality is accentuated though the music and his 'pleasant' welcome. The game however is very simple and doesn't really require any skill. Also, because it uses random video clips it can be a bit slow between clicking and action happening. Great style, but a bit dull to play.
Yahoo have obviously spent a lot of money to be an official World Cup sponsor, so it's a shame they didn't spend more of it on their website. It has the usual stuff - interviews, highlights and so on - as well as the requisite click to shoot game. I can't tell you what it was like though because all I got was an error page when I clicked the link.
So, Yahoo come bottom of the pile for failing to get the basics right, followed by Pringles who want to know my life story just so I can play their poor game.
The World Cup winner from this selection is PJ Smoothies. Although the game play was easier on Wagamama's, the product-related fruit theme of the game and cutesy graphics did it for me.
The biggest surprise, though, is just how much big companies will spend on this stuff but still get the simple things wrong. is it because they think about how it looks more than how visitors will use it?
