Astérix and the Secret Mission

The Good
In 1993, after the success of Asterix licensed games for the SEGA Master System (specially the first one called just "Asterix"), Asterix and the Secret Mission was released. Asterix's games for the Master System are the perfect examples of what a platform genre game should be for this system.

Asterix has all the necessary elements to be successful: good animations, varied stages, suitable background music (not high pitched at least), easy gameplay, some secrets and the chance to choose between the two main characters, that's Asterix or Obelix.

Each character has different "powers". Asterix can throw potions, run and make double jumping while Obelix is more powerful breaking easily blocks. According to your character, the level will be different, but the background and the stage remain the same. For example, Asterix will have to surf to get to a pirate ship while Obelix will get there just diving. However, when you get to a concrete level each character will have an exclusive level, Asterix will be on a snowy stage while Obelix is on a deserted one (but you can only play one of them). That's the only level where differences are so clear.

With all those things we can say that this is a varied game, like two games in the same one (one for each character) because the stages are the same but the things on them aren't. The problem is that we have a precedent with "Asterix" in 1991, which was more original and unique than Asterix and the Secret Mission.

There are many items in this game, like health items, coins, extra lives and bones. By collecting bones you may play the bonus stage in which you'll play as Dogmatix, collecting many items to get extra points and lives for the remaining adventure. You can also take a valuable item, a heart that will give you an extra heart for your life meter.

To finish with, there are some puzzles during the adventure, for both of the characters in the game (anyway, Asterix's puzzles are harder than Obelix's), but they're not nothing remarkable because they're incidental.

The Bad
It's hard to explain why a game like Asterix and the Secret Mission didn't take advantage of its precedent, the Asterix game released in 1991 for the SEGA Master System. Asterix and the secret mission is shorter than Asterix, and stages aren't as original as they are for that game.

Puzzles aren't important during the adventure, and it's just a platform game, but there's a puzzle which has no sense at all (as far as I know...) near the end of the game, and we have no reference to it during the adventure, so, it's possible that you get stuck because of that, and you'll solve it by chance.

The difficulty of the game is ridiculous, and it's not just because we have all the continues that we want, or because the game is really short, it's easy because there are many extra lives during the game, secrets are really easy to be found and, what's worst, items re spawn... including extra lives! If you're on trouble at any point, you can turn back and go where you know there's a secret life and take it again, just do it all the times that you want.

Stages are different according to the character you've chosen, and difficulty also changes. Once you know who has the hardest stages, you can finish the game easily choosing the right character. For example, Asterix's first level is harder (really harder) than Obelix's. Choosing a character doesn't have influence on the final result, no matter if you finish all the levels with Asterix, Obelix, or if you take one of them for each level.

Gameplay is good, but when we have many sprites on screen the system has problems to process and some movements like jumping doesn't response as they should. It will cost you some frustrating lives.

The Bottom Line
Asterix and the secret Mission is a perfect game only if you've not played other games of the same license which are much better. A short experience with all the elements of a good platform game but nothing more. It's not a hard challenge for a regular player, but it's a nice one for those who want something easy and uncomplicated.