Asterix and the Power of the Gods (MD, 1995)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-6.5 Control-6 Challenge-8 Story-6.5?
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-9.5 Fun-5.5 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-5.5
+
2 playable chars (Asterix & Obelix; minor differences though - asterix is smaller and faster while obelix reaches slightly longer and has a stronger strong punch?, Asterix's enemy slam move (A while carrying) is better than Obelix's spin move but Obelix's "B while carrying an enemy" move (quickly repeated punches) is stronger?)
Some action adventure elements (large hub map, NPCs that give hints/fetch quests/items - pretty good dialogue with a similar tone to the comics, towns, item inventory, what you do in one level can have an effect on another - for example you shoot a burning rock into one of the roman camps from the forest to progress in the camp (this could've been hinted at in the village though) and later on you make the various rocks you can find in levels float and create new paths by helping a druid in the second forest level, ),
Ground stomp move (powered by the potion as Asterix and chicken as Obelix)
Pretty good art direction, pretty nice comic book-style cutscenes, some nice backgrounds
Can pick up and carry+throw enemies (or slam them into other enemies)
Basic switch puzzles and some interactive objects that can be used as platforms or weapons (boxes, cauldrons, bowling balls) or to break walls (snowballs), run button, difficulty options (easy-hard), can look up/down (minor delay), mid-level checkpoints, can replay levels (consumable items respawn), some levels with dual layers (mirrored) - Goonies 2, rotation/tilting effect on the ships, minor rollercoaster segments, mixes in one horizontal shoot 'em up level (you're a pretty large target here though),
+/
Partially non-linear structure in the beginning (can explore some of the camps in whatever order you want early on)
Only Asterix can collect potions and only Obelix can collect chicken - can lead to minor backtracking and seems pointless
Floaty jumps
Some maze levels (no maps)
Can only exit some levels (at their entrance) - not the forest and others
Can walk through some enemies when they're not attacking, can't jump on enemies, can't keep carrying an enemy while falling, can farm for HP and lives in the bottom right camp, can't save the scythe for later use since it's triggered with the run button
-
No continues unless you collect a ton of points to gain one
Various control issues (overly small hit box for the ground stomp move, too hard to grab the swinging vines, doing a running jump into a wall triggers and animation and knocks you away from the wall, poor attack range - especially with Asterix (Obelix could've sent the dog after enemies as a special move and Asterix could've thrown his dagger or used something that he uses in the 8-bit games), Obelix's strong punch kinda sucks because you can't control the charge period, can't duck, inconsistent hit detection for some platform edges, the 2.5D lower paths in the village are a bit clunky to access, overly tight camera when jumping, can't pick up coins from chests while they're spinning in mid-air - breaks flow, jumps are also kinda slow, holding jump makes you keep jumping after landing, game is overly picky about positioning when entering doors/background paths)
Heavy trial & error (one of the jumps in a roman camp (bottom right) can't be made unless you're standing still - wtf, no clue that you're supposed to find uniform pieces and dress up as a roman soldier to enter one of the roman camps, finding the indian guy to progress past the forest, various smaller enemies can't be killed (even the butterflies - why!?), have to re-trigger checkpoints after each life lost or they don't work - they could've let you exit a level from anywhere instead, some early enemies kill you in one hit, the log ride in the forest, the ground traps in the forest - unlike in Sonic there's no time to move when they trigger so you have to memorize them (thankfully they're not common), sometimes can't tell what flicking a switch did - really annoying the indian palace, no in-game explanation of the inventory items found in the village and no obvious way to use them, sloppy/unforgiving hit detection on various sprites like the spinning soldier ball enemy in the forest and on enemy arrows and on the sword eater enemies and spiky vines in the indian palace, the falling traps in the burning camp and some enemies there spawn right in front of you, trick point items placed above some pits, fairly easy to miss one of the background paths in the indian palace, etc.)
Various annoyingly tight jumps even early on
No save or password save
No control config (emulate) and the game doesn't use the 6-button controller so running and interacting use the same button, have to backtrack out of various levels, can't reach one of the chests in the village as Obelix due to the invisible roof in the sky, not enough chicken/potions and not enough health in some levels - enemies don't drop either, tons of traps means levels don't flow that well unless you've memorized them, sometimes overly saturated and yellow-ish colors, missing sfx for the ground stomp and some other things, the music is all covers of classical pieces - decent renditions overall but disappointing compared to the prequel (no sampled sfx or drums and no PSG usage), some levels look pretty flat, only one boss fight and it's just a bunch of enemies, unskippable boot up screens
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-9.5 Fun-5.5 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-5.5
+
2 playable chars (Asterix & Obelix; minor differences though - asterix is smaller and faster while obelix reaches slightly longer and has a stronger strong punch?, Asterix's enemy slam move (A while carrying) is better than Obelix's spin move but Obelix's "B while carrying an enemy" move (quickly repeated punches) is stronger?)
