I’ve come back from the dead… and what timing, as it’s that time again…
Mountain Dew Game Fuel at this point is a standard flavor in the soda’s arsenal, alongside favorites like Code Red and Whiteout. What was once an exotic rarity that I had to hunt at stores left and right to try, is now fairly common. Despite that, I do actually anticipate these “special flavors” each year and see which big corporation threw enough of their weight (in dollars) around to get on the bottles this year.
It’s pretty much tradition on this site for me to cover these unique Game Fuel flavors. I first covered it when they did Halo 4 in 2012. I covered the special “purple drank” flavor to advertise the new Xbox One in 2013. I covered the “fizzy lemonade” special edition (which was my favorite) in 2014, and finally when they did back-to-back Call of Duty promotions with an unremarkable flavor last year.
So who’s on tap this year? Call of Duty for the third year in a row? Battlefield? An unexpected contender like Gears of War 4? Nope, It’s one I never thought I’d see.
EA and Respawn’s Titanfall 2 is the candidate this year, and the special flavor is “a burst of Mango Heat.” Since Citrus Cherry is the de facto standard flavor that’s always available, I no longer need to cover it. But how about the special mango flavor? Does it hold up?
Not really. I have nothing against “exotic fruit” sodas but I didn’t like this one that much. It certainly tastes like mango, which is not one of my favorite flavors. It’s certainly potable, but makes me pine for the special lemonade flavor from two years ago again. Can they just make that a normal flavor instead? I’d be down compared to this mango flavor they’re peddling.
In addition to the limited-edition flavor, DewandDoritos is back, like before. Go to the website, input the code under the cap, and get some cool Titanfall 2 related rewards that’ll totally make you the life of the party. To this day this still amuses me. We’re at the stage where promotional items for games now literally have corporate branding on them, unabashedly, without any shame. I even opined about wanting CS:GO to have some dumb food promotion just for laughs. I’m here for this corporate garbage.
Unfortunately I’m not super-hyped for Titanfall 2. I loved the first game, and I bet the second one’s just as good. But I got enough multiplayer shooters to mess around with, plus the game still being on EA’s Origin cripples the PC user base considerably like the first game, since EA is still whiny about putting any of their new games on Steam whatsoever, six years and counting. There’s grudges, and then there’s being petty. EA is in the latter category at this point.
If I’m gonna be honest, I think Blizzard and Overwatch should’ve gotten the Game Fuel promo this year, especially since the internet has mutated D.Va into a Doritos-munching, Dew-chugging gamer girl. At least they could put actual, authentic Mountain Dew branding in their multiplayer game rather than make knockoff please-don’t-sue stuff. Oh well, Overwatch seems to have a solid user base six months after release, so maybe they’ll snag 2017’s spot. (2020 Update: They didn’t, Middle Earth: Shadow of War got the spot instead.)
That’s it on the Game Fuel front. Now I can put it into the vault — in reality, a plastic container of bottles from past years — and wait for the next special promotional flavor. Can’t be any worse than this year’s, honestly.
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