Dangerously Cheesy!

When I was scanning game ads quite a few years ago before ever launching the blog I happened to notice Frito-Lay's Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah nabbed two video game magazine covers in the same month. Atop his motorcycle, the cool cat is impersonating Santa Claus on the December 1992 issue of GamePro and replacing Rudolph on the November/December 1992 issue of Game Informer so this is sort of a Christmas post, even though the game has nothing to do with the holiday. Platform games starring mascots were quite popular during the decade and they weren't all original characters as there were a handful of food mascots that made the jump to video games, including The Noid from Domino's pizza and even Spot, the red dot from the 7UP logo. 

Chester actually starred in two titles, both 16-bit side-scrollers. Kaneka USA published Too Cool to Fool in 1992 and Wild Wild Quest in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis consoles. I've scanned reviews for both games, though I didn't actually see any from GamePro as the issue above only has a preview which I did also scan. From Game Informer are a review of Too Cool to Fool and winners of a Chester Cheetah contest. There are also reviews for each game from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and as I tend to do with that magazine's reviews, I edited the pages to line up the review crew next to them which is why those scans look off. Normally the reviewers are only on the first page of reviews next to the game of the month (Mike Weigand is not part of the scores for the second game). 

 

Toys "R" Us Canada

Last week I visited Canada where Toys "R" Us stores actually still exist so, of course, I checked one out. Back in 2018 when the U.S. stores began closing I wrote The Time of Toy Stores post about that and my time working at a couple stores. There are now Toys "R" Us-branded departments in Macy's stores but it's certainly not the same as wandering around a store overloaded with toys. I took quite a few photos as I covered most of the Oakville, Ontario store and did my best to avoid the customers. These were all taken on a phone which is something I rarely use for photos but I didn't want to stand out carrying my regular camera.