Asterix & Obelix review

Andrew Williams

We review Asterix & Obelix Encounter Cleopatra, Gameloft's mobile game featuring the Gallic duo

Published on Nov 5, 2009

Even though Asterix and his portly chum are quintessentially French in a handful of different ways, most of you will have had some memory of the gallic twins. You might not even be able remember where the memory comes from, either.

Asterix & Obelix are a pair of Gauls, trying to resist the Roman invasion. While you might traditionally think of the Romans as sophisticated types, liberal and open-minded, they’re downright baddies in the world of Asterix.

Gameloft’s first mobile game of the series has one element of the series’s charm down, aside from the Romans vs. Gauls storyline, and that’s the visuals.

Long-term fans of the duo will be taken right back to their days of reading the books as Asterix & Obelix features uncannily accurate versions of not just the two main characters, but of incidental enemies too.

Backgrounds are lavishly drawn as well, full of colour, detail and little animated touches like birds that fly away as you approach. A lot of attention has been paid to the look of this game, especially considering it’s primarily a simple, linear action platformer.

For the most part, you control Asterix, jumping from platform to platform, bashing away at a few armoured Romans mid-stride. However, you’ll occasionally get to play as the big man himself, Obelix.

Asterix & Obelix uses this character switch dynamic to tell you when you’re changing to a different style of gameplay. Aside from standard run and jump platforming, there are also top-down action puzzler sections and even arcade-style vertical shooter levels, such as when the Gauls find themselves floating down a river in a canoe, Romans in hot pursuit.

While no single game type is truly fantastic – the platforming levels aren’t a match for the brilliance of Gameloft’s Castle of Magic, for example – the sheer variety in the game keeps you engaged throughout.

Asterix & Obelix’s has something of a 16-bit sensibility to it too, and you could quite easily believe that it had once been a high profile console game back in the dark days of the 90s. This slight retro feel will only intensify the charms of Asterix & Obelix for gamers of a certain age – it’s like a double shot of nostalgia, straight up.

Asterix & Obelix isn’t up there with the best Gameloft has ever produced. While proficient in every respect, it’s lacking the magic of the very best mobile games, perhaps because the gameplay of each section type is every so slightly prosaic. However, as a whole, Asterix & Obelix comes together wonderfully, supplying us with the best Asterix-themed mobile game yet, and there have been a few.