In the early 1990s, video games invaded homes and publishers turned to popular characters to impose their influence on their consoles. Different players then engage in a brutal battle to reach a wide audience. While Nintendo dominates the market with Mario, SEGA is secretly preparing the arrival of Sonic to take on the mustached man in overalls. At the same time, the Japanese company does not hesitate to ask various European subsidiaries to give it the names of popular heroes in order to evaluate video game adaptations. The idea is simple: Create targeted adventures for each country! From this initiative the Asterix games were born on the Master System, Game Gear and Mega Drive. The second one will even have a special Marsupilami game!
Seeing that its rival has surrounded itself with big names (like Disney, with very good Mickey and Donald games), Nintendo is turning to French publisher Infogrames. After the successful experience with the video game based on the comic book Les Tuniques Bleues, the Lyon studio acquired the rights to Asterix! A small (but talented) Spanish studio is working on Game Boy and NES versions of the game, while the French parent company is working on the Super Nintendo cartridge. The recipe is amazing; It involves turning the Gauls’ universe into a Mario-style platform game. In 1993, the observation was clear: Asterix on Nintendo consoles sold more than a million copies, and everyone praised the quality of the game. some music is heard…
But why is it so difficult?
The protégés of Infogrames, already prominent with the visually successful but extremely challenging Mega Drive adaptation of Fantasia, don’t know it yet, but they’re on the verge of giving themselves a label that will stick with them for years to come: Publisher of difficult games!
Although the Lyon-based company’s target audience is children aged 8-14, the video game industry does not feature gaming sessions with players from different backgrounds, as it would later on. Stéphane Baudet, director of Asterix on Super Nintendo, was interviewed in issue 10 of the Pix’n Love mook: ” In fact, our games were quite short compared to, say, Nintendo’s Mario. Making them harder allowed us to artificially extend their lives. » He completes: “ The other reason was that at that time we did not do enough game testing, that is, testing with children in the age group for which these games were primarily targeted. »
Suffice it to say We no longer count the number of children and teenagers who broke their teeth trying to finish Asterix then the Smurfs. The funny thing is that Stéphane Baudet reveals in Pix’n Love that he sometimes hides the nature of his job from other parents for fear of being caught! There’s no doubt that back then phone support services for gamers like SOS Nintendo must have received frequent calls for these games!
Undeniably beautiful and gorgeously animated, these games are awesome, and you’ll need to master the controller to master them. Gamers thought they had seen it all in Asterix and the Smurfs. Poor people, They are not at the end of their troubles….
Tintin, games from hell?
Infogrames, one of the favorites of the famous Joueur du Grenier, also stood out with two excellent Tintin games. These graphically beautiful games are also famous for their extreme difficulty levels! But unlike Asterix and the Smurfs, where difficulty is not a priority, The Belgian reporter had another illness: Moulinsart, the Brussels company responsible for the commercial exploitation of Hergé’s works! Those who protected the rights to the famous powder puff hero and his loyal sidekick Snowy were extremely selective! Therefore, the fact that one of Tintin’s wagons in Tibet was missing a window or was a different color than the boxes in the album was enough to contact the studio. The developers spent a lot of time fixing the details. Where this becomes more damaging is that it directly affects gameplay sequences and level difficulty.
When Infogrames acquired the rights to adapt Tintin into video games, the Lyon studio chose Tintin in Tibet, which was recently presented at an exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris. The album also has the advantage of offering a certain variety in mediums. Unfortunately, it is very thoughtful and the developers did not expect such requirements… While they wanted to integrate rhythmic action stages (with shooting and slightly acrobatic platforming stages), They are made to understand that Tintin does not advocate violence and is only fighting in self-defense. From then on, we had to take every sequence and location from the album to imagine the stages of play linked to the scenario. A real headache!
If Tintin games are this hard on Super Nintendo and Mega Drive, this is due to Moulinsart’s repeated demands. The designers had to modify various sequences, limiting themselves to albums and the possibilities offered by the reporter, while focusing on micro details (including the eccentric prohibition of Tintin jumping over a table to overcome an obstacle). This is what gives this patchwork feel, which at times gives the impression of series having neither tail nor head. Whether in the Tintin in Tibet or Tintin and the Temple of the Sun games, you have to avoid obstacles, jump over crevices, avoid getting hit by people, etc. We spend a lot of time paying attention. Since it was necessary to make corrections so frequently, the developers did not have enough time to measure the game stages and therefore relied on their own experience.
Now you know why games adapted from comics, especially Infogrames, are so difficult. It was both voluntary, involuntary, and as a result of the demands of certain rights holders. Tell yourself well The difficulty of a game like Tintin in Tibet was adjusted at the last minute to make the adventure more accessible.
Yes, sometimes there are differences between game creators and players.
