Technologies

Review: McDonald’s Minecraft Meals Are Out, With Toys and Nether Flame Sauce

Commentary: I tried the Minecraft-themed McNuggets sauce. It might just be the hottest sauce Mickey D’s has ever offered.

The children yearn for the mines. It’s no April Fools’ Day joke: Kids at my local McDonald’s were streaming out the door on Tuesday with the new Minecraft-themed Happy Meal boxes when I drove up to try the new offering. It’s all a promotion for A Minecraft Movie, which opens Friday, April 4, and it draws inspiration from the popular video game available across platforms including Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile phones. So, of course, I had to try everything they offered and report back. And I think my tongue is still burning days later. That Nether Flame Sauce is no joke.

Read more: McDonald’s Launches Minecraft Happy Meals, Plus a ‘Nether’ Hot Sauce for Nuggets

Happy Meals: 12 toys, digital game, Creeper box

You know what a Happy Meal is. It’s a boxed kids meal with a toy, where the kid can choose between a hamburger, cheeseburger, or 4-piece or 6-piece chicken McNuggets. Fries, apples and a drink also come with it.

For this promotion, even the Happy Meal box is Minecraft-themed. Personally, I think the Happy Meal boxes are much cuter than the themed boxes that come with the adult Minecraft Movie Meal. My Happy Meal box looked the familiar green Minecraft monsters called Creepers, but this Creeper has kind of a furry look, like it was a cousin of Sesame Street’s green Muppet Oscar the Grouch

But it’s the toy, sorry — «figurine», that will have kids making multiple trips to their local McD’s. There are 12 different toys. Mine was marked «#1, grass block and llama.» When you open the box the toy comes in, you might think the llama was left behind, because the toy itself is a closed green grass block. But you can open the block and inside is a little llama figurine, permanently attached to one side of the block.

The box my toy came in shows the other options you might get. There are six different block-and-creature toys, like the one I got, and six slightly bigger figurines that don’t come inside a block. And the walls of the block are kind of like puzzle pieces. You can take the block apart and lay its walls flat and connect them. So if you get more toys, you can make a little playmat of them all, and even attach the six slightly bigger figures, because their bases fit the «puzzle.»

The little toy box in each Happy Meal also comes with a scannable code on one side to unlock a digital game where players can complete a quest in the Minecraft Movie world. I tried it, and it’s actually more fun than a free mini-game from a fast food eatery has any right to be. Good job, Ronald.

Minecraft Movie Meal: McD-themed toys, in-game bonus item, Gold Block box

McDonald’s also was smart enough to know that adults like collectibles too, and that they might have bigger appetites. So the fast food chain is also offering a Minecraft Movie Meal — kind of like a bigger Happy Meal. Choose a Big Mac or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, with fries and a drink.

The boxes for these meals are like larger Happy Meal boxes. But instead of being Creeper-themed, the one I got was designed to look like a Minecraft gold block. While I prefer the Creeper, it’s smart that the adult meal and kid meal boxes are themed differently.

And then, the toy. The grownup meal toy was a big letdown compared to the Happy Meal toy options. While the Happy Meal toys were actual Minecraft characters, the ones in the adult meals are McDonald’s mascots created with that blocky, Minecraft look. The figurines have a bit of a twist — with the toys including a Grimace Egg and Zombie Hamburglar. Mine was called Birdie Wings, and is based on Birdie the Early Bird, a mascot McDonald’s introduced in 1980 to promote its then-new breakfast items.

Each figure, including my Birdie Wings, comes with a shiny card with that figure’s image. You scan the QR code on the card to unlock a matching item in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

Nether Flame Sauce is hot, hot, hot

Maybe the most fun part of the McDonald’s-Minecraft promotion is a new chicken McNugget dipping sauce called the Nether Flame Sauce. It’s named for the Minecraft underworld, and I think it’s the hottest sauce McDonald’s has ever used. You don’t have to buy the Minecraft Movie Meal or Happy Meal to get the sauce. If you want to try it with fries or something else, you can order the Nether Flame Sauce with any purchase.

I’m a fan of hot sauces of all sorts. While Nether Flame Sauce isn’t one of the hottest hot sauces I’ve ever tried, it’s definitely the hottest McDonald’s dipping sauce I’ve ever tried, and I practically made a career out of reporting on the Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce.

There’s a definite kick to this sauce, which looks like Thai red chili sauce but is less sweet and more spicy. The ingredient list on the sauce packet says it includes chili peppers, cayenne peppers, vinegar, sugar, garlic, apricot concentrate and more. I had an extra sauce packet, and my husband devoured it with leftover French fries.

Final Minecraft-McDonald’s thoughts

Although I have no idea if the upcoming A Minecraft Movie is any good, I feel comfortable grading this McD-Minecraft promotion with a big fat «A.»

I’m not reviewing the non-Nether sauce foods in the meals. It’s McDonald’s. You know what it tastes like.

The boxes are cute. There’s a meal for kids and one for adults. The toys are creative and fun, though in my mind the tiny Happy Meal toys are far more fun to collect than the McDonald’s mascot ones that come in the adult meal.

And best of all, the Nether Flame sauce is a fun, spice-filled change of pace for those of us who don’t mind a fiery dipping option.🔥

Technologies

Verum Messenger: Don’t follow the future. Define it

In a world where information defines influence, Verum Messenger is building a new architecture of digital communication — intelligent, secure, and ready for tomorrow. Here, technology serves not limitations, but possibilities.

Not being part of change. Leading it. Verum Messenger — the future that speaks first.

Technologies

Verum Finance: Stop Spending Months Opening a Bank Account

Stop spending months trying to open a bank account.

Document submissions.
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And all of that — just for a regular card.

With Verum, it’s different.

🚀 Verum Messenger + Verum Finance
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✔ A virtual card
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Open it — and use it.

The future of finance and communication is already here.
Verum — when freedom matters more than banking rules.

Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal