Mick & Mack as the Global Gladiators

The Good
Let's get the whole McDonalds thing out of the way quickly - apart from some small references that I hope you wouldn't let sully your enjoyment this is just a spot on little platformer with a positive ecological message. Yeah I know, being called Global Gladiators and being about the big M you may have expected it to be about forcing burgers down overweight teenagers throats and slowly but surely dominating the planet, but no - somehow McDonalds in the early 90's managed, with this game at least, to align themselves with the green squad in a bid to look all 'Captain Planet' to the kids. Secretly we all know they would sell us the eco-warrior jive with one hand and force feed us offal and tip the greasy packaging straight into the ocean with other, but it is what it is - an anomaly, especially considering it's darn good. Usually such an outing would end in tears but they've dodged the bullet with some strong elements that I will now pop into a handy bite sized list format for you to devour with you eyeballs and mind:

THE GOOD - - Brilliant graphics, on par with the SMS version of Chuck Rock II. - Top animation and use of the colour pallet. - Intuitive, responsive and flexible controls. - Great level design with a few interesting themes - especially the first, phlegm-tastic looking 'Slime World.' - Good positive eco friendly message complete with recycling mini game! - Inventive enemies that move around with equally smooth animation as your little character. - Decent soundtrack that doesn't grate and if it does it can be turned off

The Bad
THE BAD: - Not too sure what your character is firing - looks like some Maccies secret sauce! - The whole 'McDonalds thing' is as hard to swallow as their eco-friendly alignment...not to mention their chicken nuggets. - A bit derivative.

The Bottom Line
CONCLUSION: One of the better platformers that infested the 8-Bit era and one of the best ports of said game. A worthy buy and at least you know at the second to third hand condition that you'll be purchasing the game in that none of your hard earned cash will be going into the pockets of the greasy coronary inducing evil that is McDonalds.