Asterix and the Suck-ret Mission

[grolt]

I quite enjoyed the original Asterix so I finally gave the sequel a spin today...and came out quite disappointed. Yes, the appealing aspect of being able to play different levels to completion as either Asterix or Obelix is still there, but man, the programmers got lazy. It's slowdown central whenever there's more than one enemy sprite on screen, and sometimes there's even slow down when there are no other objects on screen. Some of the later boss battles are nearly unplayable because of this. Then there's the aspect of respawning power-ups. Whenever you come across a vase with a free life, all you need to do is leave the screen and come back and it continually respawns - each and every time. Because of such, you can always easily top up to 9 lives whenever. A difficulty defeating flaw like that is always a game breaker.

A lot of the organization and items are just confusing, too, with some items meaning one thing on one level and another thing the next. Then there's the bit where you HAVE to lose two hearts running over spikes - what kind of game forces you to lose health just to advance?

If I remember correctly, this game was developed by the same crew as the first game before a different developer handled the third game (Great Rescue), which I hear ain't so...great. I'm hoping it's better than this game though - a flawed, easy and uninspired platformer.

I see through some searches there are some fans for Asterix and the Secret Mission...what's the deal? What am I missing?

[playgeneration]

Its a European game, and plays more smoothly in 50hz than it does in 60. You can't always attribute slowdown to just 'lazy programming', the game pushing the system hard and it slows down when theres simply a lot happening on screen at once. The Obelix sprite for instance is huge, and has lots of animation. While they could have used smaller character sprites, not use animation on the blocks when you hit them etc, that woud detract form the game for me. A big appeal of the game is how much it looks like the original comics and cartoon films - something the third game with its smaller characters doesn't capture so well.

[grolt]

The slowdown would happen to me with Asterix and as stated sometimes even without any other animated sprites on screen.

I'm hoping to give the third a run soon to complete the series. I thought the first captured the comics well and had greater variety, better physics and more polish in terms of story, presentation and gameplay than what I witnessed here in Secret Mission. There was a little slowdown, but not nearly to the extent that there is here...I don't think you can attribute that to any 50/60 Hz glitch.

[playgeneration]

The game does indeed play smoother with Asterix, as he is a lot smaller. But its not just the characters that cause slowdown, just look at the backgrounds and how much animation they have on them, in one level theres rain falling, another a big waterfall which is really well animated - probably something you wouldn't see properly unless playing with RGB scart or on emulator. Trust me it does play a lot smoother in 50hz - just like Sonic1 for instance.

Its easily one of the best looking games for the sms, and is very ambitous with what it tries to pull off. The amount of animation on everything, size of characters, it looks great. But the sms lowly CPU just can't keep up with this all the time. But personally I'm happy with the trade off for speed to give a game that mimics its source material so well.

[brianvgplayer]

Feb 13, 2010 11:25:48 GMT playgeneration said:

Trust me it does play a lot smoother in 50hz - just like Sonic1 for instance.

I have doubts about this. Sonic has some slowdown, but it wasn't that bad, and I remember the GG version having slowdown too. It plays fine in 60 Hz. I remember reading some other posts about the slowdown in Asterix and the Secret Mission and, from other reviews, I know there are others who were disappointed with it.

edit: I tried Sonic in 50 Hz again. It just plays slower all around and the music sounds slower compared to the Game Gear version. In 60 Hz slowdown is more noticeable in places, but overall the game plays faster in 60 Hz. The controls and animation seem more fluid in 60 Hz, as well.

From what I tried in Kega Fusion, Asterix and the Secret Mission seemed to be smoother in 60 Hz. The music sounds slowed down in 50 Hz and, unlike Sonic, it seemed to have more slow down in 50 Hz.

I don't think the slowdown is there because of PAL/NTSC issues. Didn't this game come out in Canada, as well? Sonic came out in the US and in other 60 Hz regions, so I doubt that it was made specifically for Europe, even with the slowdown on the bridge zone. Not to mention that both games were designed in Japan.

grolt, do you know if the GG version of the Asterix and the Secret Mission is more polished? The level design was altered a bit for that version. Though, in most cases, it seems when levels are altered for the GG, it's for the worse.

[ian]

I have a lot of love for Asterix and the Secret Mission. It was a game I had and played a lot when I was younger. It's a solid platformer with great gameplay and graphics. The slowdown was never noticeable enough that it bothered me. It is perhaps a bit too easy, but I found the first Asterix game almost too long. There's a few puzzles to solve and secret areas to find to make it more interesting than your standard platformer. And you've gotta love the Asterix surfing level!

[grolt]

Hearing the praise now made me revisit it again, and I do understand the love. It is pretty and the surfing level is cool. I do agree, though, there just isn't enough challenge or variety to make it as interesting as the first game or any of the other solid platformers on the system. Perhaps the disappointment comes from the fact the SMS had such a massive arsenal of good platformers. I need to play through with Obelix to be able to write this off completely, but based on Asterix's levels alone, I'd give it a 6 or so out of 10.

Was this game developed by the dudes who did the first game? I remember reading that at some point in the three game series the developers changed hands (from Japanese to European?), can anyone clarify?

Brian, I can't speak about the GG version since I don't have it. Whenever possible I like having a game on a system with a controller - I just can't do handhelds...

[brianvgplayer]

Feb 16, 2010 21:13:14 GMT grolt said:

Brian, I can't speak about the GG version since I don't have it. Whenever possible I like having a game on a system with a controller - I just can't do handhelds...

I like handhelds myself, but in the case of SMS vs. GG, I usually choose the SMS. Especially since the GG isn't the best made handheld out there. I'm on the fence for Asterix and the Secret Mission, but I have the first one on SMS and I love it.