Yeah, you read that right. I’m going to review a soda on this blog. Why, you may ask? Well, because I can. But also because Halo 4 fever is slowly dying and being replaced by Call of Duty: Black Ops II fever, so I gotta squeeze this in now while it’s still relevant. No one’s gonna care about this in a month’s time.
So, this is the fourth time that Mountain Dew has done the limited “Game Fuel” thing to advertise whatever hot new video game was on the market. The first time Game Fuel was introduced was in 2007 for Halo 3, then re-released in 2009 for a World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and most recently, last year for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. I honestly expected them to skip this year, judging by the “every other year” cycle, but since Halo started the unique limited flavor/marketing tie-in for Mountain Dew, they might as well do it again for the newest installment involving a Master Chief and some Halos.
I was never a big Halo guy. I played a leaked prototype of Gearbox Software’s PC port back in 2003, and eventually bought the game the following year. I thought it was interesting and kinda fun, but hardly the mind-blowing revelation that gamers were making it out to be. Halo 2 was a dull, monotonous corridor shooter I’d rather forget, and all I remember of Halo 3 was me and and a friend co-oping it in two long sessions one time. I even got the Anniversary edition of Halo: CE and only finished a level or two before moving on.
Still, I can’t say I hate Halo, it just never really grabbed me outside of the soundtrack and occasionally its multiplayer. Maybe it’s because I was anti-Xbox ’til about 2006. Forgive me, I was still an oblivious teenager.
Like last year with Modern Warfare 3, you can redeem codes of Mountain Dew at dewxp.com (no longer active) to win prizes like toys, Xbox Live avatar items, even copies of Halo 4 Limited Edition.
That last one baffles me. Why make that a prize? I figured most people jumping in on this promotion would have already bought the fancy Limited Edition. I guess it’s more for people like me, who like entering contests and hoping to win things, even if you just win dinky junk.
For example, thanks to a friend desperately trying to get an Xbox 360, I “won” a prize package of Forza Motorsport 2, Fuzion Frenzy 2, and a weird Tropicana Twister 360 faceplate I’ve since lost, so I guess it’s worth it to enter these contest sometimes.
When I bought Game Fuel, the first thing that came to mind was “Man, that flavor is hella red.” One could probably confuse it with Mountain Dew Live Wire if they aren’t paying attention. I don’t drink Mountain Dew, so in addition to buying two bottles of Game Fuel, I bought a 20 oz bottle of the regular stuff for a taste comparison.
I skipped Game Fuel in past years, so this is my first experience with it. After having a small sampling of both, I was actually surprised. Whereas Mountain Dew reminded me of typical lemon/lime combination sodas, Game Fuel has a drastically different flavor to it. It has a strong citrus kick, with a tinge of cherry aftertaste. I’m used to citrus sodas — Squirt was my jam for a long time before I converted to Dr Pepper — but Game Fuel had a much stronger citrus than what I was used to, and that’s just from the small amount I had. When they said it had a ‘burst of Citrus Cherry flavor,” they weren’t kidding.
My apologies if this review isn’t as funny as other food/soda reviews on the internet. In an ideal world, I’d likely have a Master Chief figurine drown himself in a tall glass of this stuff. I thought about grabbing a Halo figure but I didn’t have much time to do so. So instead, have a game box of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary next to the wonderful Game Fuel. Hey, it was either that or Halo 3, and that would’ve been kinda awkward to have that next to the Halo 4 soda.
Well, that’s about it. It’s a citrus soda with a cherry kick, and it’s probably worth a try if you’re into those kind of sodas. It totally doesn’t taste like Mountain Dew, though. Now the next challenge is to see how Game Fuel mixes with certain alcohol. I bet you could’ve made a good cocktail out of this stuff.
Heehee, thanks for the link. Ohhh, we had such fun playing Halo 3 together. I tend to like Halo games for their elegant simplicity, so I can understand why someone used to sophisticated PC shooters would find them… lacking. (Incidentally, I wish I had my own blue hologram babe guiding me around everywhere…)