A Taste from the Land of the Rising Sun: An Anime Masterpiece

Now this is a big surprise for many game players, Astro Boy: Omega Factor was based roughly from Osamu Tezuka's original Astro Boy manga and anime series from the land of the rising sun. For those who don't know who Astro Boy is, think Mega Man (robot) and Samus Aran from Metroid (human) and you'll get the picture, the different is, Astro Boy is that much special than either of them.

Like Mega Man, Astro Boy is a robot created by a scientist as an alternative to replace his already deceased son that passed away but like Samus, Astro had a mind more similiar towards human than robot but had the robotic skills and techniques to his advantage and for similarity Astro can upgrade his weapons just like Samus and Mega Man. Unlike other robots, Astro never went out of control and his Omega Factor (Astro's robotic mind and heart) allowed him to do, think, and feel as if he was a human being that's because his memory and attitudes are that of his scientist creator, Dr. Tenma's son Tobio, who died in a tragic car accident long before he existed.

To many players outside of Japan, Astro Boy can be an alien newcomer in their gaming world, but to many import players from the past decade will recognize Astro Boy ("Tetsuwan Atom" as he was known in Japan) from his Famicom debut to his Super Famicom sequel that preceeded this game.

About the game play, storylines, and features:

Now Astro Boy: Omega Factor, although, look similiar to the anime. This game had its own storyline and plots that flows very well as player play through. There are the storylines of Astro's origin, his first encounter with his arch rival, Atlas, his quest to find truth and his battle to bring peace but in able to solve the many mysteries in the game's storylines, players well have to play through not once but twice and revisit a few old and interesting places that holds a clue.

The other features is the addition of skills Astro can use in combat and flight, in his possession he will had access to the Special Arm Cannon, the Machine Gun, or the Spinning Rocket Attack, of course player will need to fight their way up the level meter to earn points which are required in able to use one of these and all it takes is a little punch, kick, or finger laser to finish the job and to help players get out of gang-up enemies, there is always the useful rocket boost which is just a couple tap of the D-Pad.

Then there are the upgrade, unlike in Mega Man where he had to defeat a boss to receive there upgraded weapons, here in Astro Boy, Astro can upgrade any of his current skills or abilities depending on how many familiar faces he meet during his quest, often than most player may find the storyline characters quite easy and build Astro's Omega Factor more recently but to complete the factor, he must meet more than just the storyline characters, in all there are over 60 familiar characters all from Tezuka's earlier mangas or animes and by finding one you get to upgrade one of Astro's abilities, the higher the ability level, the stronger the ability can inflict or used by Astro for example by upgrading the Rocket Boost ability, you can use Astro's Rocket Boost more frequently and the more the upgrade, the more you get to use it.

Another great aspect of the game are that most levels in the game had unique game play features to them as will for example, in the Space stage, a simple jump will simply make Astro go higher which makes the player feels more like being in space other than the normal stage, the other aspect are flight levels where Astro must shoot oncoming enemies just like in shooting games like Ikaruga, R-Type, Gradius, and Phalanx, the only thing is Astro won't be stop that easily and he can shoot in both direction left and right whereas the other shooting games aim only on one direction.

Another feature worth mentioning are the battle levels where Astro had to fight his way to get to the boss, some of these levels had some twist when fighting the boss, for example, to beat Pook, you had to fight four of his current transformations, to beat Denkou, you had to knock out three of his light sources to make him visible so player can track his whereabout in able to beat him, and also to beat the Blue Knight Astro will had to engage in a samurai flight style battle by pressing A at the exact moment they clash together and many more.....

Of course, there are also other boss battles worth mentioning like the second battle with Atlas where you had to protect Black Jack and his capsule and prevent Atlas from destroying the capsule so Black Jack can complete the operation on Prime Rose to revive her, this and more are just the many unique battles and levels the game had to offer and they are a lot fresh in qualities players can experience over and over again.

Graphics:

I had to say even for an anime porrtable adventure, this game boost the best graphics ever seen on an anime adventure, from the detail landscape of Metro City to the mystic empire of the Mu to the wonder of the Antarctic region to the final destruction of the Death Mask all makes this game that much colorful. Also the characters sprites and the special effect seen by hitting and enemy and the flash of the Arm Cannon were just stunning. A little disappointment is that the bigger sprites in this game seem too pixelated to view but beside that everything looks great and colorful.

Control:

The control layout for this adventure is quite simple, B is your simple punch, hold D-Pad down while pressing B to kick or hold D-Pad up while pressing B to use finger laser, A is your jump, press it twice or with D-Pad to use Rocket Boost, then you had the L for the Machine Gun special, the R for the Arm Cannon special or you can use both B and A simultaneously to use the Rocket Attack special. Very simple and fun and work quite well against large enemy packs and gigantic boss like Pluto. Of course during flight levels you'll most likely rely more on these than your traditional attacks.

Sound/Music:

The sound and music here aren't your typical rock and roll type of music but they sure are great when listen in stereo using headphones. The Space levels had music that clearly feel towards astronomer, while the Metro City levels had music of a busy urban metropolis. Even the opening music is significant and can almost make your tears drop.

Replay:

To fully enjoy this game, you must play it twice from the Birth storylines to the Rebirth and solve various clues to some of the game's mystery, it can even be play as much as you want to complete all of the quotes, soundtracks or character list you can view after beating the game. The only downfall to this game is that there wasn't a multi-player mode plan from the get-go and not too many extras are available to spice up the title, but overall the main storyline is the masterpiece of this game and even if it's just a solo game, it's one of the best.

In conclusion, Astro Boy is one of the best anime adventure game ever created, many thanks to Sega, Hitmaker, and Treasure for all the hard work they put into making this wonderful title. Perhaps a sequel is in the making (maybe for the Nintendo DS), if so I hope it to be more than this, until that day comes, Astro Boy is here to stay, and that PS2 title doesn't count as it is just graphic crap.