How did the Burger King's famous monarch become a video game hero? And should he — and his games — really creep gamers out?

Last month, Burger King launched a trio of Xbox 360 games (which are also playable on the original Xbox) starring the fast-food chain's plastic-domed mascot: the racing game "Pocketbike Racer," a bumper-car game "Big Bumpin' " and a surprise-people-with-burgers stealth adventure called "Sneak King." The games sell for $4 and the cost of a value meal and have managed middle-of-the-road reviews.

That's a better deal than many gamers expected, and the resulting BK games have become something of a cult cause on gaming blogs. Here's the back story, and a hint of what's next.

The unusual arrangement came together during a "chance meeting between Burger King and Xbox executives at Cannes Film Festival in 2005," according to Chris Swan, project manager at the arcade division of Blitz Games. Blitz is located in England, where they know a bit about monarchs. Blitz was brought on in February 2006, and the three games were in development for about seven months.

"We really wanted to keep it family-friendly, so we didn't want to get into the more violent styles of game," said Martha Tomas Flynn, senior director for national promotions at Burger King. That means BK and Blitz didn't even consider a first-person burger-shooter. Instead, Swan said, Burger King asked for a sneaking game to fit with a TV ad campaign featuring the King's stealth feeding. The restaurant chain's ad company dreamed up the pocket-bike racing. And Blitz dreamed up the bumper cars.

"Sneak King" was the toughest game to get right, Swan said. "Creating the initial concept for 'Sneak King' was straightforward enough, as it had to involve sneaking up on people and surprising them with burgers," Swan said. "The locations were equally easy to agree on as they represent places that have been in the King's ad spots. However, 'Sneak King' was always the riskiest of the three games as it wasn't fun to play for the initial two-thirds of development."

The other games clicked earlier, but "Sneak King" — with a dummy playing the role of the King — just wasn't clicking. "It was only when we replaced the placeholder mesh and animations with the final King model and the actual [motion-capture] data that it started to work for everyone," Swan said. "It really did test a lot of people's faith during the early stages of development."

The King's signature sneaking moves in the game and the commercials may be funny to some, but isn't the guy kind of creepy with all his lurking around? "He's a benevolent king," Tomas Flynn said, "and he's very unique in that regard. It's hard to say whether he's intentionally creepy, but we definitely understand that he comes across that way sometimes."

He's also a corporate mascot, and advertising isn't something gamers have universally embraced. Vocal gamers flip out when product placement distracts from an immersive gaming experience, and many have debated what kind of ads fit in games and which don't (see "Slay A Dragon, Buy A Pizza: Gamers Pitched Real Products In Virtual Worlds"). And then there are adver-games, the type of pop-up Internet window mini-games enticing you to sink a putt to win an airline discount that no one usually pays even a few dollars for. The BK team was well aware of the pitfalls here.

"The plan for the game[s] and where we ended up was to make a legitimate entertainment experience that uses the Burger King icons as licensed characters," Tomas Flynn said. "It very much wasn't an adver-gaming initiative. We were very aware of it, and we took every precaution we could to make that clear to the consumer."

Swan offered his take: "The games aren't about putting the BK logo on every screen. In fact, it isn't in any of the three games, and there are no direct product sales pitches." So the Blitz team wasn't designing its games with the prevailing thought that people playing them should want to eat burgers? "At no point in the games do we try and tell you just how tasty a Whopper is and why you therefore need to go and buy one," Swan added. "Our objective was to make sure people who bought the games had the best value for money and a great experience — a goal we always strive for and one that marries well with BK's objectives."

Tomas Flynn said Burger King is "really pleased" with the response to the games. Asked what he is proudest of, Swan calls out the online hockey-style mode in "Big Bumpin'."

Happy enough, they indicate that there's a future to all this. Tomas Flynn said additional enhancements available to these games through Xbox Live are in development right now. She didn't provide further details. She also wouldn't quite commit to sequels, saying, "I think we have the opportunity to, and we're evaluating whether it makes sense and what the right way is to do that."

Swan said he would welcome the chance to do more. They still have ideas, and it makes sense. "Making great games is an expensive exercise, especially on next-gen consoles, and often this means gamers have to pay a lot for their games. But the Burger King games have shown a different business model that works. We hope that this is a milestone in video game history and the first of many advertising games."