Asterix and Obelix Slap Them All! (REVIEW)

About time to slap them all, boys and gentlemen, wait. Am I even saying this right?

 Title: Asterix and Obelix: Slap Them All
  Developer: Mr.Nutz Studios
Publisher: Microids
 Price: USD 29.99 (Physical and Digital) Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam)
              Review Copy Provided: Yes (Switch and PC)
        Date Reviewed: December 15th

It’s good to see the return of two iconic Belgium heroes in the form of a new Video Game in the Beat them Up genre. I’m talking, of course, about Asterix and Obelix who originated in Belgium with the comic books before gaining in popularity in other media like Animated Movies, 2 Live-Action Movies (Looking at you Smurfs), TV Shows with the recent CGI series airing recently, and a new Hand-Drawn series expected to come in 2023, and the main topic being Video Games with the most famous being the XXL trilogies. The main topic will be the newly released game from the franchise being Asterix and Obelix: Slap Them All. 
The story mostly takes place in 50 B.C., occupied by the Romans but not completely, where one small village of the indomitable Gauls still holds out against any invaders. Yet, everything is falling apart, with the heroes Asterix and Oblix setting out on an adventure worldwide to fight the Roman Empire. Are you up for it?

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Gameplay, etc

While playing the game, it does have some core similarities to other titles I’ve played before. 
It reminds me of many other Beat them Up games like Streets of Rage 4; even the Asterix previous Beat them Up Arcade game was released in 1992. I do like the Graphics and Art Style as it is pretty faithful to the Comics, and it does remind me of Cuphead a bit with that Hand-Drawn, especially the walking animation; however, the animations have some of its flaws that look a bit rough from time to time like Obelix Grabbing and Mashing moves with the arms themselves don’t look as smooth as I’ve wanted to be.
There are a couple of glitches in the animations like one Enemy was wearing a blue shirt and randomly turned yellow when he’s knocked out, as I’m hoping some of these Animation glitches get patched. Still, at the same time, some Animations do get their job done, like some of the attacks and the running. Speaking of running around in-game, this Slap Them All’s difficulty is pretty easy as the major red flag is that running through enemies does break the game’s difficulty as you do it constantly even if you run out of energy all day without barely any moves as this does defeat the purpose of Beat em Up games being challenging, there are modes in the game from Easiest to Hardest with Hardest being the best mode as one time you get to fight a boss against RedBeard as when he knocks out, and you’re close to him he’ll attack you and take away half your health bars. And yes, there are Bosses as it comes in certain levels, like when you fight some of Asterix iconic villains like Centurion and Captain RedBeard and even a Bull in the Prison level (for some reason.), a gripe I have with the bosses is that they do get repeated overtime like those 2 Bosses I mentioned and this sadly applies to the levels themselves as I’ve noticed you do the ship levels like four times for example in act 3 where you get a boy named Pepe back to his home country of Spain. One of the levels is the boat level again but with a cool twist, whereas there is another level afterward where the ships sinks and you break all barrels to get the food for Obelix right before it sinks in. There are other genres in the story mode, like when your running and slap some boars or Romanian guards and one time where you mash any buttons, and you are in a race against Obelix or Asterix (depends on what characters you select in the Adventure mode); this is a nice addition to the game as it does give you a bit of a break from the main gameplay genre, but it does happen one time which is alright since this is a Beat em Up game. There are multiple acts in the Adventure mode as so far, I’ve only heard of 5 acts with possibilities of more acts (i don’t know as I’ve never beaten the game yet as of this writing). What’s cool about the gameplay is there are these thunder icons on your health bar that are supposed to be energy, I think, and what’s cool about it is that you can perform special moves like running or grabbing an enemy. You can throw it or mash it, be careful as it does waste some of your energy, and it has 5 of them, but you get it back if you attack some enemies or just randomly get them back by moving, if I believe. Now I do like how the cutscenes are represented like the Comics. Still, I do wish there were voice acting in the cutscenes, and that’s a major gripe because there are some Voice Acting like when you’re preparing a level or after you beat a level the characters you play as does say some lines, the Voices are personally not bad as I do love how Obelix sounds as I just think it fits the character overall. Still, it’s weird the Cutscenes don’t have it as I feel they made the game with a low budget which might be understandable. As for the Music, It’s okay; there’s nothing mind-blowing about that it fits the setting of Asterix in general. But the controls are pretty good as it’s responsive, and you can make some fun moves like the Jump Kick, but Jumping is the only problem as it’s too fast and wonky to use. I’ve noticed Obelix does walk a bit slow, but I guess that’s how character generally walks. You also collect coins in the game as you get a bunch of them from defeating Enemies or destroying some barrels, which sometimes do give you food to re-healed, or mostly they give you coins; unfortunately, they are very useless as it only gives you lots of scores and it is wasted potential, it sucks as it would be a good idea to use them for some upgrades to your stats, buying weapons or certain moves. I see it as a missed opportunity just for some useless competitive scores.

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Verdict

Overall, I find Asterix and Obelix: Slap Them All pretty enjoyable and a good Beat em Up game to play in Multiplayer and better than Smurfs: Mission Vileaf but weaker than Marsupilami: Hoobadventure, which are also 2 Microids games I took a look at, it does suffer from some flaws I mentioned like the animations in certain parts of the game being pretty easy, and the running is very broken, at the end of the day I’ve had my fun with this game as quite like it better than XXL 2 and much better than another Beat em Up game I played which is Shaq Fu: a Legend Reborn.
Do pick it up at your own risk, especially for $30.
It could be super short with some levels that are very short to play, like the Sinking Boat level that I mentioned, but on the other hand, I do recommend it for any Hardcore Asterix fans and a fun game for multiplayer for any Beat em Up fans alike. Hoping for more improvements later on for future installments of Asterix as I wish Microids luck on doing so, and it's a long ride for sure.

Rating: 7/10
Quote: “Another adventure that Asterix and Obelix fans will enjoy”
Pros:
Amazing Graphics that took from the Comic books
A Fun Beat em Up game that’s best to play it in Multiplayer
Responsive Controls
Lovely worlds and levels that are based on the Comics
Some Decent Voice Acting and wish good luck to the franchise’s future Average Soundtrack

Cons:
The Difficulty feels simplistic, even at the Hardest mode set.
Specific Animations look pretty unfinished and rough
Coins are useless and indeed wasted potential
There is no voice acting in the cutscenes as it does have Voice Acting in some parts of the game.
Some repetitive levels and bosses like the Ship levels, for example.

As Tim mostly says...
Till then..
GAME ON!!
-Alexandre Elkhoury (SpongeHog)