Video Game Breakfast Cereals

The other day I played a trick on my mom. I nearly convinced her that they had just made a Portal breakfast cereal, due to the popularity of Portal 2. I said the cereal had blue rings and orange rings just like the portals in the game, and the box had the two co-op robots holding the bowl and spoon! But it got me to thinking about video game based breakfast cereals I remember as a kid, so I thought that in this blog, I’d go over the ones I can recall. So get out your bowl, spoon, and milk, and let’s begin!

Donkey Kong

One of the first arcade games also had one of the very first video game breakfast cereals! Donkey Kong cereal was basically the same as Cap’n Crunch. I think they changed the shape slightly to make the bits look more like DK’s barrels. But even as kids we knew it was really just a Cap’n Crunch knock off. And since I was never a fan of the original Cap’n Crunch, I didn’t like the Donkey Kong cereal either.

Donkey Kong Jr.

Yup, one of video game’s first sequels also got a breakfast cereal ‘sequel’ for a while, too. And just as the Donkey Kong cereal was a rip-off of Cap’n Crunch, the DK Jr. cereal was more akin to Crunch Berries. It had round red berry shapes and yellow banana shapes. I don’t remember it much as a kid, since it wasn’t on the market for very long. But I do remember it being in a bright green box, and it was a little better tasting than the DK cereal.

Pac-Man

For those of you who know me, even just a little, you probably know that I’m a HUGE Pac-Man fan. Almost to the point of being obsessive. So why did I hate the Pac-Man cereal as a kid? Well, even at a young age, I never liked sweet and sugary food very much (yes folks, I’ve always been very boring). Because of that, I never liked any of the marshmallow cereals, such as Lucky Charms, Count Chocula, etc. So it just KILLED me as a kid that my favorite video game character’s cereal was full of marshmallows! Yuck!

One time I took a personality quiz on the Internet. It would tell you what kind of person you are based on your favorite Lucky Charms marshmallows. But since I don’t like the marshmallows, I picked the oat bits as my favorite (yes, that was a selection). So the quiz said that I was a very boring person who would end up being a lonely librarian or something. That kind of made me a little sad. Stupid Internet! Do you folks think I’m boring?

Anyway, the Pac-Man cereal was out on the market quite a long time in comparison to other video game cereals. Long enough for it to make changes and additions to the marshmallow bits over time. The initial group of marshmallows were yellow Pac-Men, and ghosts colored red, blue, pink, and orange. The cereal bits were just round ‘dots’ like Kix cereal.

When Super Pac-Man came out, the cereal introduced a new marshmallow: a yellow Pac-Man that was twice the size of the original marshmallow! Keep in mind this was before cereal makers cared about making their cereals nutritious for kids. I told my little brothers about the big Super Pac-Man marshmallows and they said they wished they were alive in the 80’s so they could eat them! Later, the cereal also made a Ms. Pac-Man marshmallow, due to the popularity of the arcade game. The Ms. Pac-Man marshmallow was more white, and had a pink bow. It was really unappetizing looking!

The only other thing I can remember about the Pac-Man cereal was the prizes and contests on the back of the box. As a kid, I would salivate over the idea of winning Pac-Man game watches, mini-arcades, and a full size Pac-Man machine. I think I even bought the cereal sometimes so I could enter those contests, even though I didn’t like the cereal itself!

Nintendo Cereal System

When the 8-bit NES ruled households in the latter half of the 80’s, there were tons of products based on Mario and Zelda. Even more than today! And there was even a breakfast cereal! This one was a little more unique as it had two smaller bags of different cereal in it, one based on Mario and the other on Zelda.

This wasn’t the first ‘two-in-one’ cereal back then. I also remember a cereal (probably from the same company) based on Nerds candy. Back then, Nerds candy had two flavors in a box, and the cereal did, too. I think the Nerds cereal was almost just like the candy, so if you ate too much of it, your teeth would probably fall out.

Anyway, the Nintendo cereal was more akin to Fruit Loops. The Mario side advertised a more citrus flavor while the Zelda was berry tasting. But they both just tasted like sugar to me. Supposedly, the cereal was shaped like different items in the games. But to me, they just looked like rainbow colored cat turds. I think I only bought the cereal once, and only because it had Nintendo on it.

Anyway, most of these cereals back then had TV commercials. So if you’d like to learn more about them, I recommend first doing a search on YouTube and see what you can find. And then you’ll know I wasn’t making this stuff up. Ha ha!

Pokemon

I’m not 100 percent, but I’m PRETTY sure I remember seeing Kellogg’s make a Pokemon cereal back when the game and cartoon were first popular. I think it was just your basic marshmallow cereal, with bits shaped like Pikachu and friends. Which is why I never bought it, as I don’t like marshmallows.

Yu-Gi-Oh

Some would argue this was based more on the cartoon and card game, but there were tons of Yu-Gi-Oh video games as well. And it was all made by game maker Konami, so I’m counting it here, too. It wasn’t on the market long, but little brother Jeff was a big fan of the card game at one time, so I know the cereal was in our household once. I think the cereal was also a lot like Cap’n Crunch, except the bits were triangle shaped, like little pyramids (since the cartoon had a slight Egyptian motif). I think they should’ve called the cereal “Yu-Gi-O’s.” Ha ha!

Chex Quest

This isn’t a cereal, but it’s related so I had to put it here anyway. You know how sometimes, cereals have prizes in the boxes? Well, in the late 90’s, Chex had a CD-ROM computer game as a prize, which was pretty unique back then. It was called Chex Quest, and it starred a guy that looked like a piece of Chex cereal with legs, and the game was an FPS where you shot down slimes and such. It was basically a kid-friendly Doom clone. It was pretty fun, and I think I remember it having a loyal following for a while.

But the thing I remember most about Chex Quest was that I decided to review it as a joke when I was writing for The Dallas Morning News! Surprisingly, my editor published the review, and I got a lot of letters and emails and comments on how creative it was for me to review it! So I guess the joke was on me! Because of the successful response, I like to consider Chex Quest as one of my better published reviews.

Creative Crunchies

And that’s all the video game based cereals I can think of! With the popularity of video games nowadays, I’m surprised there aren’t more video game cereals out there. But I guess people are more concerned about healthy food choices for their kids nowadays, so it’s probably harder to get a new cereal out on the market.

Anyway, in the comments section, let me know what your favorite video game cereals are, and if there are any that I missed in my blog.

Also, I would like you all to come up with your own video game based cereals. They can be realistic and plausible to eat and be on the market. Like my idea for a Portal cereal with blue and orange rings. Or a ring-based Cheerios-like Sonic the Hedgehog cereal (I’m surprised they haven’t made a Sonic cereal yet). How about a Kirby cereal with pink puffs (no marshmallows, please). Or maybe chocolate tire shaped Ridge Racer cereal with the pretty Reiko Nagase on the box?

You can also come up with more fanciful, unrealistic cereal ideas that aren’t possible to make, but would be fun anyway. How about a Mortal Kombat cereal with red bits that would turn your milk blood red! Or a TRON cereal with blue rings that would make milk, and your teeth, glow in the dark! Maybe a Super Mario mushroom cereal that would make your grow twice your size when you ate it. I bet that would be popular with the kids. Or a super mega vitamin packed Street Fighter cereal that would make you super strong so you could beat up people.

Anyway, those are some of my ideas, let me know yours!

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