Asterix - Rescue Obelix

Comic book character Asterix has caused an entire generation of children to have no idea of how you correctly pronounce the '*' symbol. Likewise, his loyal rotund accomplice is mostly responsible for a tall pointy column of stone to be more commonly referred to as an Obelix than by its real name.

Still, it's a relatively small price to pay when the little Gaul's adventures have been so entertaining over the years. Naturally, the original comics' wake has been closely accompanied by an avalanche of tie-in merchandise, and it was only a matter of time before this would extend to include mobile phone games.

In Asterix – Rescue Obelix, Asterix is sent on a mission to, erm, rescue Obelix, who's been turned to stone and captured by the Romans after drinking too much of Getafix's magic potion. Luckily for Asterix (and you), our plucky hero is stronger than his height may suggest, and is very capable of knocking out the various Roman guards and obstacles littering the 12 levels of the game.

Yet, despite the rather uninspiring platform style we found ourselves warming to this title. There are switches to flick that lower platforms, objects such as coins to collect and Roman guards to beat up, and, at the end of each stage, you're given a breakdown of your progress before the next begins.

It's a side-scrolling effort in the old tradition, then, and you're bound to have played many games like this before – this isn't likely to win any awards for originality and depth. But it makes the most of the mobile phone's natural abilities to produce something that works well enough and the inclusion of the odd puzzle into the gameplay means it manages keep your interest right through to the finale.

Expect to complete the basic game within an hour's play, but the level breakdowns do hint at bonuses to be awarded to those who collect all the coins, lives and Roman helmets on each stage. Only the most persistent are likely to get all of them, but we were certainly eager to give it a go.

We weren't so keen on the game's control system, though. Moving left and right is done in the expected manner, but to jump up requires either the need to press a diagonal direction on the controller or a push of the '1' or '3' buttons. While we fully appreciate that there are always going to be some concessions when you're creating games on something that was primarily designed to make phone calls, it's deeply irritating to spend several attempts trying to jump a gap that should be cleared first time.

Nevertheless, Asterix – Rescue Obelix remains playable enough to stop any such niggles becoming serious. The design of the levels and replay factor ensure that you'll genuinely want to go back and repeat levels you've already completed and, although you'll finish the basic game quickly, we can guarantee it'll take you much longer to do the job properly.

Though possibly not as long as learning to say 'asterisk'.

Asterix - Rescue Obelix

The control method is a bit fiddly and the game dynamic could have done with a little more magic potion, but Asterix still gets the thumbs up from us
Score
Dean Mortlock
Dean Mortlock
Dean's been writing about games for 15 years now and has played more than he's had hot dinners. Mind you, he does eat a lot of salad…