>> GAMER MEMORIES
MARIO WITH MILK?
Memories of Breakfast with our
Favorite Game Characters >>
By Josh LaFrance
For anyone born in the last 50
years or so, Saturday mornings
have always been synonymous
with cartoons (sadly those days
have ended). And, for any kid
watching this programming, we
knew we would be inundated with
commercials for 2 things: Breakfast
Cereals and Toys. Once video games
began to catch on in the late 70's /
early 80's, it only made sense for
video game manufacturers to work
out deals with the manufacturers
of these products and license out
their most famous characters.
I have many fond memories
of Saturday mornings filled with
surgary cereals, so I thought it would
be fun to take a little trip down
8 | classic console
memory lane and talk about the
most famous ones of the bunch.
The most famous by far has to
be the Nintnedo Cereal System.
Made by Ralston Cereals, it was
released in 1988. This was a very
unique product, as there actually
were two completely seperate bags
of cereal inside of one box. One
side, the Super Mario Bros. Action
Series, consisted of fruit flavored
Marios, Musrooms, Goombas,
Bowsers and other enemies. The
second side was known as the Zelda
Adventure Series, and consisted
of berry flavored pieces. Amongst
those pieces you would find Links,
Boomerangs, Keys and Shields.
Any good cereal relies on a
great gimmick to sell to kids, and
Nintendo's cereal was no exception.
On the back panel of each box were
collectible trading cards known
as "Nintendo Power Cards". Also