Asterix And The Vikings

Those Vikings, eh? If they're not raping, pillaging or slaughtering harmless monks in a remote monastery, they're messing around with the Gauls. More specifically, the one small village of indomitable Gauls that still holds out against the Roman invaders.

Asterix And The Vikings finds the Scandinavian marauders kidnapping Justforkix, the nephew of Chief Vitalstatistix and, true to form, Asterix pledges to rescue the youngster.

But while Asterix is one of the biggest-selling comic characters in both his native France and abroad, this latest mobile game offering (the follow-up to Asterix: Rescue Obelix) falls short, despite some early promise.

To start with, Asterix And The Vikings plays like your standard platformer. Controlling Asterix is a simple case of timing jumps, crouches and punches as you make your way through the various levels that your enemies – including seagulls and Viking warriors – call home. The latter are ready and eager to chop you down to size with their enormous axes, should you stray too close (the renowned Roman legions don't actually appear in the game).

But Asterix isn't completely defenceless; he's dosed up on magic potion. One press of your handset's action button delivers a crisp cartoon uppercut to the chops of any unfortunate Vikings you come across, sending them skywards in true cartoon style.

As you'd expect, the comics have greatly influenced the game's style, and Asterix And The Vikings looks good. It feels like you're playing as Asterix within the very cells of the comic books, which is no mean feat.

Also worthy of mention is that there are no annoying black borders on the screen. On the Sony Ericsson K750i phone we tested the game on, the entire screen is taken up by the playing area instead of letterboxing the action (as seen in Sonic the Hedgehog), which is always a welcome bonus.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the sound. Although what's there is clear, it's very sparse. There are a few notes of an introduction tune when the game first loads and which lasts for just a few seconds. In-game you'll merely encounter the occasional bling when you collect a power-up, and a slapstick-style punch effect when Asterix's fist connects with a Viking chin.

As for the Viking-tackling action, in amongst the usual platform antics of jumping onto moving platforms and collecting stuff, you can move objects such as beer barrels or large snowballs into new positions. This enables you to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. You can also ram the objects into the Viking guards. Quite handy if you don't want to get too close.

This strategy element of Asterix And The Vikings becomes very important later on in the game, as you must think your way to collecting all the required items. The game is split across three worlds, each of which is further divided into into three levels. The aim is to attain a special token by collecting all of the skulls littered across the terrain, as well as the extra lives and the horned helmets left behind by the Vikings that you have slain.

Do this in all three levels and your efforts will be totted up at the end. If you've collected everything, you'll unlock a bonus fourth stage in each world, one that's is devoid of enemies but full of bounty, which is a great way to increase your score.

Asterix And The Vikings' big weakness is that the fresh-looking and clear design of the first few levels drops off later on. You're soon working through awkwardly designed environments that aren't much fun to play, such as the ice stage that features falling ceilings that drop onto Asterix without warning and platforms where the slightest mistimed movement costs you a life.

The game's developer has certainly been successful in bringing the comic book characters to life. However, it attempts to ramp up the difficulty too high, too soon, and that chips away at Asterix And The Vikings' more pleasing points. Indomitable? Not quite.

Asterix And The Vikings

Starts well, but lazy level design and a lack of imagination in the later levels lets the Gaul down
Score
Chris Maddox
Chris Maddox
Liverpool fan, Chris, loves to watch the mighty Redmen play. In between matches however, he's an avid mobile games reviewer for Pocket Gamer. Chris has assured us that he only thinks about Liverpool FC a mere 80 per cent of the day.