''Global Gladiators'' is a 1992

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

published and developed by

Virgin Games Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwoo ...

, originally programmed by David Perry for the Sega Genesis and eventually ported by other Virgin Games teams in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

to the Master System,

Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990, in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear pri ...

, and Amiga. The game is based on the

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

fast food chain and has a strong

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

message. The game is a spiritual successor to the NES game ''

M.C. Kids ''M.C. Kids'' is a 1992 platform video game developed and published by Virgin Interactive. It was initially released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in February 1992 in North America, and by Ocean Software in May 1993 in Europe. As a lice ...

'', another McDonald's-themed game that also featured Mick and Mack as its playable characters.

Gameplay

In the

single-player game A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

, the player controls Mick or Mack through four worlds; Slime World, Mystical Forest, Toxi-town and Arctic World. Each world has several sub-stages where the character must collect a certain number of

Golden Arches The Golden Arches are the symbol of McDonald's, the global fast food restaurant chain. Originally, real arches were part of the restaurant design. They were incorporated into the chain's logo in 1962, which resembled a stylized restaurant, and i ...

to advance. They are guided in their quest by

Ronald McDonald Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. He inhabits the fictional world of McDonaldland, with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and ...

, who appears at the beginning and the end of the game. The characters are armed with a

Super Soaker Super Soaker is an American brand of recreational water gun that uses manually-pressurized air to shoot water with greater power, range, and accuracy than conventional squirt pistols. The Super Soaker was invented in 1989 by engineer Lonnie Joh ...

-type gun that shoots gooey projectiles.

Development

The game engine is the same used in other Virgin Interactive games such as ''

Cool Spot ''Cool Spot'' is a 1993 platform game developed and published by Virgin Games for the Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was ported by other teams to Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, Amiga, and MS-DOS in 199 ...

'' and ''

Disney's Aladdin ''Aladdin'' is a Disney media franchise comprising a film series and additional media. It began with the 1992 American animated feature of the same name, which was based on the tale of the same name, and was directed by Ron Clements and John ...

'', as all of them (Mega Drive/Genesis versions) were handled by David Perry's programming team, which eventually turned into

Shiny Entertainment Shiny Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, California. Founded in October 1993 by David Perry, Shiny was the creator of video games such as ''Earthworm Jim'', '' MDK'' and ''Enter the Matrix''. Perry ...

Ports

Graftgold Graftgold was an independent computer game developer that came to prominence in the 1980s, producing numerous computer games on a variety of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit platforms. History The Hewson Era The studio Graftgold was formed in 1983, whe ...

and

Krisalis Software Krisalis Software Limited was a British video game developer and publisher founded by Tony Kavanagh, Peter Harrap, and Shaun Hollingworth in 1987 under the name Teque Software Development Limited as a subsidiary label (beginning in 1988) unti ...

helps with the ports to the Master System,

, and the Amiga. Ports to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo Entertainment System were in development but were never completed. A

ROM image A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge, or used to contain a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's main board. The term is frequen ...

has since surfaced. A

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

port of the title was also fully developed (by Damian Stones, of Climax) but was never released for the same legal reasons as the Super NES version.

Reception

Sega Pro ''Sega Pro'' was the first publication from Paragon Publishing and catered for the Sega consoles: the Master System, Game Gear and the Mega Drive. Early editorial staff included Dominic Handy (editor), Les Ellis (games editor), Dave Perry (de ...

'' magazine gave an overall score of 93/100 noting the game’s challenging difficulty, praising the games graphics stating “brilliantly animated sprites and characters give this game a very polished feel” and the game’s sound as “very much geared to the rave style with a few rocky tunes for good measure” and concluding “A great game that will keep up till the wee hours, a definite purchase for all of you seeking a big challenge.” Mega Action gave an overall score of 93% and describing the game as "A brilliant game with some really nice sprites."

References

External links