Released in 1975 by Milton Bradley, The McDonald’s Game has players scramble to correctly fulfill food orders, thwart the competition, and be first to score 25 points.
GAMEPLAY
Players strive to attain a 25-point score by progressing through a series of food-order challenges that call for players to be the first to correctly deliver a customer’s order.
Each player picks a McDonaldland character to represent themselves on the game board. The 4 characters include Ronald, Mayor McCheese, Grimace, and Hamburgler. Players then choose a marble in the colour that corresponds to the base of their chosen characters. The marble is an important element of the game because it is used to determine the player who is first to complete an order.
A series of food cards are dealt out and players place the cards on the food racks in front of them. Players are only allowed 3 of each individual food item in their food rack at any given time. The remaining food cards are placed face-down on the board.
Each player rolls the dice. The player with the highest roll goes first. Beginning at one of the four starting points located at the corners of the board, players continue to roll the dice and move their characters along. Stops along the way instruct players to take food cards from the board and trade cards with opponents.
The competition gains momentum when a player lands on the “Let’s Go To McDonald’s” space and chooses a Menu card that contains a customer order. Once the order is read, the player then says “…Please.” or reads the changes outlined to the original order (a process that can cause some confusion and missteps). The Menu card is then placed face down. Players — with the exception of the one who read the order — now have to assemble the order based on their memory of what was read.
Once a player has assembled the order, they drop their marble into the chute at the centre of the board. The player who was first to drop their marble has their order reviewed. If the order is correctly fulfilled, they take the points. If the order is incomplete, the next player who dropped their marble into the chute gets a chance to earn the points. Points awarded are based on the number of food items on the Menu card.
The winning player of each round moves their scoring peg forward. Players can also lose points if they forget to declare a food item that places them over the 3-limit maximum.
Strategy comes into play as players take cards from their opponents. For example, taking a player’s last remaining Big Mac card means that they cannot fulfill an order that includes a Big Mac.
The game continues until one player reaches 25 points.
IN THE BOX
A complete game includes a playing board, 4 cardboard player pawns representing McDonaldland characters (Ronald, Mayor McCheese, Grimace, and the Hamburglar), 4 plastic stands (yellow, blue, green, and white), 4 marbles (yellow, blue, green, and white), 4 plastic racks with 8 slots for food cards and 25 holes to allow for scoring, 4 scoring pegs, 1 marble chute with McDonald’s topper, food cards (15 each of 8 McDonald’s food items — Big Mac, Cheeseburger, Hamburger, French Fries, Chocolate Shake, Filet-O-Fish, Hot Apple Pie, and McDonaldland Cookies), 10 Menu cards, and 1 dice. Instructions are included inside the box.
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