July 22, 2010, at 09:47 AM
Mini Review: Asterix and the Secret Mission
The second SMS Asterix game, Asterix and the Secret Mission is a pretty solid improvement over the first.
Graphics
A little spartan. The sprites are pretty good approximations of the cartoon yet still rather 8-bit style. Backgrounds are mostly plain and the overall effect is a bit NES-like.
Sound
No idea.
Longevity
The main feature of this game is that it has a lot of levels, most of which are quite big, most of which can be played through as either Asterix or Obelix - and the levels are substantially changed for each character. So there's a lot of game there, but you only ever get to see half of it in each play through. (The Out Run approach to replayability? On a real console as a kid, I'd probably have appreciated that as I played it though for the gazillionth time.)
Plot
Deliberately scattered through locations as our bumbling heroes haphazardly head to Rome, at least it's consistent.
Fun
It gets annoying in places. There are some "puzzles" that are just plain wrong, like the 2/3 lanterns near the end. But overall it's a large dollop of platforming levels, and I'm a sucker for that.
Innovation
There's a few. The early level that loops until you figure out how to break the cycle, and the bit near the end where... it loops until you figure out how to break the cycle, but in a completely different way this time.