connrrr I think the first time I became aware of Mega Man Legends I saw it in a video rental store in the late nineties.
1998. I’ll never forget it…
It was the year of that Mega Man Legends release in the Rocky Mountains.
Soon after, the news was out to the whole world revealing that Orbitz was the fault of a secret viral experiment conducted by the national food and beverage enterprise, The Clearly Food & Beverage Company.
Not taking any chances, the President of the United States ordered a contingency plan - To discontinue Orbitz.
Soon its stock prices crashed and for all intents and purposes, Orbitz was finished.
Twenty five years have passed since that horrendous beverage…
In that same video store in 1998—possibly on the same visit where I spotted MML on the black PVC-coated wire CD rack for rental—I also had my one and only encounter with the now notorious Canadian soft drink Orbitz, known for its little edible globules suspended in a sugary gellan gum solution and which would be discontinued the same year.
I remember I was there with my two friends Joel and… maybe Troye or Derek?? (I’m sorry other friend I can’t remember which of you were there.) This visit sticks in my mind most importantly because: I bought a bottle of Orbitz and drank it. It was good!! I remember the texture of the globules trickling down my throat and the cloying sweetness that must have tasted as normal as water to a child. I tried getting my friends to try it for themselves but they were too scared, the absolute wimps. This is a memory I will always associate with Mega Man Legends for better or worse.
Now whenever I’m at the Thai grocer and I feel the inclination to, I pick up a bottle of basil see drink—very likely the inspiration for Orbitz in the first place, right down to the bottle shape, if their goal wasn’t only to make a drinkable lava lamp—and think of the me that was brave enough to drink a weird gimmicky plastic-coloured soft drink that day in 1998.
