Astro Boy: Omega Factor

"Platforming goodness, but not quite greatness."

Game Review: Astro Boy: Omega Factor

Overview:
Treasure has released a myriad of titles for the Gameboy Advance over the past few years, and this is one that confuses me the most. When I first heard that Treasure was working on an Astro Boy game, I was genuinely confused, because I tend to shy away from licensed games like this. But the fact that Treasure made it drew me in, and I got about what I was expecting. It's still a licensed game, and while this game would surely be initially boring and low quality like most other licensed games, Treasure clearly has put a lot of work into this.

At any rate, this work is made by Treasure to accompany the Astro Boy series, what many people know as the first anime ever, from our late and great friend Osamu Tezuka. Of course, Tezuka couldn't have worked on this, having died about fiteen years before it's release anyway. But we still have much of his influence and character involved here.

Storyline: 7/10
We follow the lovable little robot Astro Boy, a robot made in the image of a scientists late son. Pretty much everyone knows Astro Boy from somewhere, perhaps his old TV shows. And he is a very accessible character. He plays as the median between humans and robots, two groups who are constantly fighting to make or destroy rights for one another. Which is very interesting, because Astro is commonly regarded as the strongest robot ever, despite how cute, nice, and lovable he is.

The story takes a lot of twists, and you are thrown right into the action. You find yourself embroiled in relationships with a myriad of characters, and before long, you are very, very confused. But there is a huge twist later on in the game that explains all of your confusion, and lets you play through the game again with tons of new text as the storyline continues off of itself. This is a cool little touch, but it doesn't stop the fact that there just doesn't seem to be enough explanation that the player requires. On top of that, some storyline aspects will get a little trying, as you might be presented an objective that makes no real sense right away, or is a little too textually annoying, for whatever reason. The twists do help though, and by the end, you are at least mildly interested.

The characters are fairly lovable, and understandable too. No matter what attitude you take towards any given character, you can at least understand everyone else's points of view. And there are a LOT of characters that you can enjoy. The text is very good, and each character follows an understandable personality. This dependability will keep you interested when things do get a little boring.

There is also a huge number of reoccurring characters from other Tezuka works. Actually, pretty much all of the characters are from Tezukas various mangas and cartoons, so fans of the animator will eat this up. Some play a bigger role than others, but it's nice to see some familiar faces in different roles throughout the game.

Gameplay: 7/10
I'm very, very torn on whether or not this game is actually fun. It is not very accessible, that much is certain. And I almost know that the style of gameplay is fun, but it almost doesn't want itself to be seen as that, if that makes any sense. Picture yourself in an elevator, going up a few floors. The elevator stops, and Astro Boy gets in. He stands next to you and says nothing. This is much like the awkwardness that the game evokes... You know you want to say hi to the kid, because deep down, he really is a swell little hero, but he still wears speedos and doesn't have a shirt, and a big heart can't really hide that.

The game is a side scrolling platformer, beat 'em up type of deal. And there is some variety to this madness too. You can attack your enemies with simple punches and kicks, use Astro's trademark finger laser, and unleash three special attacks. One of these is an extremely powerful beam that destroys everything in it's path, another is a dash forward using jets that continually damages the enemy, and another is a machine gun type of weapon that hits everything on the screen and is mounted on, well, Astro Boys bottom. You can also jump and dash around the screen quickly in order to tackle your enemies before they tackle you.

There is also a means of leveling up in the game, which almost makes it a sort of Platformer/RPG, if that is even possible. For every character you meet, you get to level up one of your attributes. Your health, punching ability, laser abilities, etc. And this leads to a great level of diversity. You will generally benefit from upgrading things rather evenly, but you can get by in your own individual way by leveling Astro up how you see fit. And there are a ton of characters in the game too. Not all of them are out in the open, so you will have to do a little bit of searching to completely upgrade Astro.

This should be a very effective form of gameplay. And it is, for a time. You go forward in each level beating up hoards of enemies so that you can progress, and in some very creative ways, too. Sometimes you will have to walk along and do your thing, and sometimes, you do it while flying forward at a dizzying pace. But after a while, this gets a little boring. Yes, each area has it's tricks, but really, you focus on just beating up enemies to go forward for pretty much the entire game.

But one great aspect of this game is the bosses. Each level, although the game is fairly small (7 levels), houses many bosses that move and attack in creative ways, and Astro must develop individual strategies to deal with each boss. In many ways, such bosses are the most memorable parts of the game.

