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Get your big break in Pro Gaming thanks to Doritos

by JC Fletcher { Feb 23rd 2010 at 9:27AM }

Do you want to get in fighting shape for your pro gaming debut? Turn to Doritos! The "bold, intense snack brand" announced a "Pro-Gaming Combine" -- essentially a training camp for kids who want to play Halo 3 for a living. During the three-day event, players who show promise in the areas of "slaying power, teamwork/communication, leadership, objective play and support play" will undergo further evaluation by the "MLG Scout Team," just like in sports! One four-person team and four individuals from each location winning a trip to the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit Event and National Championship Competition.

Team passes for the first event, in Nashville, Tennessee, go on sale at 7PM EST tonight, with individual passes available tomorrow at the same time. The full schedule of Combines is available after the break.

Continued →

You can choose the Madden 11 cover athlete

by Andrew Yoon { Feb 4th 2010 at 3:30PM }

Another year, another Madden cover announcement. But wait, this year has a twist! EA and Doritos have teamed up with a unique promotion, allowing fans to vote on who they want to grace the cover of this year's annual gridiron update. The three candidates for this year's cover include Vikings' defensive end Jared Allen, Saints quarterback Drew Brees, and Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne.

It may be tempting to choose your favorite athlete out of the bunch, but we urge you to play it smart. Instead, think about this as a strategic opportunity to inflict the Madden Curse on your most hated team! Best of all, you can vote every day to inflict as much negative karma as possible.

In addition to being able to decide who lands the cover of Madden 11, the Doritos-sponsored promotion also offers entry into a contest. Most notably, the weekly grand prize is a trip for two to see the NFL Draft in New York City this April. Considering you don't have to buy a single bag of Doritos to participate, this promo seems like a must for any NFL fan.

Doritos Unlock Xbox finalists narrowed to two

by Justin McElroy { Jan 25th 2010 at 5:30PM }

We hate to pick sides, but we think we've already settled on a favorite competitor of the two Doritos Unlock Xbox finalists. See if you can detect which one.

Jill Robertson's "Avatar Crash Course": Maneuver your Avatar through a zany obstacle course.
Justin Carpenter's "Harm's Way": It's just like your favorite racing game, except oh shit there are snipers shooting at you.

Both finalists will work with a dev team to turn their idea into reality before being judged by the community, but we frankly don't see the point. The visceral thrill of racing combined with the heart-pounding exhilaration of knowing someone's trying to shoot your gas tank? Watch out, Gran Turismo! ... Actually, watch out, everybody ... you know, because of all the snipers.

Unlock Xbox finalists announced

by Andrew Yoon { Jan 13th 2010 at 4:00PM }

Did you vote in last year's Unlock Xbox competition? If so, did your pick make the final cut? Gamers and amateur designers were encouraged to submit their original ideas in the Doritos-sponsored competition. Out of over a thousand submissions, two will be turned into real (and free!) XBLA games. The three finalists to be considered by Microsoft execs are:

Harm's Way -- snipers and drivers team up in a game that combines racing and blowing someone's brains out. Delicious!
Avatar Crash Course -- inspired by Japanese obstacle courses, you must "press buttons, wiggle sticks, and jump up and down to survive."
Thrown -- "the whole point of it is to smash into other vehicles in order to throw the driver from their car and then run them over." A feel good game!

We're somewhat surprised by the violence involved in some of these XBLA suggestions. But perhaps we're looking in the wrong place for class, considering the last winner of Doritos' contest involved dinosaurs eating exploding trucks (seriously).

Unlock Xbox contest down to eight finalists, voting begins for final three

by Ben Gilbert { Dec 4th 2009 at 5:00AM }

Last year's free Xbox Live Arcade game from the Unlock Xbox contest, Dash of Destruction, may not have been the best game we ever played, but it was certainly far from the worst. Also, it had that whole costing nothing thing going for it, so that helped our opinions considerably. This year, our chances of getting a fun game have doubled, with the contest's 1,500 competitors vying for two spots rather than one.

The final eight contestants have been culled from the initial submissions (listed after the break), and are now available to be voted on over at the contest's website, ultimately determining three game ideas to be given final pitches at Microsoft. From there, we get two XBLA games full of Doritos' "bold, intense" branding -- and at the very least some free Achievements.

