Retro Achievement Mastery 3 - McDonald's Treasure Land Adventures

When I first started Retro Achievements, I went around the site hunting for games that were very important and special to me. And that usually means that I knew it extremely well, and I speedran it. That works for this game too. It’s another one I owned as a kid, and my… second speedgame? It’s up there, it was a really early one for me.

This is the first game ever made by a little company called Treasure, who you MAY have heard of, because they’re one of the best devs of all time. Konami alumni who got out early, they’d go on to make some AMAZING games, and were in fact working on Gunstar Heroes at the same time as this game. But this one released first. I can’t find information that this was done to fund Gunstar Heroes, but it probably was? Selling your soul early, huh Treasure?

I also can’t find information that this game wasn’t originally McDonalds related at all, though I wouldn’t doubt that. It has NOTHING to do with McDonalds. There’s no food here, at all… except for the tomato boss? The story is very simple. You find a piece of the treasure map, and want to find the other pieces to find some treasure. All of the pieces of the map lead to the other pieces of the map, which is not how treasure maps work but okay…. except for in Thousand Year Door, kinda. Anyway. there are four levels, each ending with a boss, through varied locations. And that’s it! The game is rather short, you could easily burst through it in 30 minutes on a first playthrough, though beginner difficulty also removes a room from levels 3 and 4, making it even shorter.

It’s also really easy. This is a kids game, through and through. But it’s still enjoyable to an adult, challenge just shouldn’t be a thing you’re hunting for. It looks really nice and colorful, sounds amazing, and the levels are goofy and fun, ranging from entering a monster’s stomach to traversing a sunken ship to going to space. The gameplay kicks it up a bit though. It’s a platformer, sure, though it’s a little more reminiscent of Ristar than a Mario or a Sonic. With a bit of run and gun in there, too. Ronald can shoot magic, jump, and extend his arm with some scarves up his sleeve (geddit? Cause clown?) to grab things and hang from them, like bionic commando. Though he’s static, he doesn’t swing. That’d be sick though.

All in all, while it isn’t anything transcendent or complex, it probably helped keep Treasure afloat long enough to make some of the best games ever made, so we have to give McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventures SOME credit for that.