Astérix at the Olympic Games

It was once again time for Astérix to go back into the world of live action with the release of Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques (Astérix at the Olympic Games), being released into theaters across Europe in January 2008. Even though the second live action movie had skipped on having a video game tie-in (with the movie being based on Astérix et Cléopâtre) probably due to the rebranding of Infogrames during the early 2000’s, the opportunity to cash in on the Beijing Olympics proved too tempting for Atari. For the 3rd time, étranges Libellules would lead Europe’s favorite hero into an all new arena.

Based “partially” on the movie by the same name, Astérix and Obélix are tasked to win the Olympic Games in order to help their friend Alafolix marry the beautiful Princess Irina. However, Alafolix is not the only man to be interested in the Princess, as César’s son Brutus is also determined to win her affection. His plans don’t stop there either – in addition to marrying Irina, he also plans to overthrow his own father and take over the Empire.

One really has to put emphasis on the word “partially” when talking about the story in relation to this game because it barely makes any use of it. While the Olympic games are definitely the setting for the game, the overall storyline is brushed under the rug almost as if étranges Libellules had no interest of actually doing a movie tie-in but because of timing and business decisions, and were forced to comply with the demands. This results in so many questionable events that never make much sense at all. Basically an evil wizard has given a inter-dimensional key that allows him to traverse into all parallel worlds. The result of this is that all the different versions of Astérix (comics, live action, video games) gather together in the game world. It’s a similar plot that was used in 2009’s Turtles Forever movie. The game uses the XXL engine and similar art style for its characters and locations, but during certain scenes the actors from the live action movie will pop up alongside the cartoon versions of the famous duo. But this crossover is so poorly done and makes no change to the game itself, being completely unnecessary, and is just an excuse to get the actors into the game to tie in with the movie.

The game is very similar to XXL2 and uses the same general layout of mechanics and progress. Unlockable combos, massive brawls and puzzle solving is done in nearly the exact same fashion. The key difference this time around are the all new Olympic games, giving the game a new element of competitive sports. These games are very similar to the ones found in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which was released in the same month, though the similarities end there. These Olympic games take place in between sections, and can be accessed in its own Olympic Mode. For the first time in a console version, there is now a fully realized two player co-op mode where another player can take control of the secondary character at any time.

The new Olympic games sections don’t add that much to the overall experience. These games range the gamut from Javelin, Long Jump, Running and the likes. They are controlled with the Wiimote and nunchuk by essentially waggling around either up or down, or left to right for a few seconds before seeing the outcome. Once you’ve participated in a few of these events, they start to feel very dull and control much the same of each other. The events are still sprinkled with some good Astérix style humor to keep things more in tune with the product, but it usually falls flat and becomes an annoying distraction rather than humorous twist. The rest of the game also makes use of the Wiimote to perform some moves, with the most interesting being the grab function with allows you to whip Romans around.

Despite the game being officially promoted and marketed as first and foremost a Wii title, it seems that the PlayStation 2 was initially the lead console for this game. The graphics are actually quite nice by Wii standards, but there is significant pop up found in the scenery, and the characters look like they have simply gotten a quick graphical boost at some point, giving them a somewhat mixed look. The Wii controls also work reasonably well but are essentially button presses within waggling and never feel too genuine. In all other versions of this game, the Wii controls are traded for simple button presses and analog stick combination which, at times, work even more better than the Wii controls. The gameplay that is brought over from XXL2 still works smoothly regardless of which version you play, and considering how badly received the actual movie was when released, this game easily comes out shining as a good licensed title, maybe due to the fact that the game itself does what it can to disregard it. The timing of its release couldn’t have been worse though as it was immediately compared to and accused of ripping off Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games rather unfairly since the game still relies on its own charm and style to deliver some great action and puzzle solving.

In addition to the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions, Atari released a HD version on the Xbox 360 one year later. Essentially the same game, it features higher resolution graphics and more stable frame rate than the Wii and PS2. It also features better quality textures from what is found in the Windows version. There is also a DS version which takes out all the adventure sequences, making it a Track and Field clone. While much better than XXL2‘s portable affair, it’s still a rather empty experience with little depth to the controls and layout.

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