Sneak King: Not just a clever pun

Think “Splinter Cell” meets “Crazy Taxi” with a little bit of The “Sims” mixed in, and you’ve got Sneak King, a new game from Burger King for the Xbox 360. In it, you play the King, the creepy guy in that giant mask from the most recent wave of Burger King commercials. As the game’s name implies, he is very sneaky. And he armed with a whole array of burgers, fries, hash browns, coffee, chicken fries, and any other fast food that the unsuspecting people in the game may desire.

When you enter the game environment, you will notice two things. First, the graphics are actually pretty decent for a $4 game, and second, that the King is the most fruity looking character you’ve ever seen. His robe, tights, and the enormous grin frozen to his face will continue to make you laugh at every ridiculous cut scene through the game.

As the King, you must tiptoe your perpetually-smiling self around while avoiding being seen by passers-by. In order help you on your quest, there are numerous hiding places such as trash cans, hollow logs, and piles of leaves placed strategically around the map. From the super-secret positions, you can leap at unsuspecting people and present them with a tasty morsel, always resulting in cheers and excitement, rather than the fear and terror I think I would feel if someone if a King suit ambushed me with a Whopper.

The more dexterous you are when you present a hungry character with food, either by sneaking up behind them or jumping from a hiding place, the cooler the dance and flourish the King performs. He does all the classics: the train, the arm wave, the moon walk. There is also a style points system based on how hungry the person is, how close you were to them, how many people you’ve delivered to in a row without being seen, how good your flourish was, and whether or not you jumped from a hiding place or not.

The game is based around completing a set of challenges, such as “feed 3 hungry people in 2 minutes” or “feed 5 people without getting seen at all.” Once you have completed 10 challenges in a map, you can move on to the next, each with progressively cooler scenery and increasingly difficult challenges.

Some of my favorite aspects of the game are the hilarious, often pointless, additions to the game play. For instance, you have the option to enter a first person mode in which you can survey the scenery through the mask of the King, which basically means that the screen turns black with the exception of two eyeholes, while a Darth Vader-like breathing noise is played.

In addition, the King often displays his prowess with the martial arts: he can punch down trees at the sawmill level and large vertical pipes at a construction site.

While the game play is simple and most of the challenges aren’t too challenging, Sneak King is definitely worth the $4 it costs. The concept as well as the execution is quite good, and I was constantly trying to win enough challenges to get to the next level and see what kind of people the King would sneak up on next.