McDonald’s ‘Minecraft Movie’ Meal brings the heat with Nether Flame Sauce

There are few things that make me sound like an old than trying to discuss Minecraft. It’s Legos ... but in a video game ... ?

I dunno.

I understand that Minecraft is a massive, massive hit, though, and that A Minecraft Movie hits theaters this Friday. The PG-rated movie, which stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa and Danielle Brooks and is helmed by Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, is tracking for an opening weekend somewhere around $60 million.

To promote the movie, Warner Bros. teamed up with McDonald’s. McDonald’s is no stranger to a movie tie-in. They’ve been doing Happy Meals with toys from movies for decades now. (Now that I have a daughter, though, I’ve seen firsthand how the quality of these toys is incredibly cheaper than they were when I was a kid in the 1990s. At least our cheap plastic had moveable parts.) The twist with A Minecraft Movie is that in addition to a Happy Meal, McDonald’s has also released A Minecraft Movie Meal for adults.

So what makes A Minecraft Movie Meal an adult meal, you ask? In addition to “a limited-edition collectible” (cough, bigger chunk of plastic), the ten-piece McNuggets version of the meal comes with Nether Flame Sauce. (The Big Mac variety does not.)

Was McDonald’s A Minecraft Movie Meal, which debuted on Tuesday, enough to turn me into a Minecraft fan?

Where I found it

This one is a McDonald’s exclusive.

What I paid

For $11.99, you get 10-piece Chicken McNuggets with two Nether Flame Sauces, a medium fries and a medium drink.

My thoughts

The Nether Flame Sauce is the only actual new food in the A Minecraft Movie Meal, so let’s start there.

I wasn’t sure about it when I first opened the little pod. I’m normally a honey mustard or sweet and sour guy when it comes to my McNuggets dipping sauce. I thought the smell of the Nether Flame Sauce might have been a bit too vinegary at first, but after dipping a McNugget into it, I realized I shouldn’t be concerned.

It’s good stuff.

The sauce, which McDonald’s notes is made of “crushed red pepper and flaming cayenne, balanced with hints of garlic and sweetness,” is a fun twist on the usual hot sauces the chain offers alongside its McNuggets. It’s got a slow kick, though. It wasn’t until I was a few McNuggets in when I noticed that I was started to sweat a bit under my eyes. Nothing serious, but it’s something to watch out for if you’re afraid of some heat. If I was eating the A Minecraft Movie Meal in a McDonald’s, there’s a very good chance I would’ve swung back up to the register to order a McFlurry to balance things out.

Make sure you check your order when it comes to the Nether Flame Sauce. Despite adding it to my order through the McDonald’s app, they left it out of my bag at first.

I jumped over to the Minecraft wiki to look up what the Nether is. I was honestly a bit surprised to learn that the Nether is “a dangerous, hell-like dimension containing fire, lava, fungal vegetation, many hostile mobs, and exclusive structures and biomes.” So it’s Hell. (With biomes.) McDonald’s basically released Hell Sauce.

When it comes to the toy, err, the collectible that comes with the A Minecraft Movie Meal, there are six different possibilities: Big Mac Crystal, Birdie Wings, Fry Helmet, Grimace Egg, Soda Potion and Zombie Hamburglar. The Grimace Egg is the easy winner out of this bunch (Business Insider’s Harry Kirsh agrees with me), but I wouldn’t have minded getting the Birdie or Hamburglar collectibles either.

Sadly, my A Minecraft Movie Meal came with the Big Mac Crystal.

“Does it open?” my daughter asked me. No. No, it does not. It’s just a plastic cube.

And despite McDonald’s attempt to make this plastic cube sound cool — “this precious block derives its radiant shine from melty cheese and a toasty sesame seed bun” — it’s not cool.

You know what else isn’t cool? McDonald’s handing out old Happy Meals instead of the current ones. My daughter got some generic digital pets Happy Meal instead of one of the toys from A Minecraft Movie. Could you imagine if your McDonald’s had pulled that bait-and-switch back in the days of Teenie Beanie Babies? There would’ve been a riot.

Final verdict: BUY

At the end of the day, this is just a 10-piece McNugget meal with a new spicy sauce. If trying a new sauce is something you’re interested in — and based on the chaos that once surrounded McDonald’s bringing back its Szechuan sauce after Rick and Morty popularized it, I know this is something a lot of people are interested in — give the A Minecraft Movie Meal a chance. Just be ready to be disappointed by the chunk of plastic it comes with.