Some action adventure elements (large hub map, NPCs that give hints/fetch quests/items - pretty good dialogue with a similar tone to the comics, towns, item inventory, what you do in one level can have an effect on another - for example you shoot a burning rock into one of the roman camps from the forest to progress in the camp (this could've been hinted at in the village though) and later on you make the various rocks you can find in levels float and create new paths by helping a druid in the second forest level, ),
Ground stomp move (powered by the potion as Asterix and chicken as Obelix)
Pretty good art direction, pretty nice comic book-style cutscenes, some nice backgrounds
Can pick up and carry+throw enemies (or slam them into other enemies)
Basic switch puzzles and some interactive objects that can be used as platforms or weapons (boxes, cauldrons, bowling balls) or to break walls (snowballs), run button, difficulty options (easy-hard), can look up/down (minor delay), mid-level checkpoints, can replay levels (consumable items respawn), some levels with dual layers (mirrored) - Goonies 2, rotation/tilting effect on the ships, minor rollercoaster segments, mixes in one horizontal shoot 'em up level (you're a pretty large target here though),
+/
Partially non-linear structure in the beginning (can explore some of the camps in whatever order you want early on)
Only Asterix can collect potions and only Obelix can collect chicken - can lead to minor backtracking and seems pointless
Floaty jumps
Some maze levels (no maps)
Can only exit some levels (at their entrance) - not the forest and others
Can walk through some enemies when they're not attacking, can't jump on enemies, can't keep carrying an enemy while falling, can farm for HP and lives in the bottom right camp, can't save the scythe for later use since it's triggered with the run button
-
No continues unless you collect a ton of points to gain one
Various control issues (overly small hit box for the ground stomp move, too hard to grab the swinging vines, doing a running jump into a wall triggers and animation and knocks you away from the wall, poor attack range - especially with Asterix (Obelix could've sent the dog after enemies as a special move and Asterix could've thrown his dagger or used something that he uses in the 8-bit games), Obelix's strong punch kinda sucks because you can't control the charge period, can't duck, inconsistent hit detection for some platform edges, the 2.5D lower paths in the village are a bit clunky to access, overly tight camera when jumping, can't pick up coins from chests while they're spinning in mid-air - breaks flow, jumps are also kinda slow, holding jump makes you keep jumping after landing, game is overly picky about positioning when entering doors/background paths)
Heavy trial & error (one of the jumps in a roman camp (bottom right) can't be made unless you're standing still - wtf, no clue that you're supposed to find uniform pieces and dress up as a roman soldier to enter one of the roman camps, finding the indian guy to progress past the forest, various smaller enemies can't be killed (even the butterflies - why!?), have to re-trigger checkpoints after each life lost or they don't work - they could've let you exit a level from anywhere instead, some early enemies kill you in one hit, the log ride in the forest, the ground traps in the forest - unlike in Sonic there's no time to move when they trigger so you have to memorize them (thankfully they're not common), sometimes can't tell what flicking a switch did - really annoying the indian palace, no in-game explanation of the inventory items found in the village and no obvious way to use them, sloppy/unforgiving hit detection on various sprites like the spinning soldier ball enemy in the forest and on enemy arrows and on the sword eater enemies and spiky vines in the indian palace, the falling traps in the burning camp and some enemies there spawn right in front of you, trick point items placed above some pits, fairly easy to miss one of the background paths in the indian palace, etc.)
Various annoyingly tight jumps even early on
No save or password save
No control config (emulate) and the game doesn't use the 6-button controller so running and interacting use the same button, have to backtrack out of various levels, can't reach one of the chests in the village as Obelix due to the invisible roof in the sky, not enough chicken/potions and not enough health in some levels - enemies don't drop either, tons of traps means levels don't flow that well unless you've memorized them, sometimes overly saturated and yellow-ish colors, missing sfx for the ground stomp and some other things, the music is all covers of classical pieces - decent renditions overall but disappointing compared to the prequel (no sampled sfx or drums and no PSG usage), some levels look pretty flat, only one boss fight and it's just a bunch of enemies, unskippable boot up screens