Astro Boy: Omega Factor

"I liked you, kid"

Introduction
If you know any anime and manga, you must have surely already heard about this series. It was one of the first japanese series ever made, and yet today it has lots of people who like it.

Gameplay
This is an action game, but as you will notice it as lots of shiny things that you usually don't see in this type of games. For example, every time you see a new character, he will be added to a database and you will be able to increase one of your stats. This means that, although you already have all your skills at the beggining of the game, you will need to play in order to increase their power, which will surely be needed in order to have chances of defeating some of the powerful enemies that you will find in your path. You will easily notice that you can defeat of the ''normal'' enemies just by using your fists, but when it comes to the stronger enemies, your best bet will be to rely on your poweful laser, so that you can defeat him faster... These boss enemies may vary from a powerful human with amazing sword skills up to a incredible robot which seems to be able to stop every of your attacks, and as I already said the best way to defeat them will be by trying to increase your stats, which are your life, the power of your different attacks, your booster energy and many more stuff.

Story
I'm not sure about this since I never actually had an opportunity to see this anime/manga, but I think that the story may be somehow near the one of those. I mean, you start by having to save some people and after a while you will be in the past. As you changed some stuff, when going into the future you will notice new things happening... And that's mainly it, but with lots of surprises and interesting things!

Graphics/Sound
The graphics are nice, you can clearly see all the details in the game, and this game almost seems like some of the latest games released for playstation 1. As for the sound, it isn't bad but it isn't VERY good either, since the sound effects make exactly the same sound all the time, and if you are using the same attack lots of times in the battles, you will listen to them lots of times, which may be somehow boring, but as for the music, it is great.

Play Time/Replayability
This is one of the worse things about this game... Even if you are not a great player, you can easily finish this game in 1 hour or 2... and as for replay value, i think you will like to replay this game at least once, as there are some things that will change in the game and enable you to unlock more characters to the database and of course... giving you more points to put on your character.

Final Recommendation
This game is quite good, I guess that everyone will enjoy it, but fans from the series and those people who like this kind of game will surely love it!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/01/04