''Obelix'' is a 1983 video game developed and published by

Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...

for the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...

. It is centred around the characters

Asterix ''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gauls, Gaul") is a ''bande dessinée'' comic book book series, series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight th ...

and

Obelix Obelix (; french: Obélix) is a cartoon character in the French comic book series ''Asterix''. He works as a menhir sculptor and deliveryman, and is Asterix's best friend. Obelix is noted for his obesity, the menhirs he carries around on his bac ...

created by

René Goscinny René Goscinny (, ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Raised largely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schoo ...

and

Albert Uderzo Alberto Aleandro Uderzo (; ; 25 April 1927 – 24 March 2020), better known as Albert Uderzo, was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the '' Astérix'' series in collaboration with ...

Gameplay

The player controls Asterix whilst Obelix marches back and forth at the top of the screen carrying a

menhir A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be found ...

on his back. The player must temporarily stun Roman legionaries and centurions so that Obelix can throw a menhir at them to kill them. If the menhir misses, the stunned Roman may wake up, in which case the player can either attempt to escape to a lower level in the game or drink a magic potion to escape through the enemy soldiers.

Development

The game was released shortly after a similar game called

, and was developed on the same licence. The game was written by Suki Lee with graphics by Dave Jolly and audio by Andrew Fuchs and Jeff Gusman. Lee previously wrote '' Math Gran Prix'' for the Atari 2600.

Reception

A review in the February 1984 edition of the German magazine ''TeleMatch'' rated the graphics as good-to-satisfactory, praised the sounds, but also found the game overly similar to the (then recently-released) Atari 2600 game ''

''. They summed up the game as one that people would find enjoyment in playing. A review in the January–February edition of the French magazine ''Tilt'' was generally positive about the game and complemented the graphics. In a retrospective review in 2018, Kieren Hawken praised the innovative gameplay and sound, giving the game 8/10 overall.

References

{{Asterix 1983 video games Atari 2600 games Atari 2600-only games Shoot 'em ups Video games based on Asterix Single-player video games