Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 1:46:20

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Here is my Full playthrough of Asterix done, as always, using original hardware on a Super Nintendo with no cheats or save states!

Follow me on instagram @CabinSNES_fever to join me live or via my reviews and uploads to witness me take down all the games currently in my SNES colleciton, following on from having already beaten all 234 licenced UK releases for the NES. I only use original carts, no cheats & no save states.

REVIEW:
-Dining heavily as child on two of France's biggest ever literature exports; Hergè's Tintin (who is Belgian you imbecile) & Albert Uderzo's Asterix, I feel I have as good as any an understanding of what ingredients are be required to do justice to such classics. While Asterix certainly seems the more likely candidate for conversion, surprisingly both franchises saw 2 releases on snes each!

Unlike Tintin; who's game adaptations saw full translations of 2 of his most iconic stories, Asterix went with a more generic approach offering a simple "Obelix has been captured, free him" storyline. It's winning no awards for creativity, but its functional to gameplay, allowing for the occasional cameo of other characters at the end of each world, tho despite the use of Dogmatix & Cacofonix via an occasional powerup, it's not enough to placate a thirst for more from that infamous cast of characters. Surely something more rewarding than a simple "Thank you Mario but our princess is in another castle" speech could have been made from the brilliance that is Getafix for example?

Cast aside, the look of the game is certainly impressive. Cute animations bring to life enemies & surroundings, especially the Romans, I just wish they were a little more prominent, instead of half the game being the usual Bat, Spider & Snake Hoedown.

Unfortunately control is where things fall off a cliff! It's one of those games where the relationship to speed/long jumps & the Y button is just poorly balanced. Too often Asterix's jerky movement results in cheap hits and, well, falling off cliffs! Add to this an awkward punch attack with horrid hitbox detection & you quickly realise the NES port is actually the better game!

With limited continues, the build-up of cheap deaths, confusing areas & sheer volume of stages (close to 30), renders Game Over's almost inevitable. However practice is quickly rewarded & a host of Extra Lives hidden in stages allows for quite a casual playthrough once you've played awhile.

Overall Asterix is a fairly solid platformer that suffers with many of the hallmarks other 'style before substance' types do. It does enough to warrant a playthrough tho.