The first true Asterix adventure came in 1986 on an ancient French home computer called the Thomson MO5, and eventually the Amstrad CPC. The MO5’s reach outside of France was quite limited and with the Commodore 64 and Spectrum running wild across Europe, it never really tried to establish itself anywhere else except its home nation. The machine came with Microsoft BASIC built in, so the closest comparison to the MO5 would be the MSX1, with the games looking very similar between them. Despite being virtually unknown, the MO5 actually has a few notable titles to offer. This game, however, is certainly not one of them.
Asterix and the Magic Potion (“Asterix and the Magic Potion”) is partially based on the central plot point of Asterix The Gaul . In the comic/movie, Asterix and Panoramix are captured by the Romans and ordered to reveal the recipe for the magic potion that makes the Gauls superhuman. They make a fake list of ingredients and send Romans to gather the rare items. When they return with every item on the list, Panoramix cooks up a potion and the Romans quickly consume all of it. It is then that the Romans realize this potion is not the magic potion that gives you strength, but rather a hair growth potion that makes the hair of their heads and beards grow a thousand times faster than normal.
In this game you control Asterix, primarily in search of the items. It starts out in the Gallic forest with no real clue or direction, so it’s up to you to figure out this small but open play field. You can also employ the help of Obélix and Assurancetourix if you carry the specific items that allow you to summon them. Items are really the heart of this game, as you are looking for various things needed to make the hair elixir and items to help you overcome the obstacles you find along the trip. Asterix will have to face Roman legions and wild boars, with every confrontation draining his magic potion meter. Furthermore, there is a time limit that only increases from defeating Romans. Once all items are collected you head to the Roman camp and find Panoramix to end the game.
It is extremely difficult to manage everything that goes on in this game. First off Asterix can only carry one item at a time, which leads to a lot of backtracking. Now while enemies will reappear when backtracking, the magic potion refills won’t, which means you have to start avoiding fights, but this drains the timer. When you pick up a new item the one you are currently holding will be dropped in its place which can completely break the game, because sometimes it means instant death to travel to a screen without the needed item. One example of this is needing the shield to pass the arrows. Obelix becomes playable only when you carry his dog Dogmatix, and each time you use him you drain the Boar meter. Yes, another meter just for Obélix. His purpose in the game is minimal, however, as all he can do is punch down walls. Assurancetourix needs the harp to be selectable and its role in the game is even smaller. He is only needed once for removing the evil druid guarding the cave – after that you never need him again.
The most vile, foul and frustrating part is the controls. It cannot be stressed enough how bad they are. It can only be compared to making a blind grasshopper jump through an earring. Asterix jumps like he is on the moon and cannot change direction once launched. Most of the jumps take place in puzzlingly narrow spaces and each time you hit any object big or small, the jump is canceled out and Asterix will start to descend straight down. None of this is helped by the game running at painfully low speeds, either. The main adventure could easily be completed in less than 10 minutes if one knows where the items are and what order to get them. But because of absolutely awful jumping it rather takes well over two days to get remotely close to the end, as there is no save function or continue. If you die, you start over. If you are playing this on an emulator, then raise the speed up to 300%, because that’s the only way you can possibly bear playing this game.
The differences between the Amstrad and MO5 versions are not numerous. The CPC has more colors but less detail while the MO5 version’s sprites, though transparent and single colored, are larger and have more detail through the transparency. There is no music on any version of this game, only a few sound effects for the fighting and dying which aren’t much to write home about. The controls are even worse in the CPC version due to Asterix just drifting into the air as soon as you start jumping. The game registers each press, which, due to the slow speed, are queued up and delayed. You’ll find yourself flying around the screen like a pinball because you try to steer yourself in the right direction with multiple presses, which all are performed one after another in the game with sometimes five second delays. Worse yet is that every foreign object you touch, including other Gauls, kills you instantly on the CPC version.
At the time of its release Asterix and the Magic Potion wasn’t a good game to begin with, and with age it has only gotten worse. There’s very little enjoyment to be found here even for hardcore Asterix fans. The only true good thing is the manual which featured an exclusive comic short called En 50 BC (In 50 BC.) This comic would remain exclusive to the packaging of this game until 2003, when it was finally released in the short story compilation Astérix and the Gallic return to school (Asterix and the Class Act ).
En 50 avant J-C
