Wendy’s — yes, the American fast food chain — is releasing a surprisingly gorgeous, pixelated, turn-based RPG on Steam, and the internet is legitimately stunned by how good it looks.
The game, titled WendyQuest: Legend of the Four Corner Stones, is a 2D RPG where players join Wendy in her journey to “battle evil mech-monsters to save a culinary kingdom in peril.”
A trailer and screenshots for the game show Wendy and a party of three other adventurers traversing terrain fraught with food-themed obstacles and duking it out with sentient menu items. For instance, one of the enemies Wendy faces is a container full of french fries that have transformed into snake-like monsters called ‘Frydusa.’ In one gameplay still, she must find a way around a river of sauce that has spilled out from a container.
The game’s dialogue seems to poke fun at itself, with Wendy saying in one screenshot, “Looks like he’s been writing notes to some guy named Baconator. No way that’s a real name.” In another, she asks, “Where’s the beef?”
Of course, Wendy can use a Dave’s Single, Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, and other menu items to restore her HP during battle, where she’s joined by allies like Sir Chicken and more.
The game is set to release “soon,” with no specific launch date given. It does have an official Steam page, suggesting that this isn’t just a gimmick game but an actual, fully-fledged title with real effort and intent behind it.
WendyQuest is developed by 81monkeys, an independent game studio based out of Port Moody, British Columbia. They are also working on a game called World of Anterra, which is described as “an innovative open world roleplaying game” inspired by “classic and modern” titles.
Thus far, reactions to Wendy’s pixelated project have been largely positive. “GOTY contender. This actually looks great,” one user joked on Twitter/X.
“Wait, why does it look kind of good?” another asked.
“I honestly miss fast food games….Excited to play this!” said another.
Still others are pleased that no AI was used in this game’s production, despite it being, for all intents and purposes, a marketing tactic. Its Steam page proudly states that the title is “100% fresh and 100% human made.”
Of course, others couldn’t help but compare it to Burger King’s infamous Sneak King game from ages long past (2006), where players could “step into the King’s royal shoes and use cunning stealth to sneak up behind unsuspecting people and bestow them with a delicious meal.” (While a novelty, it wasn’t an especially ‘good’ game. We rated it a 6.7 out of 10.)
This isn’t the first time Wendy’s has made a game; in fact, it released a free, 100-page tabletop RPG back in 2019 called Feast of Legends where players could battle Ronald McDonald. I have to admit that the chain’s latest game is one of the more ambitious fast food marketing tactics I’ve seen thus far, and oddly, I’m actually keen on playing it when it actually comes out. Dangit — now I’m craving a Frosty.
