Global Gladiators

Global Gladiators is a 1992 platformer for the Sega Mega Drive by Virgin Games — officially a McDonald's advergame, and at the same time proof that even a suspicious brief like that can produce an honest action game. Two kids, Mick and Mack, get pulled out of a burger queue into the world of advertising, and armed with a goo-slinging gun they fight through four worlds: gooey Slime World, mysterious forests, polluted Toxi-Town and an arctic zone.

The core is simple: you run, jump and pelt enemies with sticky projectiles, and each stage requires you to collect a set number of golden M letters before the exit opens. There is also an unexpectedly likeable ecological angle — you are cleaning the world of pollution and tossing litter into bins, which was a rare message for a licensed product in 1992.

The real selling point, though, is craftsmanship. The game was built by programmer David Perry and the team that would go on to make Cool Spot and Aladdin, and it shows: the characters have exceptionally fluid, cartoon-like animation for the era, Mick fidgets and gestures when you stop moving, and the whole thing feels more alive than most contemporary platformers. On top of that sits an excellent Tommy Tallarico soundtrack, some of the best audio squeezed out of the Mega Drive at the time.

There are flaws. The level design gets confusing in places, jumps onto moving platforms can be finicky, and the difficulty spikes hard in the later worlds. Hunting for the M letters also forces you to comb through levels, which works against the game's momentum. It is a very good platformer rather than a brilliant one.

If you want to see what an advergame made with genuine care looks like, this is the prime example. It runs at oldgame.cz directly in your browser, nothing to install.