And yes, the gameplay can be very fun. But I think it depends on your personality and attitude towards platform games. If you grew up on a Super Nintendo or even an NES, you will really like this game a lot. It's repetitive nature gives it an "old school" feeling that there is not really a whole lot going for you, so you need to actually use skill. But for your typical average player, it can be very tedious and repetitive. It's just hoard after hoard of baddies, level after level, and while the environments may be creative and new, the means of tackling them is, well, not always creative and new. But there can be varying gameplay that will make you smile, if you keep an open mind.

But there are a few details which kill this game. There is some significant slowdown, and while I myself don't find this that annoying, it can really get to be a problem for some. But in my experience, the slowdown only comes about in areas where there is too much on the screen for you to handle anyway, so it actually helps out by putting things at a pace at which you can understand them. But the main problem in everything is that simple punches and finger lasers just aren't enough to take down baddies, and you will find yourself relying on special attacks constantly. This might be what you were actually supposed to do, but it feels cheap just using your arm cannon on anything that moves. And the little pause before each special attack gets annoying too. It may seem like a very small flaw, but it plays in all over the place.

Anyway, how effective the gameplay is depends on the player. For some, it can clearly be a very fresh platform title. But for some others, it is just a little too familiar. Anyone can pick this up though, so it's not solely a kids game, despite popular belief.

Graphics: 10/10
If there is one indisputably great aspect of Omega Factor, it is the graphics. Simply, this game is drop dead gorgeous.

The characters themselves are colorful and playful, and in a very good way. Each character has numerous sprites for different occasions, and also a myriad of very well drawn portraits for text events. And the sheer magnitude of these sprites, their positions, and their portraits is just fantastic. There was clearly tons of work involved in this games graphics, and this is enough to satisfy anyone.

Characters, bosses, enemies, everything has a certain anime splash, and some things even come through as being slightly three dimensional. Astros finger laser is a perfect example of where graphics are really going on the GBA as pixels start getting more and more use out of themselves.

Each level has fantastic background visuals. Lush city landscapes, textured cave walls, beautiful jungles… If you are a sucker for graphics, and creative graphics at that, this is a real treat for the eyes.

Sound: 7/10
I can't even pick out too many specific flaws in the games sound, but I can't pick out too many strong points either. Yes, some of the music is good and it can fit the environments well, but none of it is truly that memorable. The sound effects are okay though, putting a few annoying little bleeps aside here and there. The sound does it's job at least, while not really doing anything to surpass the norm.

Controls: 8/10
Another great aspect of Omega Factor is how easy it is to learn the controls. The curve is fairly small, and within less than an hour, you will be flying around like a pro. There are also three difficulty levels, which reflect their names very well.

The A button jumps, the control pad moves, and the B button punches, among other things. Pressing up and B at the same time initiates the finger laser, which is very nifty for how simple it is to perform. The only problem is, when you are zipping around the screen with your dashes, you might use your finger laser when you mean to punch instead if you don't have any practice. This can be fixed after a little practice though.

Pressing A while in the air initiates the air dash, which is also the basis for a lot of the fast paced action in the game. L, R, and A+B initiate special attacks. This gets to be a problem sometimes, because you might press L or R by accident, and the A+B thing, for some reason, seems to be a little difficult to pull off.

Difficulty: 9/10

Easy is just that. Really, really easy. If you want little to no challenge, and many people do on their first try through or if you are just not that good at games, this is where you go. You will still find a few challenges if you are a new player, but you pretty much have unlimited special attacks, so you can annihilate anyone who gets in your way.

Normal is what you probably want to play if you casually play video games on a daily basis. There are a lot of challenges, and you need strategy to compete in some of the harder levels. But at the same time, some levels require sheer skill and timing. This is the difficulty level most people will want to play.

Hard needs to explanation. You have to be crazy or extremely determined to successfully attack this mode.

Replayability: 5/10
Yeah, there is that first time you play through the game again simply because the game tells you to, and you might pick up the game again to find the rest of the characters, try another difficulty level, or play through your favorite level. But honestly, instances like these are few and far between. You can't play through a platformer of this nature again and again like you can a Mario game. The first time is obviously the most rewarding, that's for sure.

Overall: 7/10
If you are a fan of Treasure, Astro Boy, or platform games, this is a must have. But if you are none of the above, you might want to look into this a little. With some examination, this is really a nice game, just with a rough exterior.

Rent or Buy?
If you are any of what I mentioned above, buy it. You will enjoy it. But if you are just mildly interested, try renting it if you can even rent GBA games where you are. But theres not a whole lot of business these days in that kind of thing... It's pretty cheap, so buying it would not be a problem either.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/21/06