The vast and immense world of tie-in videogames has accompanied all generations of consoles since their birth, showing many products that have not been able to win the hearts of the public. Some works in this category, however, have actually managed to be appreciated and even get re-releases. Titles such as Alien Isolation, Ghostbusters the videogame, Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom, Marvel's Spider-Man are just some of the exponents of this product category, in which we can safely include Asterix & Obelix XXL. The franchise's first 128-bit adventure succeeded in the task of create a real community, despite a not-so-positive opinion from critics in his day. So, after having made the remastering of the second chapter and a third unreleased episode, the boys of Microids e Osome Studio they accomplished this Asterix & Obelix XXL Romastered for current consoles.
These Romans are crazy
The narrative of the work remains identical to seventeen years ago. Asterix and Obelix leave for their classic boar hunting session but, due to a dangerous storm, Idefix gets lost in the forest and the two friends split up to look for him. At that point Asterix discovers that their village has been attacked and, surprisingly, the Romans managed to capture all of their inhabitants. The task of our heroes will therefore be to find out where they have been taken, free them and beat hordes upon hordes of legionnaires from Caesar's empire. This is therefore a good excuse to be able to explore different territories of the immense Roman empire such as Gaul, Egypt, Helvetia, Greece or even Rome. The plot certainly does not want to be the strong point for a work like this, focusing mainly on other factors that we will discuss in this article. The title itself even presents very few movies, to the limit of the essential, in which however the vast choice of selectable languages is appreciable. The development team even has reused the dubbing originally created in 2003, but cleaning and improving it to adapt to current sound systems. Also, if you select French, you will be able to hear the two heroes with the historic voices of Roger Carel and Pierre Tornade. For those unfamiliar with them, they are respectively two of the most popular performers for the pairing of Asterix and Obelix.
Speaking of the gameplay, it is impossible not to note that seventeen years have passed since the original release of the work. The product originally created by the now defunct Étranges Libellules is very affected by the evolution that the videogame market has undergone in this period, albeit still remain fun. The game is indeed a Beat'em up that mixes the versatile genre of 3D Platforms, where you have to reach the end of each level by defeating a multitude of Romans in the process. We then find ourselves controlling one of the two heroes, mainly Asterix, taking advantage of their characteristics that result in substantially identical movesets except for more attack power in Obelix.
In fact, the main move of both protagonists is composed of the simple attack, made with the action key, and being able to any opponent to whirl it in the sky. Here the original team made a great job in terms of animations, managing to reproduce on screens the funny and iconic movements of the historic duo. Unfortunately, the moves themselves end there, but in some clashes it is possible to take advantage of some environmental characteristics like cannons, deadly traps that you can activate or very powerful ones magic potions which allows you to defeat all kinds of opponents with a single shot. To tell the truth, the latter can be exploited exclusively by Asterix but there is still a way to do it upgrade the park moves of both roosters. By exploiting the system of combo bar, it is possible to perform very powerful deadly techniques such as the fearsome twister. In order to use them, you have to first buy them in the store special through the helmets that is constantly earned during the adventure. In this re-edition the collection of this currency is simplified compared to 2003, albeit multipliers are present in fewer numbers than in the past.
All this, however, risks quickly become monotonous, since the game mainly has this structure for about 7-8 hours necessary to complete the main adventure. Fortunately, the developers tried to vary the formula not just with one good variety of enemies addressable, but even inserting simple environmental puzzles e small platforming sections. Also, there are some phases at great speed in which it is practically impossible to stop us, which are fun but very difficult to control. The level design does not even remain closed in a stale structure, instead showing different structures each time and trying to vary the formula several times with even different objectives in the different battles that can be faced in-game. The game environments are still well diversified today, able to bring the characteristics of each reference country in the cartoon style of the franchise. Obviously, gods are missing in every area of the world collectible that unlock costumes, and you can even spend your own helmets to unlock some special postcards. The latter demonstrate the great passion that the original developers put into the project, since they are photos with them that mix with the world of Asterix & Obelix.
A romasterization with great ideas
Let's talk now about the elements that characterize this re-edition, that is the novelties. To begin, the graphics sector has been completely rebuilt proving to be decidedly more colorful than in the past. The art style is therefore close to what we saw in Asterix & Obelix XXL 3 of 2019, presenting a beautiful view on screen. Unfortunately, everything did not go in the best way, as it is easier to notice the limits of the map e some effects are completely eliminated for no apparent reason, like the sandstorm in the Egyptian level. Fortunately, this re-release allows for a feature that should be common practice in such operations. In fact, with the push of a button, it will be possible switch between remastered and original graphics and viceversa. The transition in question results fast and immediate, without any kind of loading or slowdown in execution. Furthermore, it is also possible to switch in the middle of any cutscene, so as to be able to notice the various visual and sound differences. This feature is a great addition that somehow makes you understand how OSome Studio has changed the style of the original work without distorting it.
Another great novelty of Asterix & Obelix XXL Romastered are, however, the challenges found within each level. The latter are mainly divided into two large categories: course and Countdown. In the first our task is to collect tokens within the time limit, moving at the right time between the modern and retro view to collect certain objects. The second one requires you to reach a certain point on the map in the shortest possible time, all while blocking time by defeating Romans or destroying special crates. These additions are absolutely fun, with a great even original implementation for the course. Furthermore, they are also not that easy to complete, at least if you are aiming for the gold trophy for all the tests in question. Another major addition of OSome Studio is its own the difficulty, a feature that satisfies both novices and product experts. In fact, if there was no difficulty choice in the original game, here they are present four with easy, normal, difficult and extreme.
The latter, however, to be unlocked will require you to have completed the game at least once. To tell the truth, Asterix & Obelix XXL Romastered has a learning curve that could put even experienced gamers in trouble. For this reason, the introduction of this feature is able to adapt the game even to children who will approach this product today. Finally, the soundtrack was completely remixed by Valentin Lafort, already author of the tracks featured in Asterix & Obelix XXL 3. Unfortunately most of the remixes fails to express the dynamic character some music originally composed by Fabrice Bouillon-Laforest. Fortunately, you can choose between the new tracks and the original ones at any time, even being able to insert the latter in the modern graphic style. In fact, the general customization is truly amazing, allowing not only to do what previously described but even to insert the retro mode at 4: 3 or 16: 9 and to be able to remove the unpublished animations created for this re-edition at any time.
These roosters have snapped
The review of Asterix & Obelix XXL Romastered could end here, demonstrating the commitment to restore a work that definitely feels the weight of the years behind it. Unfortunately, however, it must be pointed out that at least in the PlayStation 4 edition we tested they are there are several optimization problems. In the most agitated situations the game slows down in a worrying way, there are graphic and sound glitches with music that starts in the wrong way or textures that disappear and, even, inexplicable bugs such as cannon shots that do no damage. The thing is absolutely inexplicable given that on PlayStation 2 and Gamecube the original work managed to keep the 60 FPS stable without any problem, thus demonstrating little work in the current optimization of the work. Also, the game itself features several errors that in the original edition did not exist like the icons of the wrong combos, crates behind the different invisible faces, an illumination that every now and then goes about its business and many more.
These problems partially ruin the experience of Asterix & Obelix XXL Romastered and, for this, we must hope that OSome Studio and Microids launch future updates to fix them. Currently, the first update has already been published, but it does not manage to solve the problems we have listed in any way.
