Chex Quest HD
View the case- Brand
- Chex
- Year
- 2020
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- In-Game
- Agency
- Martin Williams
Objective
Chex Mix needed to reintroduce a beloved 1996 cereal-box game to a teen audience the agency described as having sharp ad-blindness for anything that reads as marketing. The goal was to turn nostalgia and an existing gaming community into real engagement and, ultimately, snack sales.
Solution
The player downloads Chex Quest HD free on Steam and lands on a title screen with a REDEEM CODE field. Codes printed on specially marked Chex Mix bags, posted on the brand's Instagram, or listed on chexquest.com unlock six playable Chex Mix Squadron characters, each modeled on a different piece in the snack mix. From there it plays as a straightforward retro FPS: the player suits up and blasts through five HD-remastered levels, zapping flemoid slugs and sending them back to their home dimension, either solo or in split-screen with a second player. Each unlocked character has its own campaign ending, so finishing the full story means collecting more codes from more bags. A session ends when a level is cleared or the player powers off to go hunt for the next code.
- 1
Specially marked bags of Chex Mix carry a printed unlock code, also distributed through the brand's Instagram and its game website; the site forwards to a brand hub pointing to a free download on Steam.
- 2
The title screen offers a REDEEM CODE entry: entering a code unlocks one of six Chex Mix Squadron characters for both the campaign and multiplayer, while un-redeemed characters stay locked on the select screen.
- 3
The campaign opens in first person on the planet Bazoik, where flemoids — cereal-eating creatures from another dimension — have overrun a snack federation's base and taken civilians captive; the player's goal is to retake the base and free them.
- 4
Combat runs on non-lethal "zorchers" that banish flemoids back to their dimension rather than killing them, starting with a base zorcher and adding a faster-firing rapid zorcher partway through the first level.
- 5
Each level is a loop of exploring corridors and rooms, clearing them of flemoids, and finding color-coded keys that unlock matching doors, with a switch at the end of the level triggering completion; hidden secret terminals are tucked away for players who search side areas.
- 6
The campaign spans five levels — reworked versions of the original 1996 maps — as the player frees civilians and clears the base level by level.
- 7
The campaign's ending changes based on which character the player chose, so seeing every ending means unlocking every character through separate codes.
- 8
Beyond solo play, the game supports local split-screen co-op and versus modes (versus needs two compatible gamepads on PC, and Switch supports up to four players on one console), online play via Steam Remote Play Together, and six Steam achievements tracking progress.
- 9
Outside the game, the brand hub offers a free 56-page comic anthology in PDF or CBZ with character backstories and posters, and a companion soundtrack playlist on Spotify.
