Kool-Aid Man
Platform: Intellivision
Region: USA
Media: Cartridge
Controller: INTV
Genre: Action 
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1983
Developer: Mattel Electronics
Publisher: Mattel Electronics
Players: 1
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2 children are trapped in a haunted house full of evil Thirsties! Guide the children through the house to find all of the ingredients for a batch of Kool-Aid!

The children initially move together through the house, but if one of the children is attacked by a roaming Thirsty, the children separate, and are now controlled one at a time. If a child is attacked twice, that child is out of the game. If both children are attacked twice, the game is over.

Once all ingredients for Kool-Aid (sugar, Kool-Aid, and a pitcher) are placed near the kitchen sink, Kool-Aid Man appears and is now controlled by the player! Use Kool-Aid Man to collect roaming fruit and to destroy the Thirsties. Once the Thirsties have been defeated, the round is over, and the game starts over with a higher difficulty level (unless "kiddy mode" was selected at game start-up.)

Kool-Aid Man is for 1 player, and offers 13 difficulty settings, including a children's mode which never increases in difficulty during gameplay.


DEVELOPMENT HISTORY:

On December 6, 1982, all of the programmers and graphic artists were herded into a conference room and shown a series of TV commercials -- the new Kool-Aid ad campaign. It was announced that Marketing had made a tie-in deal to release Intellivision and M Network Atari 2600 Kool-Aid Man cartridges. The games were scheduled to be ready in about 6 months, which meant that programming had to begin immediately. Worse, they wanted game-screen mockups to appear in the 1983 Mattel Electronics catalog at the Consumer Electronics Show -- one month away. A two-week contest to come up with the best game concept was announced. Separate ideas were developed for Intellivision and Atari 2600.

This led to a confrontation with Marketing. The programmers' viewpoint was that the features of a game should be tailored to the system it would be played on, to take full advantage of the system's strengths. Marketing, on the other hand, wanted games designed for multiple systems, with the features being the same on each system. If a game couldn't be ported to other systems, it shouldn't be done on any system.

The programmers argued that this meant all games would have to be designed for the lowest common denominator -- the Atari 2600. Marketing argued that keeping the features the same would make games easier to advertise and make word-of-mouth among customers more favorable.

This was the programmers' chance to make a stand, insisting that because of the tight schedule, the Intellivision and Atari versions of Kool-Aid Man would have to be developed independently and differently -- there was no time to create a design that could be implemented on both systems.

Reluctantly, Marketing agreed, and two entirely different versions of Kool-Aid Man were developed, designed to take best advantage of each system. The winning design for the Intellivision version came from programmer Vladimir Hrycenko (Convoy). Steve Tatsumi did the design and program for Atari Kool-Aid Man.

Programming won the battle, but Marketing won the war -- they never again allowed different versions of a game tailored for different systems.

And, well, it looks like they were right. To this day, people still seem upset that the two Kool-Aid Man games are different. Go figure.


FUN FACT: 

"And please, no 'Jonestown' references," admonished manager Russ Haft (TRON Maze-A-Tron) upon announcing the contest for game ideas. He was trying to stem the inevitable suggestions that would revolve around the 1979 mass suicide via cyanide-laced-grape-Kool-Aid of Jim Jones and his religious followers in Guyana. Some people at Mattel feared that sick, juvenile jokes made by the programmers might get back to the Kool-Aid folks and screw up the deal. Of course, the only people who feared that were the people who actually knew us.

Reportedly, General Foods was delighted with the games and the response to the special promotion, and expressed an interest in a Kool-Aid Man II project. But at the time (July, August, 1983) Mattel Electronics was dealing with a massive layoff and management restructuring, and Kool-Aid Man II apparently got lost in the shuffle.

One magazine dubbed Kool-Aid Man as the "stupidest video game of 1983," adding "What's next, the Michelin Man game?"As a result, to this day when someone refers to Kool-Aid Man, Mark Kennedy corrects them with, "that's the AWARD-WINNING Kool-Aid Man!"

 
http://www.mobygames.com/game/intellivision/kool-aid-man_
http://www.intellivisiongames.com/bluesky/games/credits/1983c.html#kool_aid