The biggest name in portable gaming once again teams with the biggest name in fast food as DS meets McD’s.
As a part of Nintendo’s new Nintendo Zone service in Japan, owners of the dual-screened handheld will find themselves afforded new services at McDonald’s as the two partner up for “Mac de DS,” which may be more easily understood as “DS at McDonalds.”
Some of the free services afforded at the chain will include character distribution, free stamp rallies, comic distribution, exclusive game demos, and of course, free coupons for such interesting cuisine options as the Mega Mac, Mega Teriyaki, or the Tamago Double Mac.
As an aside, I do kind of wish that the American and Canadian McDonald’s chains would bring over some of this stuff on occasion, as a promotion. The Teriyaki one in particular sounds intriguing.
But I digress; the first character distribution program will go with– you guessed it– Pokemon, and run from June 19th to July 17th. In that timeframe, Jirachi will be made available to owners of the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum versions.
The stamp rally is done via digital means, with the DS displaying a digital collection sheet upon which digitally-downloaded stamps from McDonald’s shops can be placed. Collect a certain number of stamps, and you can redeem them for coupons for those peculiar-to-gaijin-eyes menu items we just spoke of.
Of course, there is a catch: Only one stamp per day. So in order to get more stamps more quickly, one must visit McDonald’s with great frequency, either one each day or many over the course of a day. And maybe while you’re there, working towards your freebie/discount/whathaveyou, you can grab something to eat or drink in the meantime. Pretty clever, huh?
Like the character distribution, the first stamp rally, too, is centered around Pokemon. Hey, why mess with what works, right?
However, rather than focusing on the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum game, this aspect of the promotion looks towards Pokemon Scramble on WiiWare, which will be available June 16th. Get eight stickers, and you get a coupon for a cheeseburger; 16 nets you a Big Mac, and this promotion also runs from June 19th to July 17th.
In addition to all that, the service will also feature mini-games based on food, columns about food (what did you think McDonald’s software would focus on, world politics?), a McDonald’s quiz program, and a demo for the upcoming DS title, Friend Collection.
The whole thing kicks off on June 19th, and is planned to expand across the 3,200 restaurants Ronald and company are running in the Far East. More details can be discovered at their designated website, though it might help if you’re able to read Japanese.
Of course, if you’re scared to death of clowns, then there may yet be other options for you (and I don’t mean this). The Nintendo Zone service will also be provided across major stations along Tokyo’s Tsukuba Express train line, though I doubt their offerings will be as food-centric.
The Tsukuba stations differ from their McDonald’s counterparts in allowing one to download DSiWare games, which one might suppose is handy if you’re lacking in fare, but still have some lingering DSiWare Points to spend. They also have access to NTT Broadband Platform’s Wi-Fine wireless internet service, through which free news, television, and other content can be offered.
The best part of the whole Nintendo Zone experience is that it doesn’t matter which iteration of the hardware you own; Phat and Lite owners will have to engage the “Download Play” icon at the startup menu, but DSi users will find that the appropriate icon automatically appears on the app selector when they are within the proper vicinity.
Nintendo’s corporate site yields more details, but only if you’re familiar with the Japanese language (“kawaii” and “baka” don’t count).
