Colonel Sanders is the renowned founder-come-mascot of everyone’s favourite fried chicken brand. Ok, not everyone’s, but you get the point. As gamers, we’ve come to see the Earl of eleven herbs and spices in our industry on more than one occasion.
From the infamous KFConsole that never saw the light of day to being a character on the Covid-19 hit Animal Crossing. We see him in his butt-kicking anime style at Comic-Con, and, for those who know, he can even be romanced in the weird dating simulator, I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator.
It turns out that Katsuhiro Harada, the chief developer of the Tekken franchise, has wanted the Colonel in his games for years. He even went to the head office of KFC in Japan to try to strike a deal.
In an interview with TheGamer, Harada said that the meeting didn’t go down well.
As he entered the meeting, the KFC team gave Harada a “bad look,” and he knew from that point on that his dream was never going to see the light of day.
“They weren’t very open to the idea,” he says. “[Colonel Sanders] appeared in games after that. So maybe it was just him fighting against someone [that] was posing a problem for them. But it just goes to show how difficult these types of discussions are.”
Unfortunately, this means we’re not likely to see the Kentucky Fried Colonel in any fighting game anytime soon unless KFC is planning some sort of fighting game that releases on day one with my dream chicken gaming console, which I still hope for.
