Black Myth: Wukong continues to make a noise in China, this time through a nationwide McDonald’s collaboration designed to coincide with this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival.
On the elaborate and specially designed menu are, according to China Insider and the McDonald’s China website, a huge black double beef “mooncake” (the Mid-Autumn Festival is also sometimes called the Mooncake Festival), a crispy chicken burger “mooncake”, shrimp nuggets, which sound weird, curly fries and themed McFlurries. There’s even a weird black-cased dessert thing, with a gooey yellow and white filling. Apparently this is a sesame lava pie, whatever that is, but to me it looks like a crusted, elongated Cadbury’s Creme Egg.
But better yet! There will also be coinciding merch pop-ups in the biggest Chinese cities where people can buy exclusive Black Myth: Wukong x McDonald’s merch. The most elaborate of these pieces is a dressing gown (it might be a wearable fleece thing – it’s a bit unclear) which is black with ornate Wukong-related design-work and comes with a matching headband, which, admittedly, I rather like. There’s a horrid white dressing gown with McDonald’s logos and burgers on, too.
The collaboration starts today in China, so hurry on over, and runs in thousands of restaurants until 21st October. And I know what you’re thinking: lucky bastards – why do they get black burgers and dressing gowns and not us, in the West? Well we can’t have it because we didn’t give Black Myth: Wukong Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024, that’s why. Don’t, Bertie, don’t.
Maybe a better question is why, a year after release, Black Myth: Wukong is still being celebrated in China. Well don’t forget there’s a follow-up game called Black Myth: Zhong Koi in development, which like Wukong, takes another iconic figure from Chinese folklore – the evil spirit-killing deity Zhong Koi – and spins a game around him.
