Astérix & Obélix Take on Caesar – Hardcore Gaming 101

This entry is part 17 of 28 in the series Asterix

By the mid-1990s, Astérix had reached a point of fatigue. The comics were no longer selling as well as they once were, and the cartoons were rarely produced, with Astérix et les Indiens (Astérix Conquers America) being the only cartoon released during the decade, direct to video. It seemed that the small framed hero needed some kind of kick in the rear end to soar him back into public view, but to do this one has to do something that has not been done before with the character. So what can you do with a hero that has traveled across the world in 9 animated movies and 30 books over a period of near 40 years? Well, you make him real.

Astérix et Obélix contre Caesar (Astérix & Obélix Take On Caesar) was the very first live-action adventure to star the two bumbling heroes on their never ending assignment of defending their little village. Though numerous attempts had been made throughout the years to start up production on a live action Astérix movie, it had always seen challenges between the changes wanted by the movie studios and the strict hold Uderzo and Goscinny had on their property. Astérix as a name still had potential and value, so new attempts to reach agreements with the creators were made and after agreeing on having control over casting and plot, the movie could finally begin production. In early 1999, it was released all over Europe and ended up being the most expensive in France’s cinema history. In the lead roles, worldwide renowned actor Géard Depardieu was cast as Obélix and Christian Clavier played Astérix. It had a massive promotion campaign, and like the books, it was translated into near every language imaginable. Astérix was once again back and on top as the movie was a gigantic success and led to skyrocketing sales of all Astérix merchandise. Like any summer blockbuster, a video game tie-in was made and released around the time of the movie.

The movie based itself on many different stories to form a unique adventure with many familiar moments to recognize. While the most obvious inspiration for the movie is Astérix The Gaul, it also contains elements taken from Astérix The Legionary and Astérix and the Soothsayer. So clearly there’s a lot of great material to turn into a game. The movie is action packed, the amount of original source material near endless and fanbase out there hungry for some Roman pummeling. Cryo seemed to have a very easy task at their hands of just making a quick action game to satisfy the crowds after seeing the movie. Well, “easy” would definitely be the one word that sums this game up.

Think back to playing Earthworm Jim 2, or if you are an elderly reader, think back to Donald Duck’s Playground. Remember those stages in EWJ2 where you would have to catch and guide puppies and prevent them from falling on the floor? Or Donald Duck having to catch fruit being thrown off the back of a truck and put it in the right basket? “Sure!” you might say. “Those were bonus stages/minigames, quite fun too”. Yeah they sure were fun, now imagine a whole game completely based on running and fetching objects. That is Astérix & Obélix Take On Caesar. Yes, you rarely even meet the Romans at all, and instead spend your time serving wild boars to village people (not the band, even though these guys dress quite similarly) or fetching mistletoes from trees. It’s an absolutely baffling choice of gameplay, one that grows old pretty quickly and never starts being fun to begin with.

The game claims to take place during the key scenes of the movie, though this claim is a stretch, to put it mildly. You have the choice of playing Astérix or Obélix in single player or both in 2 player mode. Each stage pits you in a closed location. The goal of these stages is to run and fetch\punch\eat the objects thrown from the background into the foreground. Tapping left or right will make your character run to a pre-determined spot on the playfield. The objects are thrown to these spots in random order at random speeds. You can also jump, though this is only used on one level, it can be ignored for the rest of game. If you fail to reach the spot the object is thrown at in time, you will be knocked out for a few seconds which often leads you to miss out on another object or two thrown. Before each level a goal will be displayed which most often ask you to fetch 50-60 objects out of a total of 80. Once you reach your goal, a dance will break out and a clip from the movie starts playing. On a few of the levels, there are obstacles on the playfield like Romans or crocodiles. You can dispose of them by picking up some magic potions or wild boars, which gives you extra speed and power for a limited amount of time.

Cryo really had faith in this gameplay, cause 60 out of 80 objects takes quite a bit of time to achieve. It’s never any fun either, you’ll grow so tired of running around like a buffoon after the 10th object. The controls are extremely simplistic and you only really use the D-Pad, but the speed is quite fast, and the camera can’t quite keep up, not to mention that your natural instinct is to hold down the direction you run, leading you to run straight past your intended spot. There’s a lack of defined animation when your character moves as well, leading your eyes to be deceived of any movement which just makes it hard to adjust to just tapping the button. All the levels play mostly the same, though a few try to change things up from knocking rotten fish or boulders. One level asks you to catch mistletoes falling ever so slowly from trees which is as fun as going outside and catching rain in a butterfly net.

On the level titled Race for Unicorn Milk, the druid asks you to drink 10 drops of unicorn milk. This druid is in the top of a tree, and spewing this liquid down at whoever is beneath, be it you or a Roman. Now if an old man in a tree asked me to stand beneath a tree with my mouth open wide while he slowly lets white-blue-ish liquid slowly run its way down to me, that would be the last thing I would ever do. But for the people who cried out for a proper 3D remake of Beat Em & Eat Em on Atari 2600… well, this is it.

The graphics and sound leave a lot to be desired. It uses scans of the actors who portrayed our heroes in the movie, who actually recorded all the dialogue for this game. Graphically it looks like a mess, with textures being smeared unevenly on blocky fields and flat 2D objects sticking out sorely creating a jagged, ridged mess. There’s little music to note outside of the main menu, and what is present sounds like stock music from any game set in medieval times with no sense of humor or personality, very much in tune with what the game overall lacks. It’s also remarkably easy with only 8 levels total. When playing single player you might find yourself losing a few times due to tripping too much but during 2 players, there’s zero challenge, you got it covered at all times.

It might have some bragging rights in the world of video games, because it is quite possible this is the most localized game on the PSX. Seemingly every region in Europe had their own version of this game with them all having dialogue recorded by the voice artists that dubbed the movie (The movie was released in both French and the native languages of the country it was playing in). English, French, German, Spanish and even Norwegian, they all got their own version completely translated. A version for Windows computers was released a bit later on, though it has no improvements, just increased resolution. A Game Boy Color version was also produced and is near unplayable. It’s the same run and fetch game, but with the added danger of Assurancetourix’s dangerous musical notes.