Doritos Xbox Contest Winner’s Game Idea Debuts

Nearly two years after Mike Borland conceived it, the “Doritos Dash of Destruction” debuted this week as an Xbox Live Arcade game.

Borland’s brainstorm was born as an entry in Doritos’ “Unlock Xbox” challenge in 2007. That campaign, that invited fans to create an Xbox game that embodied the spirit of the Doritos brand, generated thousands of entries at the time.

In “Doritos Dash of Destruction,” a Tyrannosaurus Rex chases a delivery truck loaded with Doritos. Players can opt to assume the role of the dinosaur running amok or the driver of the delivery truck wheeling through city streets to escape the dinosaur’s clutches.

The game was developed by NinjaBee and published by Microsoft. It’s available online free of charge.

“Unlock Xbox” is part of a series of promotions Doritos has designed to cede control to consumers. In its “Crash the Super Bowl” campaigns, Doritos screened a consumer-created ad during the big game two years ago. This past year it aired a tune written by a Doritos fan, and it will give a $1 million bonus if a fan-created ad in the upcoming Super Bowl becomes the top-rated one in USA Today’s annual Ad Meter.

Parent company Frito-Lay also has a contest in progress offering consumers a shot at talking about a personal passion in a TV spot planned for next year’s Academy Awards telecast.