This is not a joke trailer. As of this writing this game does exist!
For those of you who don’t remember or have never heard of this game, the original Chex Quest was a kid-friendly clone of Doom, a popular game to clone and ID Software rarely seemed to have a problem with it. You play an unnamed member of Chex Squadron, in a world of anthropomorphic cereal and other breakfast foods, whose nutritional research station is overrun by Flemoids, snot-like creatures from another dimension. To get past the usual “shoot monsters with guns” gameplay weapons called Zorchers (which frankly resemble remote controls a lot of the time) are used to send the Flemoids back to their dimension. For 1996 this was a fun DOS game and one of the very very rare occasions Chex cereals came with anything besides the bag that keeps the cereal fresh.
The game was followed up with a downloadable sequel on the official website and in I think 2008 they finally made a third one. Meanwhile fan mods abounded as the game was a nostalgic favorite. If you liked the actual Doom here’s a strange mod that was still fun. If you’re like me and aren’t into the dark themes and imagery, it makes for a great alternative. Somewhere along the line our mystery hero got the name “Chex Man” and later “Chex Warrior” according to the Angry Video Game Nerd in his review. Since then the retro PC gaming community has been all over this forgotten gem. Here’s another review by Lazy Game Reviews that I add only because there’s no swearing like the AVGN’s video and I want to drive some traffic to his channel. It’s fascinating if you’re into old computers and old computer games.
So last week I felt this urge to look up the game again and to my surprise learned that a remake of the original game has been produced, this time through Chex MIX, the ready-made snack version of the party favorite. (Although I don’t remember being at a party that had them even as homemade. Granted I don’t get out much.) It’s not a total remake. I’ve played maybe a level and a half before getting slimed and after getting a handle on the controls. Our hero is now named Fred Chexter and is a lot more chatty. The cereal based lifeforms are now snack based. The layout is both familiar to what I remember and different enough to feel like a fresh game. I’m enjoying so far and I haven’t even tried the rest of Chex Mix Squadron, who are unlocked with codes on the official website and through the Chex Mix bags. My only complaint is that you have to play it through Steam. It is not downloadable on its own and unlike the other three official free games in the franchise I see a day where this will not be playable. That makes me sad
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Also included on the website is a downloadable comic, Untold Tales of Chex Quest Anthology. It’s done in both .pdf for the average reader and .cbz for the die-hard e-comic reader. These 50 pages include a forward by James Rolfe discussing how he learned about the game and a series of short stories introducing us to Fred and his new team. That’s what I’m reviewing today. Here’s a direct link to the comic download page…wait, where is it? I don’t see the link anymore. Where it was is now a Spotify link for the soundtrack. Well, I can link you to the .pdf version which you can also read online and maybe this link to the .cbz version still works? Try them while they still work.
