Previous Next

Being a magical kind of person Ronald McDonald, he of the ginger wig and yellow overalls is surrounded by magical things. He goes for walks in a magical forest, hangs about a magical town and holidays on magical islands. Pretty much everything he touches becomes something rather special too. So when he discovers a piece of paper at the foot of a tree in the magical forest it takes the form of a treasure map. Actually, it's only a quarter of a treasure map. The missing pieces are who knows where, but Ronald has a pretty good idea where to look.

Yes, the thought of a game featuring Ronald McDonald is a bit cheesy and may require an extra pinch of salt on your regular fries to digest. However, the licence is being handled by Treasure, the same people who programmed Gunstar Heroes, making this menu of fun instantly more appealing. One player controls the clown in his search for the missing pieces of the map through a five stage platform adventure.

Guide Ronald McDonald through the five stages of this platform game, defeating his enemies by splinkling them with magic dust.

Diamond geezer Ronald McDonald's health is displayed in the form of jewels. He begins his quest with four and, by finding extra jewel containers, may increase this number to eight. Ronald loses a jewel each time he is hurt in some way but is able to regain them by collecting rings. A jewel is rewarded for every two gold and every three silver rings.

On his travels Ronald encounters strange little shops. Of course he is unable to take advantage of their wares until he has earned some cash. This doesn't prove too difficult as money is readily available. It doesn't exactly grow on trees, rather it just sort of hangs about in the air in many places waiting for passers-by to collect it. Here, then, is what to expect from the shop keepers who are obviously great fans of McDonalds.

1. Special Offers: This is Ronnie's change to stock up as many extra continues, 1-Ups and magic upgrades as he can afford, replacement jewels and their containers also line the shelves as do the rings which power them.

2. Free Games: For 200 credits, Ronald gets to play a variation of Sega's Columns game, only here the shapes resemble those of the many icons found throughout Treasure Land. For every row of three identical icons formed Ronald receives the benefit of that icon after leaving the shop.

Not only is Ronald light-hearted but he's extremely light-weight. As a direct result of this he is able to hoist himself around on a string of scarves which he keeps tucked inside his trousers.

Players shouldn't form too light an opinion of this ability as soome areas of Treasure Land are virtually closed off to Ronald without his skills in this area being finely honed.

Ronald makes his enemies disappear faster than you can say 'have a nice day' and does so with the aid of his magic fingers. This is a slight-of-hand skill developed by Ronald during his long and illustrious career as the man synonymous with hamburgers.

At first I found the cuteness and sweetness of the game nauseating, but I grudgingly began to enjoy the whole affair just because it's so well programmed.

Although Treasure haven't added anything new to the game genre, there are tons of ingenious ways of presenting it within Treasure Land, and some great effects. The question is: Why? All this effort has gone towards a derivative game that is far beneath the talents behind it. Above all, the game is far too easy for most players, with the inclusion of a password system. Pretty and impressive and ideal for very young kids.

Ignoring the misguided choice of Ronald McDonald as this game's heroic figure Treasure Land is actually quite rich in ideas and more or less superb.

Gunstar Heroes stands as an awesome demonstration of this development company's talent and the fruits of their fiery imagination is further demonstrated with this, their second release.

Ronald makes for quite a versatile if slightly cumbersome hero and his use of scarves as an improvised rope is especially cool.

Regrettably it doesn't take much more than a day to savour all the game has on offer. Since the desire to see all Treasure Land has in store is irresistible the inclusion of a password system makes a speedy completion of the game inevitable.

This is a class product; it is imaginative, wild and has original features too. With more challenge and a larger number of levels to explore Treasure Land may well have lived up to its namesake. Instead it's better that a person's small fortune is reserved for something more robust. However, the game's still worthy of attention for its novelty value alone.

Presentation 83%
P. An excessive amount of storyboarding/plot relating is in evidence. The game has a nice feel.
N. The password system would be useful if it was not so damning.

Graphics 90%
P. All sprites and backgrounds are presented in crisp detail and feature spectacular use of colour and special effects.

Sound 85%
P. Musically this cart is pretty cool. The sound effects are chirpy and amusing.
N. Not enough to blow anyone's red and white stripey-socks off.

Playability 84%
P. The game is great fun and there are many surprises in store. Ronald McDonald makes for a surprisingly amusing character to control
N. Platform-game overload!

Lastability 66%
P. Because Treasure Land looks so cool the game is worth digging up every once in a while just for a look.
N. Too easy.

Overall 81%
Why on earth Treasure world want to devote so much effort to a game only to make it so very easy is a mystery. Yet this they flippin' well done did!