For Australians, the best games that came in cereal boxes were things like Age of Empires 2 or Rollercoaster Tycoon. Americans got something a little quirkier, and infinitely more wholesome: Chex Quest.
Distributed in 1996, Chex Quest was basically a DOOM clone wrapped up as an advertorial. The idea was to energise Chex cereal as a brand, so the WatersMolitor agency thought they’d use the medium of video games.
The trick was getting the game to be good enough that the box of cereal was worth buying for the game, so the agency recruited Digital Cafe, a studio which happened to have a couple of staffers who were experienced with DOOM mods.
Functionally, the game is a total conversion of the first five levels from The Ultimate DOOM. It went on to become a cult classic, and sales of Chex Quest skyrocketed. The popularity encouraged the development of Chex Quest 2 and Chex Quest 3, which were released for free online to fans, so it’s no surprise that those same fans are trying to bring Chex Quest back.
The remake, which is built on Unreal Engine 4 along with 3D Studio Max for the animations, was first announced in 2017. This is the latest gameplay footage, though, which is substantially sharper than what the fan developers showed off a couple of years ago.
When finished, the remake will contain five levels (like the original) that are suitable for all ages. It’ll be released for free online, although being a volunteer project there’s no release date at this stage. More updates can be found on the official Facebook page.
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