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New Unlock Xbox contest offers $50k prize

by Richard Mitchell { Aug 31st 2009 at 6:59PM }

Microsoft and Doritos have announced that the "Unlock Xbox" competition – in which gamers compete to have their game ideas developed into a full-fledged XBLA title – is back. Xbox gamers will likely remember Dash of Destruction, the winner of the first competition, likely because it was free and offered some of the easiest Achievements around. Things are a little bit different this year, as there will be not one but two winners, both of which will see their ideas developed into an XBLA title. In addition, the fan-selected grand prize winner will receive a "$50,000 gaming consultant project for Doritos." We're not really sure what that means, but there's probably a lot of nacho cheese dust involved.

If you think you've got a gameplay idea that can top dinosaurs eating Dorito trucks (UNLIKELY!), head on over to the official Unlock Xbox site and sign up. Entries will be accepted until October 4.

This Wednesday: A dash of advergaming

by James Ransom-Wiley { Dec 15th 2008 at 5:59PM }

If this looks like a game that should be free, well, it's because it is free. The game, you may recall, is Dash of Destruction, the winner of last year's Xbox Live Arcade Doritos promotion. After a year and change in the hands of developer NinjaBee, tasked with the rather expensive Flash-to-XBLA conversion (it costs your credibility, you know), the "game" is regrettably here. Unfortunately for NinjaBee, thirteen months of stalling was not enough time for the higher power to forget. See what happens when you bet your soul? And lose.

Thankfully, continuing in the proud tradition of Yaris (R.I.P.), Dash of Destruction will be offered to us for exactly 0

. This one's on Doritos -- muchas gracias little golden ones!

DORITOS Dash of Destruction wins Unlock Xbox

by Dustin Burg { Nov 19th 2007 at 3:45PM }

After months of submitting, waiting, revealing, more waiting, playing and some final waiting the Doritos sponsored Unlock Xbox contest has officially come to an end. And we survived. The winning submission ended up being Mike Borland's dinosaur delivery game called DORITOS Dash of Destruction which will be fully developed and placed onto the Xbox Live Arcade sometime early next year for all to enjoy. You can preview what Dash of Destruction has to offer by trying out the demo over at the Unlock Xbox website. We aren't sure how (for the lack of a better word) cheesy the game will end up being, but it'll be free and will be used to market a product. So really ... how bad could it be? ::cough:: Yaris ::cough::

'Doritos Dash of Destruction' coming to XBLA (unfortunately)

by Scott Jon Siegel { Nov 19th 2007 at 3:30PM }

The finalists were played, the votes were tallied, and only one of the five weaksauce Doritos flash titles would be turned into an actual, factual Xbox Live Arcade title, thanks to Doritos' Unlock Xbox Competition. Announced today was the official winner: Mike Borland will be taking his game concept, Doritos Dash of Destruction, to Ninjabee Studios to be turned into a fully-working XBLA game.

Dash of Destruction has players taking on the role of either a T-Rex or a Doritos truck, in a race around a city to see who can win: the Doritos truck (by making it safely out of the city) or the T-Rex (by eating the Doritos truck). The concept is cute, but the execution on the Unlock Xbox website is practically unplayable.

Like the other four finalists, the Flash-based demo of the game was developed by advergame studio Blockdot. Clearly Blockdot had a lot on its plate while developing these demos, as they all suffer from numerous glitches and other results of rushed coding. It's clear that voting must have been based more on the concepts than the final games. Here's hoping Ninjabee -- whose previous titles include Outpost Kaloki X, Eets, and Band of Bugs -- can turn Doritos Dash of Destruction into something a bit more polished.

Doritos' Xbox 360 arcade game finalists available to play

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 1st 2007 at 6:40PM }

The call went out for submissions, finalists were chosen and now here's the chance to actually play the final beta designs in Doritos' Unlock Xbox contest. Here's an opportunity to test the games and chose your favorite. The whole process is pretty much painless and the winning design will become a full fledged game available on XBLA for free next summer. So, play the games and pick the one you wouldn't mind getting for free next year. If you want to learn more about the finalists you can always watch some bio videos produced about them. Sure, in the grand scheme it's advergaming, but at least more heart went into it than Yaris.

