Say what you will about the evil conglomerate empire that is the Walt Disney Corporation, but their marketing is clearly pulling out all the stops in promoting Wreck-It Ralph to gamers as aggressively (and as painfully) as their advertising budget will allow.
Take, for instance, the above marketing ploy that just went down over the holiday weekend at PAX Prime in Seattle. Washington native and King of Kong documentary subject Steve Wiebe turned up to demo Disney’s specially-manufactured “Fix-It Felix Jr.” arcade cabinet as a promotional tie in for the studio’s upcoming classic gaming nostalgia-fest, Wreck-It Ralph. PAX attendees were challenged to beat Wiebe’s high score not simply for the glory of beating a championship-level Donkey Kong player at something –which you would think would be cool enough on its own– but also for tickets to a preview screening of Wreck-It Ralph. Because nothing pleases a giant corporation more than being able to mar an authentic experience with a latter-day, god-tier competitive arcade player than by turning their PR stunt into a gateway for another PR stunt.
All right, all cynicism aside, it’s quite true that Wreck-It Ralph is primed to be one hell of a gaming fan-pleaser, what with nearly 200 character cameos set to appear in the film from all across gaming’s pantheon, to say nothing of real franchise crossovers and tangible brand extension games like the one featured above. And if the film itself includes a shout-out to Steve Wiebe’s famous dramatized showdown with Billy Mitchell, this writer certainly won’t complain.
You can play Fix-It Felix for yourself on the film’s official website, or watch additional footage from Steve Wiebe’s PAX appearance and the Fix-It Felix Jr. cabinet at the source link below.
Wreck-It Ralph is set to release in theaters on November 2nd.
Via Slashfilm.
