Even if we can’t eat these new Street Fighter themed burgers at a UK McDonald’s, the ads are still hilarious.
Fast food promotions aren’t usually something to get all that excited but the new one from McDonald’s suddenly makes a trip to Japan look even more desirable than usual.
The collaboration between McDonald’s and Capcom’s Street Fighter series was announced this week but unfortunately is only available in Japanese restaurants, and even then only for a short time.
They’ve really gone all in too, as the adverts are based around the Street Fighter 2 games from the 90s, rather than the most current iteration, Street Fighter 6, which has resulted in some highly amusing edits to the classic pixel art.
There are three ads in total, and all follow the same pattern of depicting in-game fights between different characters. However, with some editing magic, every punch, kick, and fireball sends out burgers and fries instead.
Some of the characters have also been altered so they’re sporting McDonald’s red and yellow branding.
There’s some really detailed sprite animation of Chun-Li charging up a fireball, that’s surrounding a burger. We especially love the shot of tyrannical terrorist M. Bison happily munching on a burger with a goofy smile on his face.
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As for what the promotion’s actually for, McDonald’s is offering three new types of burgers inspired by specific characters. Main mascot Ryu gets a burnt garlic egg & mayo Burger, while Chun-Li gets fried chicken with sweet and sour mayo.
Ken’s is perhaps the most appropriate since, as an American, his burger is a incredibly unhealthy-sounding triple beef burger with cheddar cheese.
Over on the Street Fighter subreddit, fans are unsurprisingly enjoying the ads, with one fan joking that they’re canon and that Akuma got M. Bison addicted to McDonald’s, which weakened him enough for Akuma to kill him, as he did in Street Fighter 2.
Others quickly took note of some Street Fighter 6 cameos in the background. New villain JP can be seen munching on a burger, while Manon and Marisa are stood together, with the former wrapped around the latter’s arm as a possible reference to how the two are a popular pairing among fans.
Over on ResetEra, some fans have expressed jealousy that only Japan is getting these burgers: ‘I’ll never not be jealous of the fact that McDonald’s in Japan is constantly adding actual new seasonal items to the menu and the closest to that we can get in the US is like… the chicken Big Mac.’
Another fan says: ‘I want those McDonald’s colours as alt costumes in Street Fighter 6 and I am not joking.’ That sounds doable and it’s not as if Capcom is averse to in-game game promotions, having added cosmetics to Street Fighter 6 as part of tie-ins with the likes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and manga/anime series Spy X Family.
Even if that doesn’t happen, we wouldn’t be surprised if someone ends up making a PC mod that adds McDonald’s colours for some of the characters.
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