Vote on and play Doritos Unlock Xbox beta games

by Dustin Burg { Oct 29th 2007 at 1:30PM }

The somewhat controversial Doritos sponsored Unlock Xbox contest wrapped some two months ago and now we've been sent word that the voting phase has just begun. If you hop on over to the Unlock Xbox website, you'll be able to play the five finalists' games in their beta state and get your vote on. Though, the five games (Monkeys From Mt. Doritos, Doritos Dash of Destruction, Ultimate Dodgeball Championship, Rythum Racing and PB's Quest for Flavor) can only be demoed online in your internet browser, so for now you'll have to garner an opinion playing them that way. Some of these XBLA games are a bit shameful, some are surprisingly good, but only one can win and only the Xbox 360 community can decide. Cast your vote wisely fanboys, we don't want to have to go through another Yaris experience next year ... eesh.

Doritos announces XBLA game finalists

by Justin McElroy { Aug 21st 2007 at 8:30AM }

In many ways adver-games are better than real games, because in playing them you learn something ... about a product. It's like edutainment, but at the end you want to buy stuff. That synergy will be coming to an Xbox Live Arcade near you thanks to Doritos' "Unlock Xbox" contest, which asked gamers to devise an XBLA game that carried the "bold spirit" of the Doritos brand. Judging from this list of finalists, they'll be giving the creepy Burger King a run for his money. Behold:

Doritos Dinosaur Dash by Mike Borland of Sewickley, PA
Doritos Presents UDC: Ultimate Dodgeball Champions by Devan Moore of Panama City, FL
Monkeys from Mt. Dorito by Juanito Lagasco, III of Algonquin, IL
PB's Quest for Flavor by Jeremy Mattsen of Colorado Springs, CO
Rythum Racing by Kenneth Parker of Warner Robins, GA

We know you have a lot of questions, like "Are the dinosaurs actually dashing for Doritos?," "Is Monkeys from Mt. Dorito the best name for a game ever?" and "Why is PB questing for flavor when there are so many delicious varieties of Doritos-brand snack chips so widely available?" The answers, in order, are "We certainly hope so," "Absolutely," and "We have no idea." Hope that helps.

[Via Gamasutra]

Unlock Xbox games and winners announced

by Dustin Burg { Aug 20th 2007 at 11:30AM }

Major Nelson is back home from his North American mystery tour and so the Doritos team has now officially announced the five winners of the Unlock Xbox contest. The top five XBLA game ideas can be seen over on the official website in all their glory with winning game ideas including psychedelic effects, dinosaurs galore, chip hungry monkeys and some dodge-ball. These five winning entries have already scored their creators some sweet prizes and will now be made into game demos for everyone to try and vote on starting October 29th.

There you have it fanboys, one of these five game ideas will be making it onto the Xbox Live Arcade in the coming months for everyone to download and play. And as a consolation prize for those who submitted an idea that didn't get picked (and are a tad bitter), the Doritos folks are giving away an Xbox 360 bundle every day. See, it's not so bad.

Unlock Xbox winners to get a special visit

by Dustin Burg { Aug 15th 2007 at 5:30PM }

If you entered your XBLA game idea into the Doritos sponsored Unlock Xbox contest be prepared, because winners will be getting a special visit soon. The Xbox community's very own Major Nelson is off on a mysterious trip around the country on a mission to surprise five lucky Unlock Xbox winners by stopping by their homes and telling them the good news. Major can't tell us exactly where he's headed, because that would of course ruin the whole "surprise" element, but be rest assured he's getting the first class travel treatment wherever he goes. And if you end up not getting a visit from Major, head over to the Unlock Xbox website August 20th when the top five ~~better~~ winning game ideas will be announced.

Snack Strong to win Xbox Live or an Xbox 360

by Dustin Burg { Jul 17th 2007 at 12:00PM }

Not only is Doritos sponsoring the Unlock Xbox contest, but they're also rewarding gamers for snacking strong. Through July 22nd, when you head over to Snack Strong Productions and make your way to the Xbox 360 building (stupid flash) you can instantly win an Xbox 360 prize bundle. Heck, you don't even need a code from a Doritos bag to enter as one will be supplied. What's even better is that anyone who registers and plays will be emailed a 48 hour Xbox Live code just for playing. So, go register, get your free code and enter every day for a chance to win some hardware. Everyone's a winner when they Snack Strong ... or something like that.

[Via Xbox.com]