Asterix & Obelix XXL 2

My first honest reaction to Asterix and Obelix XXL 2 was something like: this is a very good PS2 game, and it knows it. OSome Studio's 2018 remaster of the 2005 cult classic takes the Gaulish duo to Las Vegum, a Roman theme park modelled on Las Vegas, and tasks you with bashing your way through six distinct zones to rescue the druid Getafix. The setup is paper-thin, the puns are groan-worthy in exactly the way the source comics intended, and the whole thing runs on a loop of combat, light puzzles, and more combat. If that sounds like a criticism, it half is. But there is something genuinely warm about it when the game commits to its bit. The core loop has you switching freely between Asterix and Obelix, using each character's traits to solve environmental puzzles and clear waves of Roman legionnaires. Asterix slips through tight passages; Obelix smashes obstacles with brute force and can fling enemies like improvised projectiles. Tag-team combo moves add a layer of flair to the brawling, and coins collected from downed Romans feed into a shop system where you can buy health upgrades and new moves across the six zones. The enemy roster is where the game gets genuinely clever: Romans show up in costumes lampooning Sonic, Ryu from Street Fighter, Rayman, Pac-Man, and others, turning enemy encounters into a scavenger hunt for gaming references. That joke lands every single time, and it is probably the sharpest creative choice in the whole package. The problems are real and they follow a consistent theme. Combat gating, where you are locked into an arena until a set number of enemies are defeated, happens constantly and wears out its welcome well before the final zone. The camera is a holdover from a generation that had not figured out third-person perspective control properly: vertical camera movement zooms rather than tilts, which means getting stuck behind geometry is a recurring annoyance rather than an occasional one. Boss fights are similarly low-effort, relying on simple step-on-the-button patterns with almost no escalation. The pre-rendered cutscenes were carried over from the original PS2 version without any meaningful cleanup, which clashes visibly against the otherwise improved character models and environmental textures. Who is this for? Primarily players who have a connection to the Asterix comics or the original game, and want a colourful, undemanding action-adventure with some genuinely funny gaming in-jokes scattered through it. Younger players or anyone after a low-stress co-op brawler will also find enough here to stay entertained. Players expecting tight combat design, a meaningful challenge, or a remaster that addresses structural issues from the source material will hit a wall fast. The Steam rating sitting at a mixed 75 percent reflects that split accurately: fans tend to love it, genre-agnostic players bounce off the repetition. Taken on its own terms, XXL 2 is a cheerful, cartoonish brawler that does one thing exceptionally well: it captures the irreverent tone of the Asterix comics and translates it into a medium full of loving jokes at gaming's own expense. The rough edges are real, but they are the rough edges of a game that was always comfortable being exactly what it is.

Alex · Scout Team

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