Everyone remembers their first console – I remember waking up on my 6th birthday and my parents had set up a Sega Master System II on the TV in mine and my brothers room, so the first thing I saw on the January morning was the demo screen of Sonic the Hedgehog dancing across the screen. After abusing my older brother’s Vectrex – I now had a console of my own.

From then on, I was hooked on platformers. After being confined to one screen by Minestorm & Bedlam, I was released to levels that felt like they’d never end! I devoured Sonic, me and my dad used to stay up ‘late’ and take it in turns playing Sonic and Alex the Kidd in Miracle World, until Match of the Day came on pretty much every Saturday night.

But there was another game that came with the system, an odd curiosity that must have gone untouched for months until I peeled off the little white and blue ‘Sega’ sticker and prised open the notoriously stiff Master System cartridge box, and game was Global Gladiators.



Global Gladiators was a game that was chock full of McDonald’s advertising, sporting the Golden Arches logo on the ‘Press Start’ screen and a story that in some way involved Ronald McDonald (it was 16 years ago, some details might be vague) – but cast your mind back to when you were 6 years old, before you were a jaded cynic, before the thought of ads in games made you scared and angry. Chances are you didn’t care, or if you were like me – the fact that the heroes of the game started their adventure in a McDonalds restaurant, like the ones you’d go to for birthday parties or for a treat; that was fucking cool.



The game itself wasn’t bad either, and the first level was a masterstroke by the developers (which I now know was a team lead by Dave Perry, of the ‘Shiny’ fame). Whilst it was, yes, another platformer; you could tell there was something different about from that first level; ‘Slime World’ (Okay, they were obviously running low on creativity when it came to naming levels)

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The graphics were like nothing in any Sonic the Hedgehog or Psycho Fox; all blocky and bright. This was dark, with organic looking textures, even the ground looked like it was gooey and soft. Where Sonic’s world was all chequered and stylised, Global Gladiators had concentrated more time and love into the art of its 4 levels.

Alex the Kidd had offered me something more than just jumping on enemies – I could punch them with a fist the size of my character and occasionally play Paper, Scissors, Stone with them. Yet here was a game I could fire projectiles from a super soaker-style gun to beat my foes.

I was all just so…different.

I’m fairly sure that if many were to go back and play it now they’d rubbish the game as a horrible little slice of corporate marketing, that’s unforgivably short with unimaginative characters (Mick & Mack, anyone?) a non-existent storyline and worst of all, “Not as good as the Mega Drive version”.

But at the time it was a game of ‘firsts’ for me – the first time I’d seen real-life advertising in games, such an unorthodox graphical style and taking down bad guys with a ‘gun’ and that’s why I think this game should be one of The Remembered.

(And if anyone says I could’ve got a similar experience with Cool Spot. That wasn’t Forgotten now, was it?)

September’s going to be a pretty big deal for me, I've made a few changes to my usual way of life - not least of which is the decision that after 22 years of sponging off my parents; I’m taking the plunge and am going to move with my girlfriend.

As much as I’m going to miss being able to get away with the bare minimum around the house, free food and so on I’m really going to miss gaming with my brothers; see I’ve got 3 younger brothers – and since the days of the N64 they’ve been my favourite Players 2-4 (in descending age order, anyone else with 3 siblings knows ‘how we do’).



But let’s not let this turn into a sadblog! I’ve bought another 360 that’s been living with the missus, and now I’m ready to start my new collection, it’s a great excuse for a Gold subscription and maybe play some of my older games through again! But what’s most important for me is some killer co-op games I can play with the boys back at the homestead.

That’s why I’ve come at the community’s mercy – what games would you recommend for me to play online?

I’m definitely going to be picking up FIFA10 and Modern Warfare 2 when they drop this autumn, but are there any games I could pick up on the cheap that I might’ve missed out on?

Back at home my brothers have games like Rainbow 6 Vegas: 2, Saints Row 2 and Crackdown that have online only co-op modes I’ve never tried - not to mention I could probably pick up copies for myself for about £20.

So (to summarise neatly in a question) which are the essential games to play online co-op with people you know on the Xbox360?

Cheers!

Last week I returned to the UK from Brisbane – I’m sure there are a fair few travelling D’toiders who have also done similar length trips and know that, depending on the amount of Alcohol and sleeping tablets available, these 21 hour flights can be a real mind-number.

For the last few years or so the companies behind long haul flights have moved beyond movies and instead have provided video games to play, when I flew to the US a few years ago Virgin Atlantic had an awesome selection of SNES classics to pass the time.

This time I rocked Emirates, who had opted for an even more classic selection of games, ranging from some pretty sweet 1942-style vertical scrolling sh’mups to between-seat multiplayer Tetris.

So, whilst I was making my girlfriend weep with envy at my Tetris madskillz I got thinking about which current-gen titles would keep me entertained for half the circumference of the earth itself. This, in turn, made my girlfriend cry even more as she realised I was multi-tasking, and was now superior to her in every way.

Mass Effect



Pros:
The Length – If you were looking to kill a whole flight in one game, this’d do the trick nicely.

Audio – The amount of dialogue in Mass Effect is nothing short of staggering, and in terms of sound it’s not all grenade blasts and gunfire, like, say a Call of Duty game - which would really start to split my skull after a marathon stint with the headphones in.

Cons:

Graphics – Darker interior environments and on screen commands would be really tricky to see on the little screens on the back of the headrest.

Hawt Alien Secks – Lets face it, not many people like sitting next to odd strangers on planes. Absolutely no-one wants to sit next to the dude that’s watching blue bitches cop off with their on-screen avatar.

Mario Kart Wii



Pros:

Replay Value – with three classes and all those cups to win I could spend all day with any Mario Kart game, but this one offers the most tracks for my money, even if they are re-hashes of previous generations.

Bright Colours – Nice big character shapes and bright coloured tracks would make it easy to see what’s going on, even on a smaller screen - but would probably be horrifically distracting to the person trying to sleep next to you.

Cons:

Sound: I think after 21 hours of continuous ‘Ya-Hooo!’s and ‘Ahh-woh-woh-woh!’s I’d probably by ready off myself.

Controls: Of all the people on the plane you will end up next to the over-enthusiastic child who insists on throwing his elbows around the steering wheel (despite it being the clearly inferior method of control) knocking hot coffee onto your crotch. Sorry, that’s the way life is.


Saints Row 2



Pros:

Graphics: More brightly coloured than GTA4 and less repetitive than Crackdown so that’s why it’s my open world game of choice.

Sound: Most of Saints Row’s more mature themes (drug trafficking, self-prostitution) are implied by sound, so thanks to headphones the person watching you would probably be clueless to your sordid deeds.

Cons:

Stylistics: After 19 hours of Sleep-deprivation, jet-lag and unlimited booze, you will start to laugh your tits off at the fact your character is dressed as a giant Hot-dog with an amazing Guy Ritchie style ‘Lahn-dan’ accent. It’s inevitable. Enjoy being escorted off the plane upon landing; you bat-shit crazy cockney weinerman.

So, what do you think? There's plenty of games this gen that'd be great time-killers (I've completely skipped over sports, for some reason) let me know what'd keep you happy!

I've ignored the idea of multiplayer this time round, are there any games you think might make a sweet plane-spanning LAN party?

That said, maybe you think the current gen wouldn't translate until the screens on planes get bigger, or are just happy with the chance to spend some quality time kicking it old school?

Let me know - it's my first post here on Destructoid (Long time reader-commenter, even longer time procrastinator) and I'd love to get more involved in the community!