Mick & Mack as the Global Gladiators (Genesis) Playthough - NintendoComplete
319A playthough of Virgin's 1992 license-based platformer for the Sega Genesis, Mick & Mack as the Global Gladiators.
Played through as Mack on the normal difficulty level.
While Global Gladiators is the second Virgin-produced game bearing the McDonald's license following their 1991 NES release of M.C. Kids, it's not a sequel: the two games share little in common beyond their common branding and main characters.
You can find my video of M.C. Kids here if you're interested: https://youtu.be/7nKywTkMnAs
Mick and Mack still are primarily interested in collecting golden arches, but since they've now jumped on the early 90s' heavily politicized environmentalism bandwagon, they must also deal with toxic landfills, melting ice caps, sentient sludge monsters - you know, all the same stuff that people fear as consequences of global warming. Because McDonald's is pro-environment, I guess.
Like Captain Planet and Awesome Possum.
The boys run around several stages wiping out bad guys with rapid-fire "goo shooters" as they collect the 30 McDonald's icons they need to move on, though collecting 75 will earn you a chance to play a recycling mini-game for bonus lives. Wee!
Though it's a platformer with large, fairly open stage layouts, Global Gladiators actually plays a lot like a run-and-gun shooter. The action moves quickly, and most of the areas are densely packed with baddies, so the only reasonable way to get through many areas is to sprint as you wail on the shot button.
The action can become pretty hectic and challenging toward the end, but it also leans toward frustrating in its final stages. The Contra-style multi-directional shooting feels great, but the gun has limited range, and your shots drop off after traveling a certain distance, so you have to be careful about the angles you fire at. This wouldn't be such a big, though, if it weren't for the zoomed-in view and an irritating camera. You often can't see what's directly above or below you without stopping for a second to hold up or down as you wait for the view to pan, but oftentimes you'll get nailed by enemies as your trying to do it. The super-slippery platforming controls don't help much, either, though they are smooth and responsive.
Just watch your feet - shooting your gun knocks you back slightly. It's not a great idea to forget about that when doing jumps on tiny platforms high above the ground. (Cue controller flinging rage fit)
Global Gladiators is notable for being made by the team that would go on to create Shiny with the same engine that they later made Aladdin and Earthworm Jim with. The project was led by David Perry, and Tommy Tallarico did the sound, Erich probably explains why the music sounds so good despite being made with GEMS.
The game looks fantastic (though they really could've gone with some brighter color choices!), it sounds great (Are you ready? Yeah, cool!), and it plays fairly well despite control annoyances.
It's by no means a home-run, but it is much better than you'd probably expect from a game carrying the logo of a fast-food conglomerate. Iit pales in comparison to its predecessor, M.C. Kids, as well as the other Mickey D's console games, Donald Land and McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, but it is a decent playthrough, and few 16-bit games preserve the spirit of the early 90s with as much enthusiasm as Global Champions does.
(One more thought.. that very first screen when you start the game - what the hell? It's funny, but doesn't that seem awfully out of place given the game's target age group?)
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!