Obsessively Cataloging Video Game "Pop" Culture
My car just ran out of gas on Route 66 in Terrible Lizards, a 2026 first-person parkour horror game. I think I’ll grab a thirst-quenching Splonk from this machine and then head across the street to explore that creepy roadside dinosaur attraction. What could possibly go wrong?
The Doom Slayer will have to rip and tear his way through the Revelations DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages if he wants to buy a soda from one of these vending machines.
Thanks to SenorChangsJudgement and the r/DOOM community for helping me track this one down!
This vending machine appears in My Friendly Neighborhood, a 2023 FPS. And by FPS, I mean Felt Puppet Shooter. Something has gone terribly wrong with this beloved cast of children’s television puppets, and it’s up to the player to solve the mystery.
Notably, its design takes inspiration from the vending machine seen in the original Half-Life. Thanks for the screenshot, Legerdemancy!
These soda machines from Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School sell something called Escapist’s Edge, which I can only assume is a highly caffeinated study aid.
Unfortunately, one of the worst things about enrolling at Escape Academy is that the Headmaster has turned even the vending machines into elaborate puzzles.
It’s pretty uncool of this cop to stand in the way of my character getting a closer look at that lineup of color soda machines in Digimon Story: Time Stranger.
Things are a little grim in Silent Hill f, but if you’re searching for a good drink, look no further than these Good Drink machines. I hear they’re pretty good. For a drink.
Thanks for the screenshot, DrMarioDSW!
Papa Wheelie is so impressed by this vending machine from Go-Go Town! that he’s been rendered speechless! [Source]
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth adds these ornate black-and-gold potion vending machines to Cloud Strife’s quest, and longtime visitors to the Video Game Soda Machine Project already know the truth: potions are just fantasy soda. [Source]
Magic: The Gathering brought the post-nuclear Wasteland to the tabletop with its 2024 collaboration, Magic: The Gathering – Fallout. The cards later made the jump to Magic: The Gathering Online, which means we have an entirely new batch of digital Nuka-Cola machines to catalog!
In the first screenshot, we have a Nuka-Cola Vending Machine artifact card that comes in two delicious flavors. I’m not an MTG guy, but if I understand the text correctly, it’s basically: “Buy a Nuka-Cola, drink it to heal, and get a cap back toward your next purchase.”
We also have a few cards with art that features Nuka-Cola machines tucked away in the background. Tunnel Snakes rule!
Finally, I wanted to highlight this gorgeous card art from the collaboration featuring Sierra Petrovita, Nuka-Cola’s number-one fan and the patron saint of the Video Game Soda Machine Project!
In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, everyone’s favorite pink guy can inhale a soda machine to activate Vending Mouth mode. In this new and deeply troubling form, Kirby can spit soda cans at enemies to defeat them. [Source]
Here’s the drink machine that Kirby… inhales?… consumes?… envelops?… to transubstantiate into Vending Mouth mode.
BONUS! I recently stumbled across a plush version of Vending Mouth Kirby at MINISO. That’s right — it’s a plush version of a video game character who ate a video game soda machine and became a video game character who’s also a video game soda machine!
